Termite mushroom season

Once a year, in the tenth lunar month, people in the mountainous districts of Phu Yen province eagerly await the mushroom season so they can go "picking" them, firstly to satisfy their year-long craving, and secondly to sell them to earn money to get through the rainy season.

Termite mushrooms

Termite mushrooms cannot be cultivated because they reproduce in areas with old termite mounds, preferring places with plenty of decaying leaves and high humidity, and usually grow in clusters. The mushroom caps are smaller than the palm of a hand, shaped like umbrellas, with a white stem and a light brown cap when young, turning white when fully bloomed.

Freshly harvested termite mushrooms are cleaned of the soil at the base. Instead of using a knife, the locals often use a thin, sharpened piece of the stem of the "mò o" tree to scrape off the soil from the base of the mushroom. They believe that using a sharp metal object will "kill the mushroom," and they won't be able to harvest any more mushrooms the following year.

After cleaning off the soil, the mushrooms are thoroughly washed. Hold the mushroom between two fingers and gently rinse the top and bottom of the cap to remove any remaining soil. This must be done very gently; otherwise, the mushrooms will be bruised or absorb too much water, resulting in a less delicious taste. Then, let them drain before preparing the dish.

Termite mushrooms can be used in many dishes such as sweet mushroom soup, mushroom pancakes, mushroom porridge, or grilled mushrooms… Naturally sweet and fragrant, termite mushrooms don't require elaborate preparation. Among these, sweet mushroom soup with chili peppers is perhaps the simplest, most familiar, and beloved dish for the people of Phu Yen.

Tear the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces, sauté a little onion until fragrant, then add the mushrooms and stir well. Add a little coarse salt and a little water, then cook until tender and fragrant. Finally, add crushed chili peppers for a perfect flavor. After a day of trekking through the forest picking mushrooms, in the cool weather, enjoying a bowl of mushroom soup made with your own hands warms the whole stomach.

During the termite mushroom season, people rush to find them, forgetting about the rain, wind, and cold; the joke "as eager as someone to find mushrooms" is certainly true. Nguyen Huu Thang (from Xuan Quang 3 commune, Dong Xuan district, Phu Yen province), carrying a bag of about 4 kg of mushrooms, shared: "I go out before dawn. That's when you can pick the best mushrooms. At this time, the mushrooms are just buds, very crispy and sweet, and they fetch a higher price than when they've already bloomed. Besides, it's easier to spot the mushrooms with a flashlight at this time; if you wait until dawn, others will have picked them all."

Besides picking mushrooms to eat, many people also earn money by picking them to sell. Early-season termite mushrooms cost from 180,000 to 250,000 VND/kg, and if lucky, mushroom pickers can earn several hundred thousand to even a million VND from them.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/mua-nam-moi-185240108193725884.htm