Mushroom hunting season

This natural biological resource is considered a “gift from heaven” because it contains many nutrients that are beneficial to human health, and it also provides many people with additional income. However, mushroom hunting requires extreme caution to avoid picking poisonous mushrooms.

Termite mushrooms are not easy to find.

Termite mushroom has the scientific name Termitomyces albuminosus, the name termite mushroom because it usually appears in places with termite nests on the ground (differentiated from termites living on trees). Termite mushroom has a characteristic aroma, rich in calcium, phosphorus, iron, protein, nutrients... very beneficial for human health. Termite mushroom only appears in the first months of the rainy season, from May to July every year.

Cross streams and forests to hunt mushrooms.

In Tay Ninh province, termite mushrooms often grow in rubber plantations, under the canopy of natural forests or planted forests. Notably, this type of organism usually only grows in places where termite nests are or have been living. Most termite mushrooms grow from a type of spawn found in the termite nest's "lung" (a round mass about 15cm in diameter). In fact, not all places with termite nests have termite mushrooms, so hunting for this type of mushroom is extremely difficult, mainly based on experience and luck.

Recently, reporters from Tay Ninh Newspaper and Radio and Television Station had the opportunity to follow a group of three people including Mr. Chu Van Quang, Nguyen Thanh Tu (both residing in Thanh Binh commune, Tan Bien district), and Le Van Ben (residing in Hoa Thanh town) to go mushroom hunting.

Mr. Quang said that during the mushroom growing season, in Thanh Binh commune, there are dozens of people who specialize in finding mushrooms to sell for extra income. When setting off, people often invite each other to go together, creating a lot of fun. But when the group reaches the area where they need to find mushrooms, they split into smaller groups to expand the search area for greater efficiency.

Mr. Quang said that before going mushroom hunting, each person must actively fill up the motorbike's gas tank, bring food, water, a headlamp, a fully charged cell phone, and a wooden stick sharpened like a knife blade to dig up the mushrooms.

When starting to look for mushrooms in the field, the small group continues to split up, each person going in a different direction, turning into planted forests, natural forests, and large rubber gardens. Therefore, the situation of temporarily getting lost from the group is common, because the mushroom search is mainly focused on at night, limiting visibility, forgetting the way, losing phone signal... At that time, the things that each person must prepare themselves as above are extremely necessary, to ensure the safety of the group members to find the way to the gathering point.

Mr. Quang's group (right cover) is preparing to split up to look for termite mushrooms.

Mr. Quang added that the best time to find termite mushrooms is at night, because when the light from a flashlight shines on the mushrooms, there will be a reflection phenomenon, making it easy to detect the mushrooms. Moreover, at this time, the mushroom cells still have buds, so traders buy them at a high price. However, it often rains at night, posing potential dangers such as thunder and lightning, falling trees, limiting visibility, causing disorientation, and making it difficult to guard against many venomous animals in dark conditions and dense forests.

On this mushroom hunting trip, Mr. Quang’s group chose the morning time slot. The destination was the planted forests and part of the adjacent natural forest belonging to Lo Go – Xa Mat National Park; combined with expanding mushroom hunting in rubber gardens stretching from Tan Lap commune to Thanh Bac commune, Tan Bien district.

Only after following the mushroom hunters all day can one feel the hardship, difficulty and danger of finding “heaven’s bounty”. Mushroom hunters mostly have to spend time walking and carefully observing the ground in the forest, crawling or hiding under the low bushes close to the ground, dense bushes with tangled vines, only in rubber plantations can one drive a car.

Mr. Quang's group cleans the dirt on the mushroom eggs at the gathering point.

Although it was daytime, mushroom hunters still had to use flashlights, hoping that the converging light would help them see the reflection of the termite mushrooms. After more than 4 hours of walking and sneaking around in the forest, Mr. Quang's group could not find termite mushrooms, and each person only found more than 2kg of egg mushrooms.

After the group scraped off the remaining dirt on the mushrooms at the gathering point, Mr. Quang decided to head to the rubber plantations to continue looking for termite mushrooms. After another 2 hours of driving in the rubber plantation, Mr. Quang was lucky to find a “nest” of termite mushrooms. All the mushrooms after being dug up weighed about 2kg.

Termite mushroom "nest" was discovered by Mr. Quang in the rubber plantation.

The number of termite mushrooms after being pulled up from the ground by Mr. Quang.

With the current selling price of 500,000 - 600,000 VND/kg (depending on how many mushrooms bloom), Mr. Quang earned about 1 million VND on this termite mushroom hunting trip. According to the agreement, while the group splits up to find mushrooms, whoever discovers the "nest" of mushrooms will get the full benefit.

Mr. Quang confided that in recent years, termite mushrooms are not as abundant as before, mainly for the pleasure and passion of hunting for the best gift from heaven, but for many days now, no one in the group has found a termite mushroom "nest". The reason may be due to the unusual weather, prolonged heat, more and more people hunting for mushrooms but do not know how to maintain the mushroom "nest" for the next crop.

According to Mr. Quang’s experience, if a termite mushroom “nest” is uprooted by an iron tool such as a hoe, shovel, knife, crowbar, etc., that “nest” of mushrooms will not regenerate the following year. Therefore, termite mushroom hunters only use wooden tools to uproot the mushrooms, and must do so skillfully so that the location where the mushrooms grow does not leave too much soil for the termite mushrooms to grow again the following year.

Switch to hunting for mushrooms and eggs

That morning, Mr. Ben and Mr. Tu could not find termite mushrooms, so they stayed in the planted forest in Bau Ben hamlet, Thanh Bac commune to look for chicken egg mushrooms and goose egg mushrooms (local people often call them egg mushrooms). They are called so because the shape and color of these mushrooms are similar to chicken eggs and goose eggs. The nutrients and taste of the mushrooms are also considered a delicious dish that is hard to find. In Tay Ninh province, egg mushrooms often grow in places with star apple and oil trees, growing at the same time as the termite mushroom season.

Chicken egg mushrooms were discovered by Mr. Ben in a planted forest.

Mr. Tu explained more clearly how to distinguish the two types of mushrooms. The chicken egg mushroom has an external shape similar to a chicken egg, the mushroom cell is bright orange and has a certain smooth surface; the mushroom stem is cylindrical and light yellow, under the part of the stem that touches the ground is surrounded by a thick white membrane.

Goose egg mushrooms have the same shape and size as chicken egg mushrooms, but the whole body and the umbrella are ivory white, and the delicious taste when preparing dishes is the same. Chicken egg mushrooms often grow in clusters, goose egg mushrooms grow individually.

Mr. Tu found goose egg mushrooms in the planted forest.

Mr. Ben said that hunting for egg mushrooms is relatively easier than for termite mushrooms. Egg mushrooms mainly grow scattered in forest plots planted with star anise and oil trees, growing from a type of spawn found on the composted leaves or rotten branches of these two types of trees. If a person is willing to walk through the forest to find egg mushrooms, he can harvest about 5kg in a day. Currently, traders buy egg mushrooms at prices ranging from 80,000 to 130,000 VND/kg, depending on the size of the mushroom. A mushroom with buds is more expensive than a mushroom that has opened.

Mr. Ben warns about a poisonous mushroom that looks similar to the goose egg mushroom.

Close-up of a poisonous mushroom that looks similar to a goose egg mushroom.

Mr. Ben especially noted that at the beginning of the rainy season, many poisonous mushrooms appear in the forest that look similar to termite mushrooms, chicken egg mushrooms, and goose egg mushrooms. Therefore, people who have no experience with mushrooms need to be very careful to avoid picking up poisonous mushrooms.

In fact, there is a type of poisonous mushroom that looks very similar to the termite mushroom, but the stem of this mushroom is thin, soft, and has short legs that cling to the ground instead of clinging deep into the ground like the termite mushroom. Another type of poisonous mushroom also looks quite similar to the goose egg mushroom, but if you look closely, you will notice that there are many small, light brown spots on the mushroom cell.

Millipedes love to eat egg mushrooms (in the picture are goose egg mushrooms).

According to Mr. Ben, usually non-toxic mushrooms will attract many types of insects to eat, especially millipedes that love to eat egg mushrooms and termite mushrooms. However, this method of identification has many potential risks, because sometimes poisonous mushrooms are still seen being gnawed by insects. It is best for those who are not familiar with mushrooms to ask someone with experience to identify them before taking them to process as food or sell them to traders to ensure safety, to avoid mushroom poisoning as has happened before.

Quoc Son

Source: https://baotayninh.vn/mua-san-nam-a191905.html