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I want to talk about mushrooms...

48 replies

marthamoo · 10/02/2005 09:55

I love mushrooms - they are yummy. Dh says they taste like slugs but I have never eaten a slug so I wouldn't know about that. He tolerates them "in" things, as the kids and I love them, but often fishes them out and leaves a small pile on the edge of his plate. Once, when I was mad at him, I made a chicken and mushroom pie with three kinds of mushroom in it.

Anyway, I wash my mushrooms - but I read you are not supposed to do this as it makes them soggy. You are supposed to wipe them. But that doesn't get them clean if they have bits of muck on them. I have met people who peel them. I think they are insane. To misquote Shirley Conran: "Life is too short to peel a mushroom."

My biggest bugbear about mushrooms is when they have marks in them from other peoples' fingernails. I guess this is inevitable when you buy loose mushrooms at the supermarket - people with long nails have not been careful when choosing theirs. I don't think it would be unreasonable to have two boxes of mushrooms with signs on "Mushrooms for people With Short Nails" and "Mushrooms for People with Long Nails." But it really annoys me when I buy pre-packed mushrooms and they have little crescent marks in them from peoples' fingernails. Now I'm sorry - but if you are a mushroom picker and packer by profession than it is incumbent upon you to ensure your nails are short. That's just common sense.

I also eat mushrooms raw - much to dh's horror. For a while pre-packed ones had a note on the box to the effect that they should be cooked before consumption but I ignored that. They haven't killed me yet.

In our last house I grew my own mushrooms in a polystyrene box. It was a kit I bought to grow your own mushrooms. This was very exciting for a city girl like me. They need to be grown in the cool and dark though and this house doesn't have a cellar so, sadly, I can no longer grow my own mushrooms but have to buy finger nail-marked ones from Tesco.

That's all I really want to say about mushrooms. Thanks for listening (well... reading).

OP posts:
suzywong · 10/02/2005 11:57

I'm sure you could

gingerbear · 10/02/2005 12:12

marthamoo, is there any other topic that you "all I really want to say" about?
I am sure that the good people here at mumsnet will humour you?

gingerbear · 10/02/2005 12:13

DH and I collect field mushrooms and Bluestalks from the riverbank where we walk our dog.
Have to watch out for the maggoty ones though.

emmatmg · 10/02/2005 12:23

Bundle, compost bits get really hot and smelly in the summer so if there are any mushrooms growing in there I doubt you'd want to eat them.

We got rid of our c.bin coz it was so horrific to take the lid off in the summer(full of teeny little flies). Plus IME you only get a tiny amount of compost from weeks and weeks of peelings etc.

Maybe I was doing it all wrong but can't be faffed with all that.

motherinferior · 10/02/2005 12:47

I love mushrooms, adore them, dote on them.

Try snapping off the stalk of a raw one and lobbing in a bit of red pesto and then munching. DIVINE.

bundle · 10/02/2005 12:51

ema that website i posted said you could sterilise it and put in the mushy spores..
our compy bin has tray at bottom to pull out the "done" stuff apparently

phatcat · 10/02/2005 12:59

ooh - great thread mm - I'm a shroom-o-phile too - one of the great things about living where I do (Northern Scotland) is going mushroom picking in the woods - we get loads of chanterelles and hedgehogs most years, several different kinds of edible boletes and have even had the occasional cep. I got my mushroom knife here and also went on one of their mushroom picking holidays in France a few years ago. It's a real shame that Brits don't take wild mushrooms as seriously as they do in Europe and Russia - still it leaves more for me to pick!

madgirl · 10/02/2005 13:02

yeah fantastic thread marthamoo. i love them too. my dh claims it is because i am a carnivore and they are about the most meaty of all vegetables! I am always looking for yummy recipes, preferably using them whole anyone got any ideas?

marthamoo · 10/02/2005 13:06

Mumsnet - I salute you, you have done me proud It has made my day to go out, come back, and still find this thread in Active Convos.

I think Angeliz is the only non-mushroom eating dissenter so far and, you know Angeliz, if you don't like the subject of a thread - don't eat it, I mean read it

Suzy, would you object if it was any other kind of dung? I know how you feel about chickens.

Gingerbear - I will give it some thought...

Bozza - don't all students grow fungi under the bed ? Sure dh did, but I think it was on cups and discarded boxer shorts rather than in a polystyrene tub.

Thanks for all fascinating mushroom information - I have seen those cunning little mushroom brushes, they are shaped like a mushroom - how apt Maybe dh will get me one for Valentine's Day and maybe I will start growing mushies under the marital bed.

OP posts:
bundle · 10/02/2005 13:08

i love them on toast, fried with garlicky butter and a squirt of lemon juice, finished off with cream and whatever herbs you have in (fave: tarragon)

MumtoLaura · 10/02/2005 13:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Blu · 10/02/2005 13:52

Marthamoo, could I just say (as one Superwoman to another) that I believe what Shirley Conran actually said was 'Life is to short to stuff a mushroom'.

So what does the Superwoman of the Noughties do with her mushrooms? MI tells us that she 'lobs' hers. I generally make grand plans for mine and then have to fumigate the fridge 3 weeks later when I find the 'shroomy slime that was once a noble cep.

motherinferior · 10/02/2005 13:53

I don't always eat them raw, but sometimes the Urge overwhelms me and I just have to have them, then, there...

Blu · 10/02/2005 13:55

Steady on MI - is the compost moving?

motherinferior · 10/02/2005 13:57

Snurk.

emmatmg · 10/02/2005 14:07

Bundle, maybe if I got a posh C.bin too we could have a "who's got the biggest Mushie" contest.

I'm a very bad loser so you might have to let me win

bundle · 10/02/2005 14:28

emma, i'm very anti-competitive (sports etc - due to awful netball experiences at junior school) so i'd let you win (but secretly know my mushy was better. snurk)

HunkerMunker · 10/02/2005 14:33

MM, that's a lovely post. DH will be really pleased to see that someone has a DW who loves mushrooms. His doesn't Perhaps we should swap? LOL!

marthamoo · 10/02/2005 14:49

Ahem, Blu, that's why I said "misquote" I can be as pedantic as the next MNer!

OP posts:
sasa15 · 11/02/2005 07:22

magic mushrooms?

marthamoo · 11/02/2005 07:34

Couldn't comment sasa - but dh could (misspent youth)

OP posts:
Hausfrau · 11/02/2005 12:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

maltesers · 11/02/2005 12:49

My dp loves to go mushroom picking. we live on the edge of the New Forest in hampshire. He went through a faze of excessive picking and we were drowned out with endless mushroom soup. Got so sick of it. Have been sick twice with fried Chanterelles so am weary of them now. but seem to be ok with the soup. But NO MORE MUSHROOMS PLEASE DP FOR AT LEAST TEN YEARS !

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