Fall Mushroom Show: Shiitake, Truffle Hustles, the People's Mushroom and more

Hey everybody, it's Nancy from Family Tree Food and Stories, and

I am here with my co-host, Sylvia.

Lovely.

Hello, Sylvia.

How do you do fellow fungal?

Yeah.

Well that's just a hint about what this show is all about because we're talking

about fungis because we are fungals.

All right.

corny, corny.

That's for the Fall Harvest Show, which was last week.

So if you haven't already heard, go listen and go back to last Thursday, which is

available on podcast at Family Tree Food and Stories, our Fall Harbor show, which

I think is pretty fun and interesting.

And next week we're talking about all the cozy comfort.

Winter foods that are coming along and coming down the pike for us.

Things that we don't eat in the summertime.

But I don't know about you, Sylvia.

I am ready to dish out a ladel of, I don't know, something

Stewy and meaty and potato.

Potato, like.

Oh yeah, me too.

Me too.

Pot of chili and the slow cooker.

That's my jam.

Hmm.

Beef stew made with lots of red wine is mine.

But that's for next week.

So this week we are talking about mushrooms.. You'd be surprised how

many stories there are around mushrooms.

And the first we're gonna start off with is the.

Luxury mushroom.

It's hard to believe a mushroom is actually a luxurious thing

because they're fungi, right?

I don't know, but it's truffles and you have all sorts of stories

about truffles because, well, you use them in your restaurant, right?

We use truffle oil.

, Food costs are important in restaurants, maybe someday, but right now we do

truffle fries with the truffle oil.

It's mixed with olive oil in our case.

And, , it has a, very robust taste.

, The oil , has a smell to it that is appealing to some people and not so

much with others, including my husband.

He doesn't even wanna be in the same room with truffles,, and , truffle oil.

Now, maybe if I served him a $3,000 truffle, he would eat it anyway because

we had paid for it or something.

One of those things went for $330,000 at an auction.

In 2007.

So who knows if, anybody is that rich, But you know, , these are

a European cuisine kind of thing, is where they're primarily used.

And, and that's not to say there aren't fine restaurants that use them here in the

US but , they go for a pretty big price.

And Italian whites are really prized and Tuscany has a few, and that

was the one that sold for 330,000

Can I put it on my hand, like on gold?

I don't

Really, really wear it like a ring.

And black truffles are cheaper.

, And I'm not sure where this is from, but $300 to $700 a pound,

which is still pretty expensive,

it was the other way around.

I thought it was the black truffles that were more

no,

I think it's the whites.

Yeah, I think it's the whites.

Yeah.

So anyway, , the foraging is one of the more interesting parts about these.

, Truffles.

And the foraging takes place with people who are highly trained., And ., There are

people that have been in this business for generations and they have their spots.

They grow underground, right?

, These are not like mushrooms that pop up underground.

You really have to know where to.

Mm-hmm.

And there are certain trees that they have to, , grab onto.

And that's the roots of oak.

, Hazel Trees, beach and Poplar.

And these are the great co-hosts, for these things.

And the fungi helped the tree absorb water and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrate.

And it's a perfect marriage because the tree supplies the carbs produced

by photosynthesis, syn synthesis.

Say that three times

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I've had a little early wine here.

, But they benefit from all that stability and the diversity of a host.

But the really interesting thing to me is how guarded these spots are.

, , I was reading one person, who went to his uncle's spot, uncle put

a mask on him, an eye mask so he wouldn't see where he was going.

Oh my

goodness

I mean, that's.

, Fascinating.

And then they use pigs at one time.

But in some places, pigs are outlawed because the pigs would eat them.

Yeah, I've heard those stories.

Well, pigs are pigs, so Yeah, they'll eat them right

. but here's the deal.

They have to have the nose, , the nose.

There are only certain dogs.

And what's the name of that dog?, It's a Italian water dog, which probably

doesn't matter to most people, but, , oh, it's a Legato Ramad, Ramon Nolo.

I don't know.

It's an Italian water dog.

Anyway, I'm sure you're waiting with great anticipation that BB your

full-blooded standard poodle qualifies.

She's an Abbondanza dog.

She, she qualifies.

Maybe she's a water dog.

Are they water dogs

Well, yes.

Poodles are what

Okay.

Well, it must be the same with the nose.

, If they are water dogs.

My Ellie, my dog is half qualified because she's half poodle, but they don't

use Bernese mountain dogs very often.

But, just so you know, tuck that one away.

If BB ever needs a useful profession.

Believe me, we'll put her to work as soon as we can find those

truffle trees down here in Florida.

They do grow in Florida, but, I think they really need a moist

environment the entire time.

And the summer times here are pretty dry, so that kind of disqualifies

most of, Florida, but even still.

So , well wait a second.

You had also heard about the pigs who, when they ate them,

they were like super healthy.

Yeah, there

super pigs.

a, these are all tales, by the way, this is not even capable of being

confirmed, but they're fun tales, right?

Folk tales always are.

So this farmer observed his pig eating truffles, which would probably be

grounds for murdering the pig, right?

But anyway, the pig was so healthy.

His wife and he were childless.

So they started eating these mushrooms and voila, they had 13 children.

So

Oh, be careful what you eat.

But , here's my favorite truffle story.

A home cook was in an airport, I take.

It is, this is another one of those stories, that you don't know

if it's been embellished or not.

But anyway, she snuck a truffle into her pocket to avoid security.

She forgot about it and it melted in her pocket creating a mess.

She lived on with the family legend of being truffle.

butt I think that's cute.

I think that's so cute.

You know, Nancy, it reminds me of a story.

This is kind of food related.

I was in Romania on a tour with a bunch of people and the Romanians

bottle moonshine in Coke bottles.

I don't know why Coke bottles, but they do.

They desperately wanted us to take some back to the states and we're

like, uh, I don't, we don't know.

So anyway, we packed them tightly in our luggage and we arrived

in Cincinnati at the airport and we were just about home free.

When a beagle, came up that was a sniff dog, and it started sniffing our luggage.

And I'm like, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in federal prison,

Right.

and it soon just walked away.

I'm like, okay.

I maybe used up all my good luck that day.

that's pretty funny., I thought you were gonna say they exploded

on the way and everything else.

Like oof next, but.

well, that was another danger.

But anyway, you have a story

about

New

I do have a story, this story that I heard about, well at the time,

a young man in the New York area who was, an avid entrepreneur or

wanted to be an entrepreneur, and he figured that maybe the truffles was

something that the local restaurants.

Like, so this is before truffles became pretty popular.

, Bob, like Bernie, probably think, well, I'm not sure what Bernie says they smell

like, but Bob says they smell like bad dirt as well as a couple of friends.

But, , I like them in moderation.

Anyway, so this fellow . Ian Purkayastha I think that's how you pronounce his

thank you.

Yeah,, I can spell it or I can say it phonetically, but . I'll put it

in the show notes so you've got it.

But he started selling them in New York, in the back of his car, or just after he

got his license, figuring he's gonna make some extra money knowing that the price of

truffles was relatively higher than would he make, and probably being a paper boy.

So he would hang out at the back of the restaurants and try to sell these things.

Now he's imported them from overseas.

They have a shelf life.

The quality of the truffle actually goes down almost by the hour.

So the faster he could sell them at the higher price, the longer he hung

onto them, the lower the price went.

All of a sudden he hit the market just at the right time when the restaurant

started saying, these are great.

He sold them at a better price than they could get directly from the importers.

Well, all of a sudden he had competition, but still , to this

day, 24 years, later or so he is, maybe i'll figure that one out.

I'll find out more.

But he now sells 90% of New York's Michelin star restaurants.

The truffles that they look for.

' cause they know that he's got the best ones and it's just selling

dirt mushrooms out of the back of a broken down, whole car boxes.

versus going to the market.

the competition, they all try to chase after him, see where he is been.

And so they're trying to push the prices left and right.

He did find some competition, but it seemed like the restaurateurs were really.

Beholden to him because he was honest in what he did.

And if they weren't good, he told them.

But, , he is now known as Regal Food, R-E-G-A-L-I-S Foods, and

it's a multimillion dollar company.

All started with dirty mushrooms.

Go figure,

right.

what can we do out of the , back of our cars to make that fortune, and then we can

I need to get a really disgusting looking car.

So it looks kind of interesting.

It tells a story, and then we've gotta get something really gross

to sell out of the back of our car.

Maybe dairy and fruit,

which stinks.

Yeah.

, What's the fruit that, , the guy who would eat like the most

disgusting things on television,

Yeah.

And Dorian and Darion of that fruit is so smelly.

It was a story in the paper the other day about that.

And this guy, he said, if you can get through the smell and get to the, the, uh,

pul.

The fruit.

That it is the most delicious thing.

He said he could eat it till he explodes.

, Anytime you saw him trying to eat it, he, he couldn't get past that.

So anyway, , truffles, I like them on fresh pasta, but that's about it.

Yeah.

Let's move on.

So , the next mushroom the fungi.

The fun fungi that we're talking about are shiitake shiitakes.

You gotta make sure you say that right?

So you don't end up with a, a bleep on the radio, on the podcast like bleep.

But, , shiitakes actually started with the records back from the Song Dynasty

back in, was 960 AD? I think it was

. Right.

They have a really interesting cultural history and you've got all details

on the folk folklore, all related to shiitakes, which I think is fascinating

that even mushrooms have folk lore.

, I think we should call it, instead of folk folklore, we should call it fork lore.

Fork

lore.

there you go.

Make it fancy.

Uh,

I made that a one up.

You are good.

Um, cul rich cultural history, , tied to medicinal uses and folklore, as you said.

And they have that Asian beginnings, but they've spread everywhere.

And, , my chef was telling me that he does get shiitakes and boy, you are

making me nervous about how I say that.

And talkies,

I'm gonna shiitake on you.

Be careful.

but they were included as dowry items.

families in those , , ancient eras valued their mushroom cultivation

, they just have this history of being related to longevity and all of that.

And, some of the research that I did, , came from the literary world , and there

was a book, I loved this story by the way.

Things remembered and things forgotten.

It's a compilation of stories.

Not all about food, but about Japan imagine what Japan went through.

It was on the wrong side of a war, right?

And it was devastated in the atomic bombs.

, And that, , exploded all the history that they had, at least in those two cities.

And they had to totally reinvent themselves.

So one of the stories that got such high reviews, . There was like 12

stories or something like that.

But the story that I loved, , was . My wife was a shiitake.

I love that.

, It was about a husband who's struggling with the loss of his wife unexpectedly.

And , I take it that he was a busy man, , and Japan is a, a culture where the men

work and the women cook and stay home.

He started looking into her cookbooks and saw the little notes.

Imagine Reconstructing a Life.

Nancy.

This is about US , family Tree, food and Stories in our book, my Family Tree food

and Stories, because it's about seeing those words on the page and the stories

about food memories that make people come alive ., Think about grandma's

biscuits and, and the stories that went with it to make the most simple example.

But in this case, she had signed up for a cooking class, and so he decided

to take the class in her stead.

He was able to cook some of her recipes and using the mushrooms In

Japan, mushrooms are a big deal, in fact, a lot of times, and when a child

is born, they'll inoculate a log.

That's how they grow them is you inoculate a hardwood log, not a rotting log.

, But a hardwood one.

They inoculate it at the same time the child is born and

you have to re inoculate them.

And it sounded a lot like sourdough where you have to keep going and keep

feeding it and all of that kind of stuff and it'll grow up with the child.

I mean, is it that just an amazing, it's a tradition, but

yeah, my wife was a shiitake.

The Shiitake stands for love for getting over grief for resilience.

And , he found his wife's true voice

Isn't that beautiful?

Yeah, true voice.

And think about voice and how important voice is in food.

And that's why I love it when people call us with their stories, because to hear

a person tell their food stories is even better than seeing it on a written page.

Well, and the emotion comes through.

I'm, I'm gonna chat a little bit about that on a side note.

The other day we're looking for a new financial advisor and unfortunately

ours is retiring, do some illness, but, . I met a, a fellow and we

were chatting and he is, he's trying to become a US citizen right now.

He's been in the States for like 20 odd years But the interesting thing

was when I talked about the book, he says, oh my gosh, I love this because.

This is, this is my history, this is my family, this is my identity of who I am.

And , so he's saying , I've lost that connection to my

grandmother and to my family.

My parents are heroes, US citizens now, but he himself is now trying to do that,

and he says, I immediately says I, I have to get this book because I wanna share.

Learn from my family and the stories and the history of my identity through

food because it's so important to us.

So that's, that's kind of a story.

It's not related to mushroom, but it is related to mushrooms

in some way, shape, or form.

'cause there's mushrooms in every, in every cultural environment,

well there's also Alice in Wonderland.

Remember, she

eats the mushroom, she grows six feet tall and then she shrinks and, that's

the other thing shiitake are known for.

It's a self-discovery journey of life.

And so that was that one.

You wanna hear a funny one.

You wanna go from the absolutely sublime to the ridiculous.

There are these cartoon figures and if you've ever played Mario

Brothers, which I have not, I'd have to confess, people probably

think I'm

Yeah.

I'm not a, game person

I'm not a game

do you know what a goba is?

They're

I know what ABA is in a different way, but

goba are the first little figures shaped like mushrooms if you see

them, they are the first enemies.

Little tiny shiitakes, right?

Yeah.

Of the Mario Brothers.

They're the very first enemy they face.

Mushroom enemies, GOBA.

Well,, that's pretty funny.

Yeah.

, You also talked about how the little, I'll call it psychedelic issues related,

I'm not sure psychedelics and, and shiitakes, but maybe there is a little

bit of a do, do, do, do going on there.

, we have a, we have what they say is a mushroom farm, but it's not

really a mushroom farm because they now have classified themselves.

As a religious affiliation or a church, a mushroom church, not too far from us.

And can you guess what kind of mushrooms they're using?

What?

Well, they're not the kind of mushrooms you would typically put in your soup to

give to grandma.

They apparently are psychedelic mushrooms and well, those are causing

a lot of havoc in the backwoods of , Florida here right now.

But,

Well.

You bring up an interesting point because, , it used to be those

were made into a Schedule one drug.

They have a certain chemical titles, I can't say it, but it's a drug that

is psychedelic in nature and people would talk about doing mushrooms

back in the sixties and seventies.

And there's some, Carlos Castane wrote about it in literature.

I've read all his books and you would have a , mushroom and you would take a trip.

So it's a, fascinating kind of thing that is now coming into use and in

psychedelics for like drug addiction, helping people overcome addiction.

Oh, the mushrooms, the psychedelics are actually helping people overcome drug

Well, what I don't know and haven't verified is if it's the same ones

with that same chemical, but I do know it's very controversial

and it's the use of psychedelics.

To help people cure and mental illness.

The other thing, it, it attacks is mental illness, but you know, just in general

medicinal uses, it's like marijuana is now legal in so many states, which is why

people aren't drinking as much, I suspect.

, I guess a little puff here, a little puff there on a mushroom or a,

there you go.

. , I know a number of, entrepreneurs, who have talked about using psychedelic

mushrooms to supposedly help with their clarity and their creativity.

Well, I must not be overly creative because I don't do mushrooms I just

find creativity in another way But , on that front, we also have something

called the people's mushroom, which I would think would be these two,

but they're not, they're actually called oyster mushrooms, which, I

find kind of fascinating that people's oyster mushrooms , have that title.

I need some bragging rights here first though, before we leave Shiitakes.

Please go ahead

shiitakes are usually grown on big farms.

They can appear spontaneous.

No one resource said they couldn't appear spontaneous.

But , there isn't an absolute rule on anything, right?

But they do have to be in inoculated into hardwood logs,

and that's how they're grown.

But , Southeastern Kentucky can grow Shataki.

That's pretty cool.

I

love it.

So anyway, just, just a little thing.

Give us something to brag about.

You know, we're the butt of, , late night television, so.

, I think Kentucky's a beautiful state, but the bluegrass country is absolutely

gorgeous, so I think you have a lot to brag on other than mushrooms.

So, the people's mushrooms and the oyster mushrooms, you know, a little

bit more about that than I do, especially from the restaurant side.

So why don't you fill us in on the oyster

Yeah, they're known as the people's mushroom because they're

so accessible and sustainable.

I anybody can grow oyster mushrooms, and they're one of three kinds of

mushrooms that grow in your backyard

And those are the ones that you get in the grocery store that you see, I

guess the, the white button mushrooms?

You know, I don't know what the ones look like in the grocery store.

That's something that, , I wish we had some visuals because one of the

things that I'm concerned about is people forage in their backyard.

And, that can be dangerous, and we're gonna talk about that in a minute.

But, because people do grow them anywhere,, in your backyard

on straw or, or wherever.

They just kind of grow, grow, grow, and . All mushrooms are being found

to be rich and healthy properties, just like all the rest of them.

and so here's the dangers about the, and I, you know, what's

wrong , with, , oyster mushrooms and what could be wrong with these?

One of the things wrong with them is they are invasive.

They'll grow.

Anywhere you have a leak in your toilet, look down, you're

gonna have oyster mushrooms.

Oh no,

mean, it's like weird to look down from that vantage point

and see a big old mushroom

is is that the bathroom out back or The one in my bedroom?

Well, they, showed a picture of around the bottom of a toilet

and these mushrooms were growing,

or, you know.

Ooh, that's disgusting.

So we're not talking an outhouse, we're talking like inside of

yeah.

Oh, they can take over.

Apparently they can grow anyway, particularly if there's , a water

leak or something in your house.

I mean, watch out folks.

Okay.

I got a caveat here.

Please.

If you're, , hopefully you're listening this far to the show.

If you find mushrooms growing around the base of your toilet in your

house, do not eat those mushrooms

No, it's not just gross sounding.

Uh, so you've got all kinds of these things.

One home grower found their mushroom bags being rated by squirrels.

Eventually had to plug the holes in their garage to stop the intrusion.

, Anyway, it's a big deal, so just control your mushrooms.

Alright.

Control your mushrooms

that that is pretty funny.

So , I have a mushroom story, beyond.

beyond.

Mushroom church story.

So, we had neighbors, we've talked about our neighbors before.

Our neighbors, Keith and Jackie, who have smoked the Turkey, and I'm worried about

the root fire and the whole nine yards.

But they, at the, well, Keith, is a terrific guy, but also . He's a

culinary creative, I'll put it that way.

That's probably the, the best way to describe it.

And one day we would get these big puff ball, you know, those giant puff

ball mushrooms and they would grow typically around the fall time up in

the Connecticut area where we were.

'cause we're in the woods with lots of, in the woods it was leaves.

We didn't have grass.

, Our backyard was oak trees and leaves.

. We probably had , truffles in there and we didn't even know

about it 'cause the amount of oak trees that we had in the area.

But one day he decided he would take a puffball mushroom and cook it.

I'm like, you have got to be crazy.

Well, nope, he cooked it like a steak and as long as you get it at the right time.

And I double checked and I looked at all the recipes

online to see what's out there.

You have to get it when it's still fresh and white, and if you cut into

it in half and it's not white or you cut in the piece and it's yellow or any

discoloration at all, do not eat it.

It's not good.

But I have to say puff balls, they are kind of fun when they get to

the point of almost explosion.

Have you ever kicked one?

No, not that I know of.

Kicking puff balls is a load of fun.

They just explode and all the spores go everywhere.

It's like this giant dust ball and dust storm that happens.

So next time you see a giant puff ball.

Wait, don't cook it.

Or maybe let one cook because they usually don't grow and grow in clusters.

They grow one at a time.

But we have to take a quick break, so let's take a break and then

we'll go on with the rest story.

okay, so we are back.

It's all about mushrooms and if you haven't kicked, a puff ball,

I suggest you find one at some point in your life and you have

that experience kicking mushrooms,

wonder you're so cool.

I know, well, I actually, I have to talk about mushrooms.

. We have,, a window box.

Well, it's not a really window box.

I've got this little planter in my window and it looks

like a bunch of sheep together.

So when you, you look at the front, they've got all the sheep heads

and the plants in the middle.

You turn around and you see all the sheep butts.

The other day I'm watering it and I found mushrooms growing

inside my planter in the house.

don't know, maybe they're edible, but at least they weren't

growing around the toilet.

So I'll leave it at that and we'll talk about flavor profiles of mushrooms

because they really are pretty delicious.

Yeah.

. The truffles are very robust and if you use too much, I mean

you spend a lot of money on 'em, but you don't have to use it.

And a little dab will do you, as that old commercial used to say, 'cause

they can really take over a dish.

I don't know that I'll have much of a chance to ever try them.

I'm not a great big adventurous eater, but, , shiitakes are intense, and

they have a rich woodsy flavoring.

Oysters are subtle, mildly sweet, and they say a slight shellfish flavor to them.

And so that's kind of cool.

There's also a lot of magic, and we won't get to all that today, but

there are, , stories, , in England.

These, I don't know what a fairy ring would be, , but there are circles of

mushrooms in the grass and that if you find that, oh, well that's cool.

, Where that's where fairies have danced.

In England, you step aside and don't step into them or a curse will come upon you.

So you didn't do any of that.

Did.

No, I didn't do it.

, We had friends over in, Katon, New York who used to pick the mushrooms in their

front yard and, . , Andrjez, , they have since moved to Portugal, but he was

Polish and raised in, in Poland, and he knew how to find the right mushrooms.

My dad said they used to pick mushrooms when they were kids, but,

I never learned how to do that.

Always wanted to, so, nope, I didn't Step in the fairy circle

Okay now, so to kind of end things, , I didn't wanna tell a folk tale.

Because really, seriously, we would emphasize know what you're doing.

If you're eating mushrooms out of the backyard and , whatever

your trusted source would be, you could probably do that.

And most states have like fish and wildlife or something like that.

Some version of that we do.

And you can probably get educational materials from there.

But this one's a fun story.

Alright?

A woman tells a story, that.

her mother would never serve mushrooms that were foraged from the backyard.

And the reason she didn't is that her grandfa, her father.

So it was the woman telling the story's grandfather granddad would forage in

the backyard and he loved his mushrooms, and grandma was les enamored with them.

So she would take a silver coin and put it in a pan where she cooked them.

And if the coin turned black.

It meant the rooms.

That's mushrooms by the way.

I'm being cool.

Mushrooms were toxic.

So there you have it.

A mom.

This, the one in between, the generation in between.

Wouldn't do, wouldn't touch forage mushrooms.

So do what you want.

Find that silver corn.

But don't do what you just think you want.

Know what you're doing.

Find that silver coin and put it in your pocket instead.

absolutely.

So there you go.

Mushrooms.

I, I've made mushroom soup and mushroom stew.

And when it's done right, it's delicious.

But I do tend to go overboard with finding the fancy expensive mushrooms

because ooh, you put 'em all together.

They are yum.

Very delicious mushrooms.

We are the fungi.

Fun.

Well, we're the fun gals,

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Definitely.

. If you haven't already, please share and like the show, share it

with friends, family, neighbors, maybe even your dog who likes to go

looking for Fungis to with BB, right?

And , we hope that you will also share your stories with us.

Go to podcast Family Tree Food and Stories to do that as well.

And we'll put a link in the show notes so that you know how to reach us.

So until next time, stay tuned.

Eat well, share more stories, and we'll see you soon.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Okay,