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Mushrooms
What Are They?
Mushrooms are often considered the vegetables, but they are actually a fungus. Most edible mushrooms are macro-fungi, the kind we can see with naked eye. The name “mushroom” has been given to over 38,000 varieties of fungus that possess the same threadlike roots and cap. And, while mushrooms and toadstools (poisonous mushrooms) are not the most numerous or economically significant fungi, they are the most easily recognized.
A Friend or Foe?
Throughout the history, mushrooms have gained reputation of both - delicious or dangerous. Today, we can find safe to eat, tasty mushrooms at the grocery stores, but it wasn’t always so. Over the centuries, inexperienced mushroom hunters caused many fatalities, giving edible mushrooms bad reputation.
But, as we’ve learn more about food-safe kinds, they have become less dark and mysterious. In addition, with the recent focus on locally sourced food and foraging, the allure of the mushroom is growing.
Contact
Jarmila Haseler
Agriculture and Food System Educator
jh954@cornell.edu
(585) 753-2565
Last updated July 26, 2019
Truffle Mushrooms Considered a delicacy around the world and one of the most expensive food on Earth.
What Are Truffle Mushrooms?
Truffles are subterranean fungi of the Tuber species. Under a dark, hard bumpy surface hides creamy-white marbled flesh that will darken with time. Truffles form underground in symbioses with the roots of trees such as beech, poplar, oak, birch, hornbeam, hazel, and pine. Farmers use dogs or pigs to track down truffles by their scent in spring.
The most common truffles are black. Other, more expensive varieties are gray and white. A pound of white truffles can be bear up to $4000 per pound! Bonn Appetite!
Mushrooms as Vitamin D Factory
Most people know that the human body makes vitamin D in response to sunlight. Mushrooms, even
picked ones, can do the same. It means that eating
mushrooms, that have been exposed to sunlight, can be an excellent source of the “D” levels. Human body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium and promote bone growth. Too little vitamin D results in soft bones in children (rickets) and fragile, misshapen bones in adults (osteomalacia). According to the FDA, recommended daily dose of Vitamin D is around 400 IU and sun-exposed mushrooms can help address a serious health issues in populations where vitamin D is significantly diminished. 