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 The fall is also mushroom season. In cooperation with the restaurant owner and mushroom lover David Albert (L’Ernz Noire in Luxemburg) Best of Hiking gives away valuable knowledge about collecting and preparing mushrooms.
When the nights become longer again and the mist lies on forests and meadows in the morning, mushrooms start emerging from the earth. More than 5.000 kinds of mushrooms can be found in Europe. They can be divided into eatable, inedible and poisonous kinds. The best time to gather mushrooms is from early September to late October. Walks and hikes in the fall can very well be combined with a ‘hunt for mushrooms’, for champignons, chanterelles, chestnuts, and porcini.
David Albert, mushroom lover and owner of the Best of Hiking-Restaurant „L’Ernz Noire“ will start looking for mushrooms soon. In the forests around the town Grundhof in Luxembourg he likes to collect ‘Semmelstoppel’ among other types of mushrooms to be used in his fresh menus composed of local products. A special ‘Seven-course-mushroom-menue’ attracts gourmets from everywhere each fall. In an interview the expert gives away a few tricks for mushroom gatherers and part time chefs:
“In general mushrooms gatherers should only collect those mushrooms they know beyond doubt. There’s not only the danger of poisoning oneself – mushrooms are also important for the forest’s ecosystem because they loosen the forest ground. Unknown mushrooms as well as very young mushrooms should be left standing. When picking the mushrooms they should be levered from the ground carefully and cleaned on the spot if possible“, says the expert. „That’s why the bottom should be cut off right away because the cleaner the mushrooms, the less cleaning will be necessary in the kitchen and the more genuine the taste“.
 What does the expert prepare? „My favourite mushrooms are the ‘Schirmling’ and the ‘Totentrompete’. The Schirmling’s taste is subtle and nutty – I like to eat it fried with a little butter in a pan. The ’Totentrompete’ is great with game, it has an earthy, intensive taste.“
He does not believe that preparing mushrooms is for experts only: „Mushrooms have such a great taste that you don’t have to do very much with it. What’s important is not to wash mushrooms, just brush them. If not they soak themselves full of water and lose their taste“. Most mushrooms can be cut in squares, fried with onions and butter and seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh parsley. Leave out the cream“, says Albert: „It tastes great, but keeps you from tasting the mushrooms’ genuine aroma“.
What does he do with the left-over mushrooms? “No problem”, says Albert, „Mushrooms can be conserved very easily. Cut them into pieces and freeze them or cut hem into slices, put them on a thread and let them dry in the attic.“ Whoever wants to enjoy mushrooms immediately after conserving them should blanch them quickly in boiling water and then marinate them in spices and oil. Enjoy!
Did you like what you read? Of course there are not only fresh mushrooms in Luxembourg. There are tasty mushrooms fit for eating to be found in forests and on meadows in all of Europe in the fall. You just have to look for them. Here are the golden rules for gathering mushrooms:
1. Preparation
Wear good shoes because you will be walking on forest ground and over roots. Carry a wicker basket paper bags. Do not carry plastic bags or plastic, mushrooms become too hot when carried inside such materials and start to decompose. Carry a small knife to cut mushrooms from wood or tree trunks.
 2. Classifying mushrooms
The most important rule: mushrooms I cannot classify beyond doubt need to be left where they are. Unfortunately they are no definite characteristics by which poisonous mushrooms could be identified. Young mushrooms especially often have not developed any definite characteristics yet. Whoever is unsure should only collect mushrooms containing tubes. There are very few poisonous kinds and no lethal ones. One can see those tubes when looking at the spongy tissue underneath the cap of the mushroom.
3. Picking mushrooms
Twist the mushrooms carefully from the ground and clean them on site leaving earth, leaves and needles from trees behind. The base of the stem may be cut to do so. Do not collect mushrooms growing besides the road, they might be contaminated.
4. Protection of species
Unknown mushrooms should be left behind. All mushrooms serve an important purposed and it is estimated that roughly 80% of all plants live in a symbioses with a mushroom. The mushroom loosens the forest ground and ensures the transportation of important nutrients. To ensure the survival of one kind the little mushrooms should be left behind also because they may not have developed spores yet.
5. Ask experts
When in doubt always ask the expert. Associtations and pharmacies – among others – offer their advice. At a mushroom information center you can get help determining the kind of a mushroom. Note down where you have found it.
Receipe from the Best of Hiking-Restaurant L’Ernz Noire: Cream of Giant Puffball Soup
The giant puffball: this mushroom can be found mostly on meadows and pastures. The giant puffball consists of a round, even, white fruit body without a stem – some are as big as a basketball! Only cook the young fruit body (later the mushrooms becomes brown and inedible). These mushrooms can often be found in so called ‘Witch circles’ measuring from 20 cm to several meters in width.
Ingredients: giant puffball (peeled & cut in squares), onion (cut in squares), leek (in thin slices), chicken soup, salt, pepper, cream.
Preparation: Fry onions in a pot until glassy. Add the white parts of the leek. Sear and add Giant Puffball, cut and peeled. Fry and then add chicken soup. Add salt and pepper and stirr in a little cream. Enjoy!
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