Mushrooms on a plane!

I quote the words of one Deirdre Straughan, an American living in Italy (like me, except more fluent and a lot more exciting experiences under her belt); this little article caught my eye in a recent newsletter because it attests to the fact that ITALIANS LOVE MUSHROOMS. I wrote an article about this in Spyglass, my school newspaper, back in the early months when I was still getting my articles in on time and published, which you can read here. Mushroom picking in the fall is a huge part of Italian culture, and can, on occasion, be poisonous.

"While out on a walk (which became a hike)," writes Ms. Straughan, "I saw a couple of women heading into the woods with wicker baskets dangling from their backpacks - off to hunt for mushrooms. Italians, like hobbits, are very fond of mushrooms, especially the varieties which defy cultivation and can only be found in the wild (or bought, expensively, from someone else who found them).

I don't want to quote the entire article - instead allow me to direct you to the rest of the article, which describes the risks of mushroom poisoning; from there you can link to and explore her other interesting articles on Italy (a country worth a thousand articles, of course).

My nonno would religiously go out mushroom-picking every weekend during the fall, and bring back a whole basket of absolutely ginormous abominations of nature. Which, since I'm still alive, were evidently not poisonous. I guess he's an old hand at not picking poisoned mushrooms; after all, he celebrated his 80th birthday last fall, which means he's nearing 81 years of not having died of mushroom poisoning. I guess he knows his stuff. But still - how hard is it to not notice that tiny difference? Those appealing orange-speckled mushrooms instead of these delicious cousins of portobellos? Well, damn. I'm glad to be alive, and I'm glad for those absolutely delectable mushroom dishes. Woo, nonno!

Labels: Italy

posted by Holly @ 10:31 PM