GATHERING AND MARKETING MUSHROOMS.
This is an important point in the cultivation of this esculent, and
should be attended to with painstaking discretion.
When mushrooms are fit to pick depends upon several conditions; for
instance, whether for market or for home use, and if for the latter,
whether they are wanted for soups or stews. For fresh and attractive
appearance and best appreciation in the market, pick them when they are
plump and fresh and just before the frill connecting the cap with the
stem breaks apart. The French mushrooms should always be gathered before
the frill bursts; the English mushrooms also look best when gathered at
this time, but they are admissible if gathered when the frill begins to
burst and before the cap has opened out flat. If the mushrooms display a
tendency to produce long stems pick them somewhat earlier, soon enough
to get them with short shanks, for long stems are disliked in market;
so, too, are dark or discolored or old mushrooms of any sort. Sometimes
we may not have enough mushrooms ready at one gathering to make it
worth while sending them to market, and are tempted to let them stay
ungathered until to-morrow, when they have grown larger and many more
shall have grown big enough to gather. This should never be done. It
will give an unfavored, unequal lot, some big, some little, some old,
some young. Far better pick every one the moment it is ready to gather,
and keep all safe in a cool place and covered until some more are ready
for use, and in this way have a uniform appearing lot of young produce.
Mushrooms for soups should always be gathered before they burst their
gills; indeed, they are mostly gathered when in a button state; that is,
when they are about the size of marbles. In this condition, when cooked,
they retain their white appearance and do not discolor the soup.
Immature mushrooms are deficient in flavor.
For home use, for baking, stewing, broiling, or for cooking in any way
in which the tenderness of the flesh and the delicious aroma of the
mushrooms are desirable in their finest condition, let the mushrooms
attain their full size and burst their frills, as seen in Fig. 24, and
gather them before the caps open out flat, or the gills lose any of
their bright pink color. If you let them get old enough for the gills to
turn brown before gathering, the mushrooms will become leathery in
texture, and lose in flavor and darken sadly in cooking.
[Illustration: FIG. 24. A PERFECT MUSHROOM.]
In picking, always pull the mushrooms out by the root, and never, if
practicable to avoid it, cut them over with a knife. In gathering, take
hold of the mushrooms and give them a sharp but gentle twist, pressing
them down at the same time, and they generally part from the bed without
any trouble; then place them in the baskets, root-end down, so as to
keep them perfectly clean and free from grit. Sometimes when several
mushrooms are joined together in one root-stock and it is impossible to
remove one without disturbing the whole, cut it over rather than pull it
out. In the case of clumps of young mushrooms, where one can not be
pulled out without displacing some of the others also, cut it out rather
than pull it. There is a knack in pulling mushrooms, easily attained by
practice. And even when they come up in thick bunches and it would
appear impossible to pull out the full-grown ones without disturbing the
others, a practiced hand will give them a twitch and a pull--they often
part from the bed by the gentlest touch--and get them out without
unfastening any of the multitude of small buttons that may be growing
around them.
The advantages of pulling over cutting are several: It benefits the bed.
If we cut over a mushroom and leave its stump in the ground, in a few
days decay sets in and a fluffy or spongy substance grows around the old
butt, which destroys many of the little mushrooms around it, as well as
every thread of mycelium that comes in contact with it. One should be
particular to scoop out these stumps with a knife before this condition
takes place, and go over the beds every few days to fill up the holes,
made in scooping out the old stumps, with fresh loam.
Pulled mushrooms always keep fresh longer than do those that have been
cut. In the interest of the market grower they have another advantage.
Mushrooms are bought and sold by weight, and as the stems are always
retained to the caps all are weighed together; if part of the stems had
been cut off the weight would have been reduced, and, in like
proportion, the price; but if the stems are retained entire not only are
the mushrooms benefited, but the weight, and with it the price, is also
increased.
=Gathering Field or Wild Mushrooms.=--Go in search of them in the
morning before the sunshine gets warm and they become too open or old.
If you wish to gather and preserve them in their most perfect condition
pull them up by the "roots," carefully remove any soil from them, and
then lay them orderly in the basket, the root end down; and by spreading
a stout sheet of paper over the layer, another may be arranged above it
in the same way, and so on until the basket is full. But if you are not
so particular and wish them for immediate use, or for ketchup or drying,
the common way of cutting them off and carrying them home in bulk will
answer well enough.
=Marketing Mushrooms.=--Most market growers who live immediately around
New York City sell direct, and deliver their mushrooms to hotels,
restaurants, and fancy fruiterers. But some of them, also most of those
who live at a considerable distance from the city, sell their mushrooms
through commission merchants in New York; they, in turn, sell in
quantities to suit customers.
Mushrooms are sold by the pound, and come into market in boxes made of
strong undressed paper. Some growers have light wooden boxes made that
hold from one to four pounds of mushrooms each, and these make
convenient and strong packages for shipping by express. They may be sent
singly, or, as is the case with the paper boxes, several packed together
in crates or boxes. In sending directly to hotels, cheap baskets,
holding one or several pounds--Mr. Gardner's baskets hold twelve
pounds--are often used, but in sending to commission merchants, who
have to deal them out in quantities to suit customers, mushrooms should
always be packed in one, two, three or four pound boxes or baskets,
preferably one pound. Mushrooms are not like potatoes or apples, that
can be handled, remeasured, and repacked without damaging them. Each
rehandling will certainly discolor and perhaps break a good many of
them, rendering them unsalable, if not worthless.
The utmost care in gathering and packing of mushrooms for shipping is of
primary importance. Gather them the moment they are in best condition,
no matter whether or not they are to be packed and shipped the same day;
never let them blow open before gathering them; and never cut off short
stems. Long stems have to be shortened, but not until everything is
ready to pack them. With a very soft hair brush dust off any earth that
may stick to the cap of the mushroom, and with a harder brush or the
back of a knife rub the earth off of the root end of the stem. Then sort
the mushrooms,--the big ones by themselves, the middle-sized by
themselves, the small or button-sized ones by themselves, and pack each
kind by itself. Pack very firmly without bruising, and so as to show the
pretty caps to the best advantage. Never pack mushrooms more than two
deep without using plenty of soft paper between the layers, and never
put a heavy bulk of them into one box or basket. They discolor so easily
that, all things considered, about a pound is enough in a box, if we
wish them to carry safely and retain their bright, fresh skin without
tarnishing.
Mr. Barter, of London, writes me: "The punnets we use for marketing our
mushrooms in are the same that are used for strawberries or peaches.
These hold just one pound, but it is becoming more customary now to have
little boxes made holding from three to five pounds, as these are better
for packing in larger cases for long journeys."