Health Wellbeing

Do you know mushrooms are good for you? They assist your immune system

Iam in awe of the humble mushroom that not only tastes good, but can be so healthy for your body. While reading various articles about them, I discovered they were very good for your immune system.

What do mushrooms do for your body?

Mushrooms contain macronutrients that support a healthy immune system.

It is understood that your immune system will benefit from mushrooms whose nutrients include Selenium, which helps your body make antioxidant enzymes to prevent cell damage. Choose cremini or portabella mushrooms for the most

benefit. New to mushroom collecting?

If you are new to mushroom collecting rule number one is do not eat anything you are unsure of. I know the thought of skipping along a wooded area with your basket collecting mushrooms to take home and cook looks so idyllic, but don’t

get caught out!

If this is your first time collecting, boletes are the best place to start. Look out for the fleshy stalked pore fungi that usually grow on the ground in wooded areas. You will find three clues from this definition that make edible boletes a bit easier to identify than other varieties.

Porcini, birch boletes and slippery jacks are three edible boletes that can be found in New Zealand.

How to eat them

I have to say that I love mushroom and chicken pie, mushrooms pan fried over a nice steak, I make a lovely mushroom pate, but pan fried in butter, then milk added and then thickened and with a good grind of black pepper added and served on sourdough toast, must be my all-time favourite.

Where do you find them?

Living in the country I have always been so used to seeing mushrooms pop up in front of my eyes. You could go to bed one night and in the morning wonder what that white patch was on the side of a hill.

Only to find mushrooms had grown over

night!

Sadly, that very rarely happens anymore in the paddocks close to my house, in fact it has been quite a few years since I have seen any field mushrooms.

Most mushrooms prefer shade or dark places, which is why you’ll often find them on forest floors. However, some mushrooms can grow in part to full sun, such as those you may find growing on manure in a field.

So go on – hunt them, honour them, and then simply devour them, but always positively identify them first!