Picking Mushrooms and Planting pine cones in the Ass´s Mouth

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Last weekend I spent some quality time with nature at a mountain pass called ¨La boca del asno¨ or ¨The Ass´s Mouth¨. Paula´s parents, Mamen and Juan Carlos, their best friend Maribel, and myself took a bus with a mycologist (mushroom specialist) to the Sierra north of Madrid. When we arrived, we were instructed to pick all the mushrooms we could find, meet up with the specialist and the other 40 people on the trip, and he would classify all that we had collected and organize them in groups of edible and toxic species. We would then have a delicious meal of...you guessed it! MUSHROOMS! (We all crossed our fingers that he REALLY knew what he was doing.)


This, at least, was what was supposed to happen. Unfortunately, when we arrived, I had a little problem. In Spanish, the saying is ¨Plantar un pino (plant a pine cone). ¨ In English it’s better known as ¨pinching a loaf¨. I spent the first half hour ¨planting¨ while 40 people headed up the path in front of us collecting mushrooms. By the time I exited, we were sure we wouldn’t find a single shroom. BUT low and behold, within a half hour, we had filled our little baskets. We spent the next 3 hours wandering up the banks of a beautiful river...well...they wandered, I kept running off into the woods.


When we reached the end, everyone had collected over a hundred different species of mushrooms, and even though we threw out two thirds which were toxic, or edible but not worth the effort, the other third provided enough for everyone to have lunch (I passed). I did, however, get to keep a little of the leftovers, which I tried the next day. I’m happy to say that I am alive, have had no symptoms related to poisoning or hallucinations, and have not planted any extraneous pinecones. They were the most delicious mushrooms I’ve ever tasted. And I have single handedly ensured that many other mushrooms will flourish in the Ass´s mouth.




Vocabulary lesson of the day:
seta - mushroom
hongo - fungus
champiñón - mushroom (grown domestically)
pino - pine cone
Asno - Ass (donkey only)

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Photos

La Boca del Asno
Here´s the river we followed, searching for mushrooms.

Searching for Mushrooms
Maribel and Juan Carlos....They´ve found some!!!

A basket full!
We´re gonna EAT those??? Which ones are safe to eat and which ones are deadly??

Toxic...Edible...Toxic...
Here´s the mycologist. See that big basket to the left? Those are all the edible ones.

Time to eat!
Mixed with olive oil, garlic, bay leaves, and a little white wine, he made a delicious lunch. They were the best I ever tasted.