White and brown mushrooms are ubiquitous in supermarkets: with around 64,000 tons of mushrooms produced, the cultivated mushroom is one of the most popular mushrooms in Germany. However, this one belongs to a different species, the two-spored Egerling. However, the meadow mushroom tastes more aromatic and more like "mushroom".
Meadow mushrooms grow from June
Mushroom season is from June to October
Summer is the main collection time for meadow mushrooms. Especially after a summer downpour or even a heavy summer thunderstorm, you will find what you are looking for on meadows and lawns. Between June and October you can always go stalking and search for well-known mushroom meadows. Like the giant puffball, however, the meadow mushroom does not tolerate artificially fertilized meadows - you should therefore be successful in your search on cow pastures and on organically farmed areas.
Caution, poisonous!
But be careful: the tasty meadow mushroom can easily be confused with very similar toadstools such as the death cap mushroom and the poisonous carbolic mushroom. The Karbol Egerling in particular can often be found where meadow mushrooms grow - sometimes the individual groups even mix. Therefore, you should accurately identify the individual mushrooms based on their characteristics.
Typical identifying features of meadow mushrooms
You can recognize a meadow mushroom by these characteristics:
cap
The cap is closed and spherical when young, open and hemispherical when mature. Very old specimens even spread completely. The hat can be up to ten centimeters in diameter and larger.
slats
The lamellae are pink when young. In older mushrooms, they turn brown, sometimes even black.
stalk
The stalk is about as strong as a finger or thumb. He also has a ring.
meat
Cap and stem are always white. The color does not change with age. The smell is pleasantly mild and mushroomy.
In addition, meadow mushrooms do not have bulbs at the end of the stem, which is why you can use this feature to distinguish them from the poisonous death cap mushrooms. Only the edible aniseed mushroom, a relative of the meadow mushroom, has a slanting bulb at the base of the stem. It turns yellow when touched.
distinguish toadstools
If the supposed meadow mushroom smells unpleasantly of carbolic, ink or "hospital" and the stem flesh turns chrome yellow when cut, it is poisonous carbolic mushrooms. Please throw this away immediately! The highly poisonous death cap mushroom also looks very similar to the meadow mushroom. It leads to numerous cases of poisoning every year, even if it doesn't actually grow in meadows but only in the forest. However, if there are trees in the meadow or if the meadow is at the edge of the forest, the death cap mushroom also dares to venture out. You can recognize it by the typically thickened bulbous foot.
tips
If you want to be on the safe side, you can grow mushrooms in your cellar all year round.