Chestnuts: identify mushrooms with certainty

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The best mushroom season is from summer to autumn. The fine chestnuts are popular collector's items and a delight for the spoiled palate. When collecting, you should be sure to recognize the features.

Chestnuts are edible forest mushrooms
Chestnuts are edible forest mushrooms

What you need:

  • safe knowledge of chestnuts
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Collect chestnuts

  • The taste of wild mushrooms cannot be compared with the cultivated varieties. In addition to porcini mushrooms, chestnuts are also a popular delicacy.
  • You can find the forest fruits from June to October. Look in mixed forests, coniferous crops, and heaths. Different characteristics help to recognize the difference to the poisonous and dangerous relatives.
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Identify chestnuts based on their characteristics

  • When looking for the coveted mushrooms, the first thing you'll notice is the maroon hat. Because of their color and shape, chestnuts are also called brown caps. The maroon color can also turn black-green at a young age.
  • The size of the hat can be between 6 and 12 cm and the surface should be velvety, dry, shiny to matt. The skin only feels greasy when it is wet.
  • Often it has the shape of a half ball, where the edge can easily curl up. With increasing ripeness it becomes flatter and the edge mostly forms outwards and goes up.
  • Correctly collect and determine mushrooms

    Every year, many people flock to the forest to pick mushrooms. Boletus, chestnut ...

  • To identify the mushroom more precisely, cut it open. White to pale yellow flesh should appear. If the meat is still young, it will feel a bit tough. Only with age does it get its wonderful delicacy.
  • If you break open a chestnut, the color changes to a light blue-green. You should see a reddish tone under the upper skin. The outer layer of the fruit can be broken down lengthways into fibers.
  • The tubes of the fresh chestnuts have grown in the style, from which they come off with age and then look dented. Take a close look at this part as they should be a pale yellow to greenish hue. It can later turn into brown-yellow to olive-brown.
  • The fine mouths of the young tubes become angular and wide with age.
  • The finger test is a reliable indicator that the chestnuts are edible. If you press the tubes with your finger, they should turn blue-green to black-green.
  • The spore powder is also an indication of the edibility of the small delicacy and it should be olive-brown in color.
  • In contrast, the style appears in light brown and upwards in a yellowish tone and with light tires. Usually it gets a length of 5 to 9 cm and a thickness of 1 to 3 cm.
  • If he is still young, he is usually a little stronger in the lower area. With age it becomes slender, often slightly curved, and has a veined, fibrous or even smooth surface.

Be careful when collecting mushrooms! Even if the features certainly seem to recognize that ChestnutHarvesting has to be learned. You should only undertake the venture with 100% certainty.

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