Fungi

Funghi

Appears in

By Antonio Carluccio and Priscilla Carluccio

Published 1997

About

For most Italians, when you talk about mushrooms their first thought goes immediately to porcini (ceps). This mushroom grows only in the wild, from mid-summer through the autumn, is picked by local gatherers and then sent to checking centres so that you may safely buy them in shops and markets. Porcini-hunting usually involves outings in the very early morning (only because you need to be first on the territory), armed with a basket, a knife and possibly a stick.

While in Britain in autumn most people parking their cars near woods are either simply taking the air, walking their dogs or having a picnic, in Italy parked cars in such a vicinity means fungi-hunters are about. Due to the overwhelming popularity of this pastime, the Government has instituted laws which allow people to pick only a limited quantity of mushrooms, with levels varying from area to area but usually not more than 3 kg per person per day, and to specified measurements to prevent the picking of the very small immature mushrooms. Heavy fines are attached to the trespassing of these laws.