Among the many species of mushrooms, some are edible mushrooms, more or less sought after. The number of really poisonous mushrooms being very limited, most species of mushroom are probably harmless, but a large number of them are irrelevant, for example because of a taste, smell or consistency unpleasant, or simply because of their insignificant size. Beyond picking for personal consumption, several wild mushrooms (chanterelle mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, chanterelles ...) or cultivated mushrooms (button mushroom, black mushrooms ...) are traded at local, national or international scale, both in fresh form and after drying, canning or freezing. Certain mushrooms can thus reach a very high market value, like certain species of truffles or even matsutaké.
Food interest
The exact composition of the mushrooms depends on the species. They all consist mainly of water (from 82 to 92%), the rest being made up of minerals, carbohydrates, lecithin, proteins and vitamins, which makes them a complete food.
In tropical Africa, edible wild mushrooms are widely used and appreciated foods, and can constitute food substitutes for meat or fish during times of scarcity.
However, mushrooms should be seen more as a condiment, an accompaniment (for example in an omelet), than as a food in their own right because they are not very digestible.
Conservation
If these mushrooms are not eaten quickly, it is wise to store them in a cool, dry place (no more than a day or two in the cellar, the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator), taking care to spread them out and place them with the foot in the air (the larvae which are not eliminated during cleaning always tend to rise and accumulate in the end of the foot). When cooking, simply cut the foot. In the event of a large harvest, it is preferable to preserve them by different techniques, drying, freezing, salting, etc. It is preferable to perfect the drying by a rapid passage in a hot oven. This operation notably helps to kill the larvae which could have continued to survive in the thickness of the slices during the first drying.
Nearly a hundred species of edible mushrooms can be cultivated. All are saprophytic. Among these species, the most commercially important are the button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), the Shiitake (lentinula edodes), and oyster mushrooms (including oyster oyster). The substrates used for growing these mushrooms include, among other things, byproducts of cotton or coffee production, while the cultivation of Volvariella volvacea ("straw mushroom") is associated with that of rice in Vietnam. The production of the oak lentin (popularly known as shiitake) in Qingyuan, China, has earned this region the nickname of "world mushroom capital", but has led to the exhaustion of the surrounding forests, which provide the wood. on which this fungus grows. In addition, small-scale mushroom cultivation exists everywhere in China.
Truffle growing, which in particular relates to melanosporum, ectomycorrhizal chempignon, is practiced in particular in the France of the South.
Economic and commercial aspects
Several species of mushrooms are the subject of intense local, national or international trade. This is for example the case of certain wild mushrooms such as matsutake, very popular in Japan, chanterelles or porcini mushrooms. Cultivated species, including shiitake, black mushrooms (Auricularia Sp.), Button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms or truffles are also traded.
Trade in edible mushrooms can be an important source of income for rural communities in developing countries, and the demand for matsutake represents an important export market for countries like China, North Korea and Bhutan.