An instance of what happens when wild mushroom mania strikes comes from Christchurch, New Zealand, within the nineties. Hagley Park in Christchurch was established in the 1850s with oaks from England that had been brought out by some of the first "official" European settlers. Until 1993 porcini was quietly harvested in Hagley Park by a few Europeans who knew what they were harvesting and did not intend to tell anyone else about it. Then in 1993 an observant gardener on the university campus decided to take a couple of the fruiting bodies to Tony Cole for identification. Across city, on the Canterbury University campus, porcini was meeting a more ignominious destiny as periodic mowing delivered shredded porcini to the compost heap. The edible ectomycorrhizal mushrooms held in the best regard are the Perigord black truffle (Tuber melanosporum), Italian white truffle (Tuber magnatum), porcini (Boletus edulis), chanterelle (Can-tharellus cibarius), and matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake).
Benvenuto!
