It is still several months away from the wild mushroom season, the la chasse aux champignons, which is a national pastime here every autumn in France. I am intently looking forward to it and have been sharpening my mushroom knife in anticipation.

As mushrooms are one of my favourite foods, I thought it might be interesting to explain a few things about them. As few people will ever get to pick clitocybe nuda or slice the stalks of boletus pinicola, I will discuss only the commercially farmed varieties today. If you are interested, some details about last year’s wild mushroom season is described in my previous article, Autumn tales from rural France.