Gnome:

On The Paddy Straw Mushroom.

In this issue let us discuss one of my favourite mushrooms (yet another one!), the Chinese Paddy Straw Mushroom, also known as Volvariella volvacea. Any of you that like Chinese food will be familiar with the appearance and taste of this mushroom and will probably agree that it adds that special something to a meal prepared with it.

The Paddy Straw Mushroom is a pan tropical species that thrives at warm temperatures (75-95°F or 24-35°C) with an extremely rapid life cycle, making it one of the most suitable mushrooms for cultivation in warm climates. In subtropical and tropical Asia, many rice farmers rely on the cultivation of this mushroom as a secondary source of income from cultivation on waste rice straw (hint, hint to all you rice farmers). In fact, it has become an economic mainstay in the agricultural economies of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Taiwan and China.

As I am talking about it, and I have consistently talked about mushrooms that grow in Belize, especially Toledo District, our esteemed readers can probably guess that yes, this mushroom grows here in the wild state. I will qualify that statement: while I haven’t actually found it growing in the bush or in a “natural” setting (haven’t looked hard enough, really because…), it crops up with consistent frequency in the piles of chocolate waste that I use for composting that we generally get to eat it at least every month in the wet season, without doing any work!

This mushroom’s most distinctive feature is its volva, or cup at the base. It does not have a ring, or annulus on its stem and carries a cap which is between 5 to 15 centimetres broad. The cap is generally smoky brown to cigar brown to blackish brown, which tends to fade with age or exposure to light. The gills are free and initially white, becoming pinkish with maturity. The stem is 4 to 20 centimetres long and 1 to 1.5 centimetres thick, white to yellowish, solid and smooth. And of course, the base is encased in a thick volva. The spore print is pink to salmon brown. Perhaps a photograph of some of these mushrooms I’ve found will help this description:

As many of you will know, this mushroom is generally harvested at the stage when it still has the egg shape, that is, before the universal veil breaks. This is when the flavour is best and it is in the form most suitable for market. The nutritional profile is as follows: 26-30% protein, 40-50% carbohydrate, 9-12% fibre and 9-13% ash. The mushroom is also apparently rich in vitamins B and C with an assortment of amino acids. None of the literature I consulted listed any medicinal qualities, unless you consider sitting down to have a tasty meal as medicine!

As mentioned earlier, it is used in a wide array of Asian dishes, being sliced thin and stir-fried or as a condiment for soups. I have also eaten it as a snack in Singapore, being freeze dried and flavoured with different spices to be eaten much like salted peanuts. Stamets, another of my favourite mycologists, recommends injecting onion-soaked soy or tamari sauce via syringe into each Paddy Straw “egg”, covering with foil and baking in an oven at 375°F (190°C) for 30 to 45 minutes. The mushroom is then eaten whole and “explodes in your mouth creating a flavour sensation par excellence.” Though I haven’t tried this myself, it does sound like a good endorsement on the quality of this mushroom.

Go forth and spread the spores!

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