Mushrooms -The Richest Food Available In Kerala
Scientists did concede that mushroom is the richest food of the world. Out of all mushroom collections about 26% are available in Kerala. Check this article to know more about mushrooms, availability in Kerala and methods of selecting nonpoisonous mushrooms.
What are Mushrooms?
Mushrooms are the best natural food easily available in Kerala. Mushrooms are different from other plants. It has no roots, stems or leaves. They grow by feeding off other non living organic matter. The main part of the mushroom is hidden from view. It is called the mycelium. It consists of tiny branches called hyphae.
Mushrooms develop differently than plants or animal do. Plants and animal grow through cell division-to get bigger, they have to produce more cells. The mushroom increases in size through cell enlargement. This means that the cell can balloon up very rapidly. Very little energy is required. Basically the cells just enlarge with water. So, a mushroom can increase in size as fast as water can be pumped into its cells. Almost overnight, a mushroom can go from a pin head to a large mushroom.Availability and Importance
Latest researches say, a mushroom is enough to give 90% of the required vitamins and minerals. Fortunately climate of Kerala well favour the cultivation of mushroom. Palakkad is the largest mushroom cultivating district in Kerala. The main advantage of mushroom over other plants is that, it does not require soil for growth. It can be cultivate from bio wastes.
Only 40% of the available mushrooms are edible and the rest of them are poisonous. The selection of this mushroom is quite difficult since most of the mushrooms that we see may poisoned. In order to include mushroom in our daily diet we need to recognize which of them are edible. There are many methods regarding identifying poisonous mushrooms. Here are some of them
• Poisonous mushrooms have bright flashy colours
• Poisonous mushrooms lack snail or insect infestation
• Poisonous mushrooms become black when touched by silverware or an onion
• Poisonous mushrooms smell and taste horrible
In reality, there are no reliable guidelines to identify poisonous mushrooms. The only completely foolproof rule for preventing mushroom poisoning is to follow a simple rule….'when in doubt throw it out!
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