China Edible Fungi Encyclopedia

Author: Huang Nianlai
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1997-08-01
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Excerpt: The cultivation methods of shiitake mushrooms in Longquan described in The Miscellaneous Records of Shu Garden have made significant advancements compared to the methods recorded in The Agricultural Book for southern Anhui. The fundamental difference lies in replacing the long-standing buried log method with the kui mountain method, as shiitake mushrooms are aerobic fungi, and this reform is undoubtedly important. [10] For hundreds of years, not only have mushroom cultivators in Longquan and Qingyuan continued to use this method to produce shiitake mushrooms but also, as they sought livelihoods in other regions, they spread this technique to southern provinces. According to the Jingning County compiled in the eighth year of the Tongzhi era (1872): "Local residents who sell mushrooms were traditionally found in Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong, but now they are as far as Sichuan, Shaanxi, Chu, and Xiang." Additionally, the Qingyuan County compiled in the third year of the Guangxu era (1897) states: "Most people in Qingyuan rely on mushrooms for their livelihood"; "Those living in the countryside make a living by cultivating mushrooms, with the elderly staying at home and the young working away, enduring hardships in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou." The practice of Zhejiang mushroom cultivators setting up temporary shelters to grow mushrooms in other places has been recorded in provincial gazettes since the Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, the Longyan County compiled in the thirty-seventh year of the Jiajing era (1558) mentions: "There are mushrooms, and the Man people (suspected to be She people) cut camphor trees in mountain paths, where they grow after rain and snow freeze, commonly called xiang gu. The Gutian County compiled in the sixteenth year of the Qianlong era (1751) states: "Mushrooms are grown by people from other prefectures who rent mountains and cut trees." The Guangze County compiled by Sheng Chaoshu and others during the Guangxu era records: "During the Kangxi era (1662–1722), there were Zhejiang visitors who made a living cultivating mushrooms on Wushan, setting up tents to live, coming in winter and leaving in summer, as a matter of course." By the Kangxi and Qianlong eras, mushroom cultivation had spread to Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan, Anhui, and Shaanxi provinces, with cultivation methods largely similar to those in Longquan. The Nanjiang County compiled by Hu Bing in the seventh year of the Daoguang era (1827) describes the cultivation methods of "mushroom factories" as follows: "In autumn and winter, fell flowers, green bamboo, catalpa, and Cyathea trees, choosing larger trees for the mountains, as smaller ones are not suitable. After felling, leave the branches, pile the logs on the mountain slopes, and expose them to rain and sun. The following year, the trees will sprout, and after three years, mushrooms can be harvested for seven or eight years, until the trees rot after ten years and no longer produce mushrooms. Mushrooms are harvested every March and April, first dried by fire, then steamed in a basket, and finally packed into barrels."
The cultivation of black fungus after the Tang Dynasty is rarely mentioned in literature. By the Qing Dynasty, several counties in Hubei's Yun Prefecture had developed into important production areas for black fungus. According to the Hubei Tongzhi compiled by Yang Chengxi and others: "Black fungus, according to the Huangzhou Prefecture, is exclusively produced in Luoyin, but it is also found in other counties. The Tongcheng calls it mulu, which is also black fungus. It is abundant in the upper reaches of the river in Baoyang, Nanfang, Gucheng, Xingshan, Guizhou, Badong, and Changyang, but it is most famous in Yun Prefecture, known as 'Yun ear.'" The Fang County compiled by Yang Yanlie and others in the fifth year of the Tongzhi era (1866) states that before the Tongzhi era, black fungus cultivation in Fang County had reached a considerable scale, with mushroom logs arranged on mountain slopes, "with branches and twigs crisscrossing like a fence," and by the early Tongzhi era, it had already experienced several cycles of prosperity and decline. Additionally, the Baoquan County compiled by Lin Zuren and others in 1866 also records: "There are chestnut forests where black fungus can grow," although it does not explicitly mention cultivation, inscriptions on stone tablets in Bata Village, Liuyu District, Baoquan County, have records of artificial black fungus cultivation during the Daoguang era. [11] Another black fungus production area in the south is in the southern foothills of the Dabashan Mountains, in Nanjiang, Wanyuan, and Taiping counties in Sichuan, where very mature cultivation techniques have been developed. According to the Nanjiang County compiled by Hu Bing and others: "Black fungus is also produced by residents in Nanjiang who own mountain fields. They plant green bamboo trees on slightly flat slopes, leaving the main stems and removing the side branches. After five or six years, the trees become well-grown, as large as tea cups, and are cut into sections. The first year, they are laid on the mountain, and the second year, they are set up as racks. After spring rain, black fungus grows. Residents pick them, in quantities ranging from a few to dozens of bundles, as the mountain is vast and the materials are abundant. Merchants transport them to Hanzhong and other distant provinces." The mountains where black fungus is grown are called "black fungus factories," and their cultivation methods are described in detail in the "black fungus factory": "Choose eight or nine-year-old or five to six-year-old flowers, green bamboos, and catalpas in the mountains, not necessarily too large. In October of each year, fell the trees and arrange them crosswise on the mountain slopes, exposed to rain and sun. In the second year, from February to March, stand the trees upright, with 20 to 30 roots per rack; after further exposure to rain and sun, black fungus will form in April and May. The first year, the yield is still small, the second year is abundant, and after three years, the trees rot and no longer produce mushrooms. When picking black fungus, dry it in the sun on sunny days and roast it in the fire on rainy days, then pack it." By the 1960s and 1970s, black fungus production in traditional areas like Hubei and Sichuan still followed this method. At this time, attention had begun to be paid to the cultivation of mushroom logs, marking another advancement in the method of segment log cultivation.
The name silver fungus does not appear in any precise records in ancient medical texts. Yang Chengxi, in the Hubei Tongzhi, mentions: "The white sang er from Laifeng is particularly rare and precious, called 'Wuding.'" The "zhì" (record) does not specify which text it refers to, but the name "Wuding" was already mentioned in the Clear Records of the Strange by Tao Gu (902–970) of the Song Dynasty: "White sang er growing on mulberry trees in the north was called sang. The wealthy and powerful loved it, calling it 'Wuding.'" This refers to the modern silver fungus (Tremella fuciformis), which has been regarded as a superior delicacy in mushrooms since the early Song Dynasty. The cultivation of silver fungus originated in the eastern section of the Dabashan Mountains, where Hubei and Sichuan borders, in Fang County, Hubei, and Tongjiang, Sichuan, with Fang County being the earliest. According to the Fang County compiled by Yang Yanlie and others in the fifth year of the Tongzhi era (1866): "Black fungus has three varieties: red, white, and black, with the white being the most valuable. In the northeast of Fang County, there is Xiang er Mountain, where profit-driven people cut down the trees. The branches and twigs crisscross like a fence. After five or six months, when the heavy rain stops, the liquid from the rotten wood condenses and gives birth to it, yielding several times more; the southern mountains are the same. Now, the land is tilled and burned, with all the bracken turned into fields. Most of the mushrooms sold come from Xing'an and Hanzhong provinces." The Nanzhang County compiled by Xiang Chengyu and others also records: "The white and red are in the world, but the production is not abundant." This suggests that silver fungus production in Fang County dates back to before the Tongzhi era and was of considerable scale, having already experienced several cycles of prosperity and decline by the fifth year of the Tongzhi era. Later, neighboring counties like Gucheng and Yun County also had small-scale silver fungus production. In addition to silver fungus, Fang County and other areas produced "red fungus," also known as "blood fungus" (Tremella sanguinea). The production of blood fungus developed more slowly, and currently, only a small amount is produced in Baoquan, Hubei.
The production of silver fungus in Sichuan originated in Tongjiang County. According to inscriptions found in the Xuanzu Temple in Yuanziba, Fengyang District, Tongjiang, in April 1960: "There is a white fungus mountain, which started in the twentieth year of the Guangxu era (1894)." The production area was in Linziya and the surrounding areas of the large and small streams, "over the next twenty or three years (1895–1897), the mushroom patches gradually spread to the mouths of the bathing streams and Wanger dams, covering the mountains and slopes. After the autumn water recedes, it looks like stars fill the sky. Generally, they are picked, dried, and sold more easily than jade in prosperous years and grain in lean years." [12] In April 1964, another "ban stone" for block fungus mountain was found in Wajia Gou, Wangdao Rock, Fengyang, describing white fungus grown on oak trees in the Wulu Pool area: "In the year Bingshen (1896), they were all white, and in the year Dingyou (1897), they were particularly abundant." [13] However, in the Continuation of the Tongjiang County written by Wu Shizhen in 1926, it is stated: "During the Guangxu era, in the years Gengchen (1880) and Xisi (1881), white fungus suddenly appeared in the areas of Fenyang and Chenhe along the small Tongjiang River, as its white color resembled silver, hence the name 'silver fungus,' which predates the inscriptions on the stones." It can be concluded that the history of silver fungus production in Tongjiang did not begin before the sixth year of the Guangxu era (1880). By the end of the Guangxu era, it spread to neighboring Nanjiang, then to Wanyuan and Bazhong counties. In the early years of the Republic of China, the annual output of Sichuan silver fungus was only 3,000 to 4,000 jin. By 1926–1927, production had soared: Tongjiang produced 20,000 jin annually, Wanyuan 15,000 jin, Nanjiang 6,000 jin, and Bazhong 1,000 jin, with Pingwu, Zhaohua, and Yingkou producing 2,000 jin. [14] Due to the high profits from silver fungus production, many farmers who previously grew black fungus switched to growing silver fungus, making it a renowned silver fungus production area in China.
The production of silver fungus in Guizhou and Fujian started later. In 1921, silver fungus was occasionally found growing alongside black fungus on the "mulu" used for growing black fungus in Tuanxi, Zunyi, Guizhou, as discovered by a He surname merchant from Sichuan Tongjiang, who began to experiment with cultivation, which was no different from Sichuan production. It was later promoted to more than ten nearby counties, with Qixi and Pingyue (now Fufeng County) being the most prominent, with an annual output exceeding 20,000 jin, reaching 37,200 jin in 1934. [15] The origin of silver fungus cultivation in Fujian is generally considered to be Jin in Chengxi (now Longhai County). In 1933, He surname medicinal merchants from Sichuan returned and discovered silver fungus growing on firewood used for charcoal production, leading them to begin cultivation. It is said that silver fungus cultivation was invented by charcoal workers in Nanjing, who later spread it to Zhaoyan and Yunxi, and after a few years, due to insufficient mushroom log resources in Zhaoyan, it was developed further to Pinghe and Nanjing counties, with the product known as "Zhaozhou silver fungus." [16, 17] The cultivation technique of silver fungus was inspired by its natural occurrence on mushroom mountains. According to the inscriptions on the Xuanzu Temple: "When they were cut, they were all black fungus, but the mushrooms that grew that year were all white. Black fungus must mature for a year before producing mushrooms, while white fungus, cut in February or March of the same year, produces mushrooms in June or July, with a much faster yield." Liu Zijing, in the Wanyuan County, states: "Only when wood produces mushrooms, can it turn black, a skillful transformation." This indicates that the method used for artificially cultivating silver fungus differs from that used for black fungus. According to the Wanyuan County: "The method of cutting white fungus mountains is to fell green bamboo trees in May of the lunar calendar, with the tops pointing upward. After a month, remove the branches and leaves, cut them into short sticks of about two to three feet, stack them together, and call it 'perspiring.' The following spring, choose semi-shaded and semi-sunny locations to spread them flat, called 'arranging mountains' (must be places where sheep's beard grass grows, as it will not grow mushrooms if grass is present). After rain, mushrooms will grow. Recently, a new method has been invented to fell them in early spring, called 'cutting buds,' which can produce mushrooms in the same year. There is also a method of felling in June, called 'summer mountain.'" The Nanjiang County compiled by Dong Heng and others in 1922 describes it in detail: "The method of making silver fungus: 1. Select trees. Choose fine-barked green bamboo trees about an inch in diameter, cutting them once every five years. 2. Cutting method. In spring, when the leaves are just like the beaks of swallows, cut them down and lay them down with branches and leaves, waiting for the to split before cutting them into sections of about two feet long. 3. Arranging method. Choose shallow grasslands with semi-shaded and semi-sunny conditions, preferably those with thick morning fog, called 'tangzi.' Arrange the trees densely on top, and after three months, mushrooms will grow, lasting until late autumn. It can produce two seasons, called 'new mountains' in the same year and 'old mountains' the following year. 4. Processing method. Collect the mushrooms, thread them with bamboo or iron wires about a foot long, and dry them by turning them over in a hard wood charcoal fire." This method is still used in various places.
The cultivation of straw mushrooms originated in China. According to the Guangdong Tongzhi compiled by Ruan Yuan and others in 1822, quoted from The Records of Travel and Sightings: "The straw mushrooms grown in the southern part of Caoxi Temple in Nanhua Monastery are called Nanhua gu, also known as home mushrooms. Their taste is not inferior to mushrooms from the north." The Yingde County and the Qujiang County compiled during the Daoguang era also have similar records. The Nanhua gu is also called orchid mushroom, a mispronunciation of Nanhua gu, referring to the modern straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea), or called "stock mushroom." Because it was cultivated by monks from Nanhua Temple, it was called "home mushroom" or "home-grown mushroom." The exact time when the monks of Nanhua Temple began to cultivate straw mushrooms is not clearly recorded, but in the Book of Tree Planting by Yu Zongben of the Ming Dynasty, there is a passage: "Plant mushrooms in January, take rotten grain or rice straw, cut them into pieces, bury them in waterlogged fields, cover them with grass, and regularly water them with rice wash, and they will grow." Although the text does not explicitly mention which fungus it is, from the use of grain straw as the medium, growing mushroom beds in waterlogged fields, and covering the beds with grass, it can only be straw mushrooms. The cultivation of straw mushrooms in China began in the early Ming Dynasty, and there is some basis for this claim. However, the popularization of straw mushroom cultivation in the was related to Nanhua Temple. The Shaozhou Prefecture compiled by Lin Shuyun and others in the thirteenth year of the Tongzhi era (1874) states: "Tribute mushrooms are produced in Nanhua Temple, with a sweet and fragrant taste. Planting mushrooms involves piling up early rice straw and watering it with clear water, and mushrooms grow wherever they are planted. Now, many villagers imitate this method, but the best is in Maba, Sha Xi, and Gou'er Ridge, which have access to Caoxi water." The Continuation of the Yingde County provides the most detailed records: "Stock mushrooms, also known as straw mushrooms, are born from the decomposition of rice straw, or sometimes mixed with grass or cow dung. In the early years of the Guangxu era, the villagers of Xitou began to imitate the method of Nanhua Temple in Qujiang, building ridges in the fields in early autumn and digging ditches around them to store water. They mix cow dung or soybean meal into the ridges, level it with rice straw, roll it into small bundles, stack it into layers of five or six on the ridges, and cover it with rice straw on both sides to protect it from wind and rain and to help it heat up. After half a month, buds like pearls will appear, and they must be harvested immediately. Cut them open and dry them in the fire. If not harvested in time, they will open like umbrellas and be called 'old mushroom mothers,' and their price will drop sharply. Every year, when straw mushrooms are harvested, people go to various villages to buy them and sell them to Shaozhou, Wushi, or transport them to other provinces for sale." Another origin of straw mushroom cultivation is Liuyang County in Hunan. This area used to be rich in ramie production, and straw mushrooms grew on the rotten ramie stalks or ramie bark, hence the name "Liuyang ramie mushroom," a famous local specialty. According to the Liuyang County compiled in the twelfth year of the Tongzhi era (1873): "In the southwest of the county, after harvesting ramie, mushrooms sometimes grow between the stems, but they are not common." It also states: "Mushrooms growing on ramie land are delicious." The note adds: "After harvesting ramie, cover it with cow dung, and mushrooms will grow in late spring or early summer the following year." "The Qingcao Village in the southwest of Qingcao Township (now Qingcao Township in Liuyang County) is a major production area." The Agricultural Policy Combined Compilation compiled by Yang Gong of the Qing Dynasty, quoting from The New Book of Planting, also mentions the "method of planting ramie mushrooms": "Ramie mushrooms are a local product of Liuyang County, Hunan. In spring and summer, after harvesting ramie, take the outer bark and the stalk layers, pile them on top, keep them shaded so they rot, and regularly water them with rice wash so they do not dry out. By July, mushrooms will grow, which can be cooked for eating." Now, as the cultivation of ramie in this area has declined for a long time, its influence is far less than that of "Nanhua gu." According to the research of the Malayan Baker, J.A. (1934) and the Thai Jalaricharana, K. (1950), it was around 1932 that overseas Chinese introduced the method of cultivating straw mushrooms to Malaya, and it developed rapidly during the war, spreading to Southeast Asia and North Africa over a decade, earning it the world reputation of "Chinese mushroom" (thechinesemushroom). [18]