Starting from the “top of summer” - July - and up to the beginning of autumn, talkers can be collected in deciduous and mixed forests. Growing in rows and circles, these neat, aromatic mushrooms are great for drying for the winter and making light soups. It is important to distinguish edible from poisonous species, to properly handle and prepare them.
How to collect talkers
In central Russia, you can find dozens of species of these mushrooms, among them there are inedible ones. Usually, only experienced lovers of "quiet hunting" dare to collect talkers. However, even a novice mushroom picker can bring home a good harvest and delight himself with a fragrant mushroom soup - it is enough to study one or two of the most popular and recognizable species.
On grassy meadows, in bushes, among trees, funnel-shaped talkers with lamellar pinkish-ocher caps - “funnels” in young specimens are found. In adult mushrooms, the "headdress" straightens out. The reddish talkers with tucked-in funnels look like them, they are called "red bent". Mushrooms stand in beautiful rows, sometimes they form the so-called "witch's circles". The pulp of the talkers has a pleasant smell, which is especially noticeable during cooking.
How to handle talkers
It is a pleasure to handle the strong funnels of young talkers! They rarely get wormy and almost never collect forest debris. It is enough to dry clean the caps and rinse them thoroughly in running water, after which it is recommended to boil the mushrooms for 20-30 minutes. and drain the liquid.
The legs of the talkers are tough, so they are not eaten. From the caps of these mushrooms, excellent first courses are obtained, while the broth is light and aromatic. You just need to keep in mind that talkers are very much boiled down.
Light talker soup
To make a soup from talkers for the whole family, 0.5 kg of fresh mushrooms is enough. The processed and chopped raw materials must first be stewed with chopped onion and grated medium-sized carrots in two tablespoons of butter until the vegetables are cooked.
After that, 250 g of chopped potatoes and a handful of barley should be boiled until half cooked, add stewed talkers and vegetables, pepper and salt everything to taste. It is enough to cook soup from talkers for 15 minutes, after which it is necessary to let it sweat a little under the lid and serve the dish with sour cream.
To pamper yourself with such soups throughout the year, you can easily dry the talkers in the oven or just in the sun, after stringing the "funnel" hats on threads. There is no need to wash the raw materials before harvesting.
