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Botanical illustration of a mushroom and cover photograph of the book 'The History of Mushroom Cultivation in La Rioja' (Pablo García-Mancha, 2013).
Mushroom: From Parisian Catacombs to Rioja Cellars

Mushroom: From Parisian Catacombs to Rioja Cellars

Elegant cousin of the wild mushroom, the novel Paris or 'cultivated' mushroom began production in our country at the end of the 19th century.

Ana Vega Pérez de Arlucea

Viernes, 24 de enero 2025, 00:05

How long would you say we've been eating mushrooms? The question is more intriguing than one might imagine. The presence of the mushroom was one of the few oversights by the organisers of the 16th International Medieval Skewer and Tapas Competition, held by the Network of Medieval Cities and Towns this past October in Sigüenza. The essential requirement to participate in this competition is to present a dish without American ingredients. However, if the aim is to exclude foods unknown in Spain during the Middle Ages, the limits should not be restricted to those that came from America after 1492: several of the finalist recipes were based on salted cod, which was not commonly consumed until the 16th century, and another featured a mushroom sauce... which is also anachronistic.

The mushrooms we find in stores today are of the species Agaricus bisporus, a dazzling mycological novelty that began cultivation in France 300 years ago and was not tasted by Spanish palates—unless they tried it in situ—until much later. In the Middle Ages, what existed, under optimal conditions, were wild or meadow mushrooms (Agaricus campestris), but they are not only different, they weren't even called "mushrooms." The French word champignon comes from the vulgar Latin campaniolus ("growing in the field") and is a generic term that, like the Spanish "seta," refers to all fungi. What we now call "mushroom," simply put, originally carried the suffix "of Paris" to distinguish it from any other mushroom and to make clear its aristocratic origin. Those who mastered French knew that without that mention of the city of the Seine, saying "champignon" was the same as saying "fungus of any kind," but those unfamiliar with foreign languages took the part for the whole and ended up using "mushroom," conveniently Spanishized with an ñ, to name a specific mushroom.

The pioneer in its cultivation was the French landscaper and agronomist Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie (1626-1688), gardener to King Louis XIV, who is said to have managed to grow them in manure beds outdoors in Versailles. The mushroom reproduces from spores it releases as it matures, which become part of the substrate surrounding the mycelium, a network of filaments through which fungi obtain their nutrients. Transplanting that mycelium to a garden, placing it in a good bed of compost, and having new mushrooms sprout from it didn't seem difficult, but often the manure would rot, and production also depended on weather conditions. To grow vigorously, the mushroom needs darkness, humidity, and a constant temperature of about 18°C. In the early 19th century, a shrewd Parisian horticulturist, Monsieur Chambry, discovered that all these requirements were naturally met in underground caves and adapted the champignonniste cultivation method (in beds or horse manure beds) to the abandoned quarries surrounding Paris. His success soon spread to the city's catacombs and any dark, cool cellar or basement. The "champignons de couche" or Paris mushrooms began to be massively cultivated throughout France, especially in the Loire Valley, and then in other countries thanks to the refinement of the method and the sale of sterilised and industrial mycelium.

In Spain, they were already being sold in 1807 as an expensive delicacy directly brought from Parisian markets, and throughout the 19th century, they became somewhat popular due to their sale in preserves and the rise of French gastronomy. The raw material came from abroad until 1892, when the first reference to its production in our country appeared. On April 3 of that year, the newspaper La Correspondencia de España mentioned that "for the satisfaction of enthusiasts and to serve as an incentive to our horticulturists," a gardener from Aranjuez named Juan Gras had found a way to obtain "fertile mushroom farms" producing no less than 15 kilos daily. This promised to be a goldmine, as until then all the mushrooms consumed here were imported. It wasn't explained if Gras had his farms underground, but we do know that in 1904 the important Rioja company Trevijano e Hijos—dedicated to jams and vegetable preserves—had 14 caves near Logroño where they cultivated mushrooms, with a yield of 100 kilos a day throughout the year.

The idea would spread to Segovia in the 1920s, a time when the caves near the monastery of Santa María del Parral would become mushroom farms, and it would also continue in La Rioja under the shelter of old cellars where wine was no longer made. As you see, the autonomous community of La Rioja, along with Cuenca, is the largest mushroom-producing region in our country and one of the most important in Europe. And all thanks to a gentleman from Paris.

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todoalicante Mushroom: From Parisian Catacombs to Rioja Cellars