Travels With Tony: Spain’s Hidden Forest Gems
By: Anthony Dezenzio
Tags: Fungus, Travel, Mushrooms, Nutrition, Cultivation

On a recent trip to the Urbion National Game Reserve in Soria, a province in northern Spain, I had the pleasure of discovering one of the country’s most cherished gems. No, it wasn’t silver or gold, I’m talking about mushrooms, some of Spain’s most prized commodities.

On an early October morning, Maria and I packed our bags and headed to LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York for a flight to Madrid, Spain. Maria, a good friend of mine is also a mycologist (the study of mushrooms and fungus) was born in Madrid, Spain and always wanted to visit that region.

Image by Gustavo Otero Ramos

After a 15 hour flight, we landed at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas International Airport. Within 30 minutes we were on our way to Soria. Maria woke me up five miles outside of Soria; I was dead tired from the long plane ride. The barren, dull-colored landscape along with its stretches of scorched hillsides, groves of olive trees were no longer in view. The landscape had taken on a new view with steep slopes ascending up towards the cliffs.

I also noticed the air being much cooler here. Nevertheless, Spain’s extreme late-summer heat had parched most of the sunflower fields, Their brilliant crowns were stained black and drooping downward.

Image by GERVASIO RUIZ

As we approached the renowned wine-producing province, I noticed the surrounding landscape thriving in lush greenery. Trees with their long skinny arms were bursting into a varied display of green leaves. While we continued driving, we soon came upon small villages adorned with terra-cotta-roofed houses.

Having driven for almost three hours, we finally arrived at Navaleno, a Castilian town where the affection of fungi runs especially deep. The area is home to the Centro Micologico de Navaleno, a cultural center focused on the study of mushrooms. They also offer classes in mushroom identification as well as cooking. There’s even an annual mycology fair held in October featuring cooking competitions.

Photo by: Anthony Dezenzio

For centuries, mushrooms have been an important Iberian cuisine, most notably in the Basque Country and Catalonia. Maria remembers a few varieties while growing up in Madrid that included oyster mushrooms, the popular chanterelle, white-button mushrooms, and the orange niscalos. However, in many regions throughout Spain, there is one fungus that remains highly valued — and that is the porcini.

We drove down a bumpy pebbled trail to the conservation area where we saw other groups of people picking mushrooms. Some of their baskets were already filled with porcini. It didn’t take us long to join the groups as we made our down the path walking on dried-out pine cones that made a crunching sound.

Image by myshoun

I strolled beside Maria for a while until we split up in different directions. I could still see her in the distance as she slowly made her way down the path with her arms folded in front of her looking downward searching for those rare gems.

As she faded in the background, I began my search, examining brown-orange shaped resembling the top of porcini. Unfortunately, they turned out to be rocks that looked like porcini. Suddenly, just when I assumed I had detected another rock, I gave it a poke with my finger and sensed the feel of soft flesh.

Image by Gary B Goldman

I called out to Maria, somewhat out of excitement when I came across a group of mushrooms. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I stood over a group of porcini (boletus edulis) with their discolored heads pointing straight up at me. I carefully grabbed the solid stem with my fingers and jiggled it free with pieces of dark soil still attached to the bottom of the stem. It wasn’t long before Maria found me as both of us freed the remaining mushrooms from the soil and placed them in a small basket.

With our baskets full and rejoiced, we returned to Madrid for an overnight stay. The next day we returned home to Connecticut with dried porcini packed in plastic bags inside our suitcases.