Growing up in the village of Anyakagba was much fun. Everyone knows you by your first name and down to your ancestral home. I look back to the good old days when the church bell wakes tells us that it is time to wake from sleep and commence with the days' activities. The first signal roars to life around 4.30 which is a kind of reminder that it is daybreak. I still wonder how my grandmother makes it to early morning prayer at that time.The second bell usually come by 5.30 am signalling the end of the prayer session. I like my morning sleep but the thought of what would happen to me if I remain asleep when my grandma ends her 5.30am prayers always propels me to wake. Her method of waking one up is to splash your sleeping face with a cup of cold water.
As a child, you must know how to do basic farming ranging from removal of weeds from the farm and leave the edible plants whether planted intentionally or not. You will be exposed to different types of edible leaves (vegetables) so that you won’t make the mistake of removing it as a weed when detailed to do so.
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[Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/en/tree-nature-plant-season-wood-3057086/): Mushrooms
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The knowledge is essential because it is not always all the time one will have the privilege to be accompanied to the farm by your parents. You would also learn the ropes of navigating through the bush paths without missing your way because it is easy to get lost on the farm for days once you lose your bearing.
But when it comes to mushrooms, not even all adults could tell the difference between the edible strain and the deadly strain.Before consuming the mushroom, it is subject to scrutiny by experts to establish if it is safe to eat. But in the event you spot it in the thick forest which is far from home, you can pluck it hoping to get it right after showing it to experts upon reaching home.
It is a delicacy and a major source of protein to many in my hometown then. Most vegetarians use it to substitute for meat.You can prepare it as soup much in the same way one can cook a chicken soup. What fascinated us that time was that it could sprout and grow within hours. One of the places we harvested it was decaying palm fruit trunk in nearby bushes at the back of the compound.
<div class="pull-right"><center><img src="" /><br/><em><a href="https://pixabay.com/en/mushroom-nature-wood-3043137/">Pixabay: Mushroom thriving on a dead wood</a></em></center></div>
Little did we know that these decaying palm tree trunks serve as food for them? I could recollect harvesting mushroom from same log every morning for three days at a stretch especially when there is slight drizzle. Water is essential for the speedy upshoot as excessive sun dehydrates them and dries them off.
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#### What is a mushroom?
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Mushrooms are not plants. A recent study shows that they are more closely related to animals. At a time in the past, Fungi, including mushrooms, were believed to be close relatives of plants because they share a common name as those of plants. The body of the mushroom is called mycelium, and its parts are very minute. In nature, some species of mushrooms may have a body that spreads over a vast expanse of land.
Mushrooms are fungi, and they can neither be classed as animals or as plants. Mushrooms have no chlorophyll, and most are considered saprophytes because they feed on decaying organic matter which could be animal or plant. That is, they get their nutrition from metabolising non living organic matter.
The body of the mushroom stores nutrients and other essential compounds, and when they store enough material, the will produce fruits in the form of mushrooms.
<div class="pull-left"><center><img src="" /><br/><em><a href="https://pixabay.com/en/mushroom-nature-wood-3043137/">
Wikipedia Creative Commons: Mushroom anatomy showing hyphae</a></em></center></div>
The visible part of the fungus is the “fruit” of the organism. The living body of the fungus is a mycelium made out of a web of tiny strands called hyphae. The soil, wood or any other organic food source can conceal the mycelium. A mycelium may be quite small or cover many acres. The branching hyphae can extend over a half mile (1 km) of total length to the mycelium every 24 hours. These webs live in a concealed manner until they develop mushrooms or other fruiting bodies. If the mycelium produces microscopic fruiting bodies, people may never visualise the fungus.
Majority of fungi build their cell walls from chitin which is the same material as the tough outer shells of insects and other arthropods. Plants do not develop chitin.
Fungi nourish itself by absorbing nutrients from the organic material in which they live. Fungi do not possess stomachs. They must digest their food before it can move through the cell wall into the hyphae. Hyphae produce acids and enzymes that metabolise the surrounding organic material into simple molecules that they can conveniently absorb.
<div class="pull-right"><center><img src="" /><br/><em><a href="
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kimberlykv/5339852837">
Flickr Creative Commons 2.0: A Mushroom Soup</a></em></center></div>
Mushrooms are quite tasty and very nutritious. They are an excellent source of vitamin B, especially niacin and riboflavin, and boasts a substantial level of protein as compared to most vegetables. Though they have low energy content, yet in dried form, mushrooms have a considerable amount of protein and a significant amount of complex carbohydrates known as polysaccharides.
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Is sprouting up overnight possible? If the body is distributed out and microscopic, how do mushrooms proliferate? There are two fundamental reasons:
1. Because they store up compounds between fruiting and must fruit annually, they have a lot stored up to unleash for growth.
2. Mushrooms have a different way of developing as compared to plants or animals.
Plants and animals grow utilising cell division in the sense that to become more prominent they have to produce more cells. Cell division is quite slow and involves a lot of energy. The mushroom body also grows by cell division. Nonetheless, the mushroom fruit does not grow by cell division. Immediately it starts to grow; a mushroom constitutes almost the same number of cells to that of the mature mushroom.
The mushroom increases in size through the process of cell enlargement. This process entails that the cells can balloon up at a rapid rate. Very little energy is needed, given that the cells just enlarge with water. So a mushroom can blossom in size as fast as water gets into its cells. Almost overnight a mushroom can multiply from a pinhead to a giant mushroom.
Water is essential to the growth of mushrooms, and that is why they thrive in humid areas in the wild form especially in an area where trees or shrubbery lends natural canopy to the ground.
Mushrooms are devoid of skin and losing water to the atmosphere is quite easy. That is why they bloom in high humidity (lots of water vapour in the air) conditions. If the humidity drops to a certain level, the cells can lose water faster than it can be "pumped" in and the immature mushroom dries up and dies.
<div class="pull-left"><center><img src="" /><br/><em><a href="http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=168086&picture=mushrooms">
Creative Commons 2.0: Mushrooms in a swamp</a></em></center></div>
Mushroom cells exchange gases directly with the atmosphere. If you submerge the body of the mushroom in water, it may not be able to breathe, and this is similar to suffocating or drowning. If this happens, there would be inhibition in the exchange of oxygen, anaerobic bacteria (bacteria which do not need oxygen to survive) will build up, leading to the death of the mushroom suffocation.
The same is the case with mushroom fruit. If it is too dry they lose excess water and desiccate. On the other hand, if it is too wet - the humidity is too high - the excess water inhibits any gas exchange and the developing mushroom chokes off.
**The health benefits of mushrooms include:**
• Lowers cholesterol level
• Relief from prostate cancer
• Boosts the strength of immune system
• Occurrence of breast cancer is reduced
• Lowers the likelihood of prostate cancer
• Relief diabetes
• Enhances weight loss
<div class="pull-right"><center><img src="" /><br/><em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/statefarm/14437153746">
Flickr Creative Commons 2.0: A word of caution on mushroom consumption</a></em></center></div>
**Word of Caution:** Mushrooms can be very dangerous! Some species of mushrooms are not safe to eat, are highly poisonous and look strikingly similar to their safe ones. It is not advisable to pick them for consumption from the woods unless you have been groomed to identify the edible ones. Mushrooms have the unique ability to absorb the material that they grow on, either good or bad. This attribute is what lends them so much of their beneficial power, but also their dangerous traits. Many mushrooms, when picked in the wild, may contain heavy metals, which can be very toxic, as well as air and water pollutants.
It is imperative to buy from known vendors when you buy mushrooms. Always make it a point to purchase sealed products from reputable companies or those which you have grown yourself under suitable conditions after buying their seeds (called spawns) from a trusted source. A single poisonous mushroom among others in a dish can endanger a significant number of people’s health, leading in comas, severe poison symptoms, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, cramps, insanity. Many species can lead to outright death if ingested.
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#### REFERENCES
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http://www.gmushrooms.com/info.htm
https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/vegetable/health-benefits-of-mushroom.html
http://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-eats/nutrition/5-health-benefits-of-mushrooms/
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-can-eating-mushrooms-4412.html