A day with Magic Mushrooms

You may have noticed that amongst the many things the Spanish enjoy doing is eating - especially if it involves something they have either caught, hunted, grown or collected themselves. This is the time of year when people take to the countryside and pick wild mushrooms, either the usual type called champiñones that we see in shops practically all year round or the delicious setas that are quite large and we can only buy them at certain times of the year for around 15 eruos a kilo. Last weekend, while we were staying in a village in the province of Teruel, some of the locals decided they were going out picking and invited us along with them to look for rebollones. I have been seta hunting before but I'd never even heard of rebollones (lactarius deliciosus Russulaceae) as, until now, their existence was a closely guarded secret. They only grow in a few far flung areas, are even tastier than setas and cannot be found in the shops.
We set off at eight in the morning and after half an hour's drive arrived at a town called Talayuelas in the province of Cuenca and from there took the road up to the mountains, left the car behind and went into the pine forests. It was a sunny, crisp day with a temperature of 3º, absolutely perfect for spending a few hours in the open air. With hiking boots, thick sweater and waterproof  I was ready to tackle the elements. However, not being very good at mushroom picking, I had stuffed a plastic bag in my pocket in the unlikely case that I found one or two but I was immediately given a basket to carry. I felt a bit stupid with this huge, empty basket but everybody had them as it is illegal to use anything that will not allow the seeds to drop back to the ground after picking.
One 65-year-old lady, Manuela, was like a mountain goat with eagle's eyes. When I had just one lonely rebollon sitting in the bottom of my basket she had collected about three kilos! She does have the advantage of knowing these mountains like the back of her hand and in previous years has made quite a bit of money out of picking mushrooms. She told me that one year she collected 64 kilos in one day and sold them to people visiting the area from Valencia

What to look for
So what do they look like and where can you find them? They are a fungi and the round top part is convex. They don't look like anything you would want to eat as they are a bright orange/pink colour, the same underneath and the bigger ones have green speckles on the top. The stalks are short, wide and round and on cutting you can see that there is a small hole in the middle running through the stalk and this is surrounded by white flesh and then another

layer of orange on the outside. Rebollones usually appear in Autumn after a few days of rain and can be found in pine and conifer forests. There are no restrictions on the amount you are permitted to collect but you are not allowed to churn up the fallen pine needles or the undergrowth with a stick or scythe, say, when looking for rebollones as this destroys the spores meaning there will be fewer mushrooms to collect the following year. However, you can poke about a bit with your cutting knife or hands.
After a couple of hours we came across an area that was churned up as though a rugby match had taken place there. When I asked Manuela about it she told me that it was just where a wild boar had been scavenging, as they are very partial to this fungi as well.  The fact that there are dozens of different species of fungi that look pickable doesn't make it any easier, especially as they range from fairly toxic to deadly poisonous. That day in Talayuelas, apparently, there were only two edible types, the bright orange/pink rebollon and the borracho, which is extremely rare. .
After five hours of walking, climbing up and down and searching the undergrowth we managed to get quite a haul.
What a great way to spend a day and