When I was young, hunting mushrooms was a family affair. We are Italian, so wild-food collection is in our genes. And I loved it: the treks through the cool woods, the moment the pattern of camouflaged mushrooms emerged and they suddenly appeared everywhere. It felt wondrous when a mushroom popped up where there wasn't one the day before- a tendency of mushrooms that lends them an aura of mystery. But, scientifically, it's all pretty straightforward. Mushrooms are the reproductive structures, the fruiting bodies, of fungi. When you kick up the duff of the forest floor or break open a rotting log, that cotton-candy-like stuff is a fungus.
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