Cave troglodytes, mushroom farm and snail lunch

I never thought about how we grow the usual mushrooms, oyster mushrooms or shiitaki mushrooms for Japanese restaurants. It turned out that this is done in the caves of the Troglodytes. Here, in an underground restaurant, we cooked snails on an open fire and served traditional dishes of Anjou cuisine ...

Troglodytes settled in these caves in the 270th year of our era. There they hid from the raids of the barbarians. Again, these caves began to be used in the 9th century, but this time people were already hiding from the Vikings. Sometimes they had to take refuge there for more than a week. If the food ran out, then they were forced to starve. Therefore, in the modern world it is customary to call the troglodyte a very hungry person.

Especially for us, we opened the best underground restaurant in the province, which is located at a depth of 100 meters:

A dimly lit tunnel leads down:

A humid climate and a constant temperature are very important for mushrooms. Here she is kept at +12 degrees. Mushrooms in these caves are grown only for the needs of the restaurant, so the plantations are not very huge.

We started our inspection with Japanese Shiitaki mushrooms:

In Japan, they grow on trees, and here they are grown on special columns:

Such a column is made of pressed sawdust. A new column weighs 8 kilograms, and after several generations of mushrooms grow on it, its weight decreases to 500 grams. The rest is pulled by mushrooms:

We delved into long corridors:

We were shown how champignons were grown in antiquity. Production was a full cycle. First, compost was made, and then mushrooms were grown in it:

Now compost is purchased at third-party industries.

Parisian champignons:

The cellars are damp. To combat mosquitoes, frogs are used that jumped right under our feet:

Oyster mushrooms are also grown on special bases, wrapped in black polyethylene, in which slots are made:

The most valuable mushrooms are the bruises:

Before they germinate, the compost box is covered with white cotton:

On this our tour ended, and we went to a restaurant to bask near the stove:

We prepared snails in it.

About 5 years ago I first tried snails in Paris. I remember that I spent the whole night embracing with a white earthen friend, so this time I refused the snails, and my companions with pleasure tried them.

All survived until the evening without loss. Apparently, these are features of only my body. By the way, I react to oysters the same way ...

As the main dish, they brought us hats of mushrooms baked with pork: