Mushroom Madness

No this isn't a post about mushroom hunting in the woods. It's actually a story about the silly global economy, where oil fuels a completely insane production line. I'm in the city, where I just can't be comfortable. But that's another story. We're staying at Jane's parent's place and they are at the cottage (again thanks to the global economy).

Jane's mum shops at Costco, which is a bewildering place, a monstrous cavern of consumption. But you get amazing prices. I'm realizing that it's best never to even go in the automatic doors. I'm so tempted by the deals. I buy organic nachos by the kilogram there. Organic green tea? How about 100 teabags?

Anyway I was excited to uncover a plastic jar containing 1 pound of dehydrated mushrooms purchased at Costco the other day. And here's the most amazing part: it contains four types of mushroom. Porcini from Chile, shiitake from China, yellow bolete from Serbia and oyster from Montenegro. Apart from Serbia and Montenegro who are close geographically, all these mushrooms are grown thousands of kilometres apart.

Then each mushroom type is gathered and shipped to France, where the label declares the plastic jar was packed. Then the jars are exported to Canada, likely arriving in Ontario and then they are shipped to Halifax, where they were purchased.

What an amazing story! Pharaohs didn't have it this good. Think of all the greenhouse gas emissions to move these mushrooms around. But at least there were some jobs created. And you have to wonder at what point the mushrooms were dehydrated. Hopefully in the open air.

So tomorrow I'm going to make Jane a homemade veggie burger (kidney beans, chickpeas and millet base) and we'll have fried mushrooms on top. She will have a little Swiss cheese I'm sure. What decadence!