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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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New mushroom center opens in Switzerland
#7568163 - 10/27/07 10:15 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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New centre provides seeds of knowledge October 27, 2007 - swissinfo.com
A unique European mushroom centre opened on Saturday near Neuchâtel in western Switzerland, aiming to answer all kinds of fungi-related queries.
Mycorama in Cernier has been over ten years in the making, finally overcoming a series of political and financial hurdles that often seemed insurmountable to its initiators.
Autumn is the mushroom-collecting season in Switzerland. At weekends large numbers of people forage through the woods, basket in hand, in search of an often elusive – and edible – prize.
The Jura mountains are a prime location for mushroom hunting. So it is perhaps not so surprising that the new mycological centre is opening off the beaten track on Saturday in the Val-de-Ruz village of Cernier.
The building itself looks a bit like a mushroom. Inside, large areas have been set aside for temporary and permanent exhibits.
Unfortunately some of it will remain empty for the time being. Last-minute financial woes, including the bankruptcy of one of the suppliers, have forced the promoters to change some of their plans.
This has not dented their enthusiasm, however. It took more than ten years to get the centre – the only one of its kind in Europe – up and running, mainly because the project took a long time to get through the approval process and receive state and local subsidies.
Academic interest
Jean Keller, the outgoing director, has been pushing the project since the mid-1990s. He says academic – not culinary – fascination has driven the group behind the Mycorama.
"When you've studied mushrooms once, it's hard to get away from them," he told swissinfo. "There are so many things to consider that it would take more than a lifetime to understand them."
According to Keller, a retired science teacher, one of the difficulties in setting up the centre was convincing people that mycology is a worthwhile pursuit.
"For a long time even at universities mycology was considered to be of minor interest, even though mushrooms have been studied for centuries," he said. "It was just a sideline to botany, before being shifted to microbiology and then biotechnology."
Practical applications
Despite this, mycological research has led to the development of antibiotic drugs such as penicillin. Mycology also has applications in the dairy, wine and baking industries as well as in the production of dyes and inks.
"We want to inform people about mushrooms because schools provide students with little or bad information about them," said Keller. "People know almost nothing – even if they come across mushrooms every day and don't realise it."
The centre will provide visitors with information about the biology and uses of mushrooms. However, there will be no on-site production for the time being, nor any cooking lessons.
The promoters are hoping that mushrooms' particular aura will attract visitors.
"Their shapes are strange, unlike anything else," said Keller. "Their colours can change very quickly, appearing and disappearing – some years they don't even grow. All these small elements put together mean that mushrooms remain somewhat mysterious."
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ivi


Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,089
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Re: New mushroom center opens in Switzerland [Re: veggie]
#7568637 - 10/28/07 02:25 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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JazzCatCF
Teo-nanacatl


Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 280
Loc: here today gone tommorow
Last seen: 8 years, 1 month
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Re: New mushroom center opens in Switzerland [Re: ivi]
#7568918 - 10/28/07 06:41 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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sweet looking building
-------------------- "There is a world beyond ours, a world that is far away, nearby, and invisible. And there it is where God lives, where the dead live, the spirits and the saints, a world where everything has already happened and everything is known. That world talks. It has a language of its own. I report what it says. The sacred mushroom takes me by the hand and brings me to the world where everything is known. It is they, the sacred mushrooms, that speak in a way I can understand. I ask them and they answer me. When I return from the trip that I have taken with them, I tell what they have told me and what they have shown me." The Mazatec Wise Woman, Maria Sabina (1894-1985)
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LoWgRoW
Strange



Registered: 09/22/07
Posts: 296
Last seen: 6 years, 11 months
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Re: New mushroom center opens in Switzerland [Re: JazzCatCF]
#7570614 - 10/28/07 06:36 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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very cool.
-------------------- Avoid negative people.
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