France: Deep underground, Paris mushroom growers struggle to preserve heritage
Rapid urbanisation and in particular the construction of the Paris metro began pushing growers out of the capital in the early 1900s, though around 50 were still in quarries under Paris suburbs in the 1970s, often run by new generations of the same family.
The Jordan Times
Dec 5, 2015
Excerpt:
Vang runs the largest underground mushroom cave in the Paris region, spread across one and a half hectares of tunnels in a hill overlooking the Seine River.
He counts Michelin-starred chefs as well as supermarket chains and local markets among his customers, even though he deems his mushrooms “expensive” at 3.20 euros a kilogramme wholesale.
But dank trays loaded with hundreds of kilogrammes of fungi were going to waste during a recent visit, because Vang lacked enough hands to pick them all.
Just five of his 11 workers were on the job after the others called in sick — and Vang was doubtful that all of them would actually return.
“People these days don’t want to work all day in the dark like vampires,” he said, estimating that this day’s production would top out at 1.5 tonnes instead of his usual 2.5 or even 3 tonnes.
