In south-western China’s Yunnan province, mushrooms mean money

IN MAY, WHEN the first monsoon rains sweep across the mountainous province of Yunnan, foragers throng to damp forests to hunt for wild mushrooms. Grandmothers strap wicker baskets to their backs, wielding sticks with which to rake the forest floor and hook from it a “black beef liver” (known elsewhere as a bronze bolete) or a crimson “green pinch” (named for the bruises that fingerprints leave on its velvety gills). Joining them at first light are local chefs, village children and their parents, some of them migrant workers who have returned from far-flung coastal factories especially for the hunt.