Sparassis crispa photo and description

How to cook a mushroom

It is necessary to cook the mushroom according to a certain algorithm, which is offered by those who have already dealt with this type of mushroom several times.

Immerse in cold water for ¼ hour. This will make it easier to clean up "forest debris" - sticky pine needles, grass.
Rinse the fruit bodies with cold water and chop with a knife, fingers.
Pour the cut pieces so that the liquid covers their surface, salt.
Cook for 20 minutes. After boiling and the appearance of foam, reduce the fire, remove the noise.
Let the boiled mass drain in a colander.

Important. Sparassis curly cannot be digested

Otherwise, it will fall apart and lose its extraordinary taste. For the same reason, you should not add spices. Boil in milk for a richer flavor.

Dryagel curly, aka curly sprassis, is suitable for all types of culinary processing, with the exception of salting and pickling. Those who eat this mushroom often enough say with confidence that it manifests itself best of all when frying, stewing with sour cream and in making soups. In addition, it is recommended to bake it with cheese, meat, seafood. It will be a great filling for savory baked goods. Dried and powdered mushrooms are also perfect for sauces and gravies.

But, it is important not to forget that since it is a woody mushroom, its fruiting bodies will be edible only if they are light in color (youth). Older specimens already acquire a bitter taste and become woody.

For your information. No cases of sparassis curly poisoning have been reported.

Mushroom cabbage

A mushroom with an unusual name mushroom cabbage, hare cabbage, mushroom happiness, or curly sparassis (Sparassis crispa) has a lot of useful substances, but it is a rare species, therefore it is protected by law in many countries of the world.

General information and description

In appearance, the mushroom resembles head of cauliflower, therefore it has such a name. In England it is called "mushroom-brain" or "mushroom-ruffles". All the names quite accurately convey the characteristics of the mushroom, which, instead of the usual cap, has a whole shock of twisting, branched branches-lobes growing from a central hemp.

The size of the mushroom exceeds the size of many edible mushrooms - its height is from 5 to 35 cm, and its diameter is from 5 to 60 cm. The color is creamy or pale yellow, with age, the twigs-lobes acquire an ocher-brown, dark color.

The flesh of a young mushroom is white, with a resinous aroma and a nutty flavor, but in mature specimens it becomes tasteless, tough and bitter.

The leg matches the mushroom - thick, up to 15 cm long, light yellow in color, sometimes with brown spots. With age, the color changes to black.

The habitat of hare cabbage is quite wide, but the mushroom remains a rare occurrence in the forests of Europe, Eurasia and North America.

In Russia, this type of mushroom comes across in the forest-steppe zone, where it parasitizes on the trunks of coniferous trees. And it does not just parasitize, but destroys trees, causes the appearance of trunk and root rot.

Most often, the fungus can be seen at the base of the trunk or on a fresh tree stump. Moreover, it grows on them for several years, and bears fruit from mid-summer to late autumn.

Healing properties

The rabbit cabbage mushroom contains many substances useful to humans, it is an edible mushroom, moreover, it is also used in medicine, producing medicines from it. For these purposes, people have to grow a rare mushroom on purpose, specialists from the USA and Japan are especially successful in this matter. It was they who developed and patented the technology of growing the mushroom. In artificial conditions, the mushroom is grown on a sterilized substrate of sawdust and wheat bran.

Curly sparassis contains biologically active substances with anticancer and antimicrobial effects. The polysaccharides contained in the mushroom stop the growth of sarcoma, kill liver cancer cells, leukemia cells, and stop melanoma. In addition, they improve the blood formula, activate its movement, and produce antibodies that protect the body from cancer.

In addition to polysaccharides, there are other compounds in the composition of mushroom happiness that determine its medicinal properties. It is an antifungal agent and sparassol, ScI and ScII substances capable of suppressing the human immunodeficiency virus.

The antibiotic that is part of the fungus inhibits the development of Staphylococcus aureus.

Traditional Chinese medicine uses it to lower blood sugar levels, treat hypertension, and prevent cancer, heart attacks and strokes.

Sparassis-based preparations are also used in gynecology for the treatment of benign and malignant tumors and hormonal disorders.

The mushroom is used to treat obesity, it promotes weight loss, and at the same time supplies the body with useful minerals and amino acids.

Mushroom in cooking

Only young specimens of hare cabbage are eaten, while they are still soft, tender and light in color. Preliminary soaking and boiling is not required here, the mushroom is already quite tasty. Overgrown, darkened mushrooms are not used in cooking.

Mushroom cabbage is suitable for frying and drying; these mushrooms cannot be salted or pickled. The substances contained in hare cabbage prevent the development of mold, so the mushroom can be stored for a long time in the refrigerator at freezing temperatures, or frozen.

Growing curly sparassis at home

The large mass of the fruiting body (often 2-4 kg, sometimes more than 5), excellent taste and complete safety of this mushroom make it a desirable prey for both a mushroom picker and a knowledgeable cook. Unfortunately, there are two significant problems that prevent you from pampering yourself with autumn sparassis annually - rarity and protected status.

As for the rarity, it should be understood literally: this mushroom is not at all easy to find in the forest. There is no point in going on a quiet hunt specifically for sparassis, since the probability of accidentally stumbling upon it is extremely small. Experienced mushroom pickers remember where and under what tree they once managed to stumble upon hare cabbage, and then for several years they come to this place every autumn. If you do not know such fertile places, then you should not count on the successful outcome of a quiet hunt for this mushroom.

The second problem is that curly sparassis is listed in the Red Book of Russia as a rare species. That is, in principle, it is impossible to collect it in the forest, even if by some miracle it was possible to accidentally stumble upon it. Of course, this does not stop most mushroom pickers, but you should always remember about the protected status of sparassis.

In view of the above, the question of growing this mushroom under controlled conditions becomes relevant. Fortunately, hare cabbage lends itself pretty well to cultivation.

Like most edible mushrooms that grow on wood, hare cabbage is relatively easy to cultivate. In general, the technology is approximately the same as in the case of oyster mushroom, but you need to take sawdust not deciduous, namely coniferous wood. As mentioned above, this mushroom prefers pine, spruce, cedar, fir and larch.

For the preparation of the nutrient substrate, it is recommended to use the freshest sawdust possible. And of course, they should not contain any trace of the chemicals used to treat wood to fight insects and pathogens.

To enhance the nutritional quality of sawdust and obtain a ready-made substrate, they are mixed with a small amount of hay, bran, gypsum and a combined mineral supplement.

Further, it is very important to get rid of the competing microorganisms present in the substrate. To this end, sawdust with additives introduced into them must be poured with water, brought to a boil and then boiled for 1-2 hours

When the solution cools down, the water must be drained and the substrate should be laid out on a fine mesh so that excess water will drain from it. The optimum moisture level for sawdust is 70%. This indicator occurs after about 10-14 hours of drying on the mesh. Determining the readiness of sawdust is quite simple: they should be moist to the touch, but should not stick to your hands.

The substrate, freed from excess moisture, is placed in a polyethylene bag in layers of 5 cm, sprinkling each layer with crushed mycelium. Then the bag must be tied tightly. Over time, the mycelium will sprout and entangle the entire substrate with a dense mesh, turning it into a monolithic block. When this happens, it is necessary to carefully cut out small holes in the bag (2 by 2 cm) through which the fruiting bodies will break through.

If you have a suitable plot of land, for example, in a garden, in a greenhouse or even in a specially designated area of a vegetable garden, hare cabbage can also be grown on solid logs. This method is good in that it does not require the hassle of regularly replacing the substrate, since on solid wood the mycelium will give birth for several years in a row, and not one or two seasons.

As in the case of sawdust for sparassis, you need to choose the trunks of conifers. Barrel size is a matter of convenience only. If you wish, you can use both a huge log ten meters long and 30 centimeters in diameter, and small cuts several tens of centimeters long.

It is highly desirable that the wood is freshly cut, or has a short shelf life. This not only excludes the likelihood of its infestation by competitive species, but also removes the need for additional moisture. In addition, sparassis generally prefers fresh "food" to dry and stale ones.

In the trunk with a step of 10-15 cm, cuts are made with a drill, which are then inoculated with mycelium and sealed with the same sawdust. Further, the trunk is laid in a shady part of the garden or in a greenhouse so that it touches the ground along its entire length and does not sag anywhere. This eliminates the possibility of wood drying out: it itself will pull moisture directly from the ground.

The use of mushroom cabbage in cooking

They try not to use overgrown mushrooms in cooking. They are quite tough and have a bitter taste. Young mushrooms are suitable for cooking. Their texture and taste are similar to morels. They are excellent fried, dried and boiled. Rabbit cabbage mushroom is good as an additive to any dishes. Excellent soups, salads, appetizers and main courses are made with it.

Salad vendors in the markets often sell these mushrooms, offering them pickled. True, you need to be careful about their choice. It is easy to confuse them with another type of mushroom - Tremella, available in the assortment of bazaar breakdowns.

In the recipe for soup with mushroom cabbage, in addition to spices, only onions are included. You can prepare a delicious dish when you come on vacation to China or another country where this mushroom is not under the protection of the law, and is freely sold on the market.

Servings: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Evaluation of taste, medicinal properties, benefits and possible harm

The curly mushroom belongs to the edible class, it can form the basis of soup, mashed potatoes or pie. Hare cabbage can be dried, fried, ground into flour and sprinkled on food. Only young inflorescences and legs of mushrooms are edible. With age, they become as hard as possible, acquire a brown color and a distinct aftertaste of bitterness. But curly mushrooms stand out for their taste characteristics, in texture they are similar to morels.The smell is special, reminiscent of almonds.

Treatment

Traditional medicine has long been using the curly mushroom to treat many diseases, among which there is even oncology. This is an effective remedy against tumors, it raises the immune system, kills germs and fungi.

The benefits of hare cabbage have been proven in the treatment of even viral hepatitis. In the field of gynecology, the curly mushroom is useful for protecting against hormonal ailments. Also, this type is used in the treatment of diabetes. It actively contributes to the reduction of sugar, thanks to proteins and numerous minerals. It can be boiled, fried, dried, and it is always delicious.

Description of the mushroom

Curly sparassis settles on conifers. The population size has recently decreased significantly due to the deforestation of old-growth coniferous forests. In addition, people have made efforts to make this type of fungus extinct. Now it is listed in the Red Book of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine.

The fungus is rarely found in our forests, especially the larger specimens. It appears from the second half of the summer season, you can meet it until mid-autumn. The above-ground body can gain in diameter from 10 cm to 60 cm. Sometimes fruit bodies weighing 6-10 kg are found.

According to the species description, curly sparassis has a rounded elongated shape, it looks like a branched coral or a branched tree. Consists of flat twigs-plates. They have a wavy scalloped edge. Young mushrooms are white, creamy. It gets darker with age.

Irina Selyutina (Biologist):

Young sparassis is really whitish, but with age it is not just yellowish, but acquires an ocher color or turns brown. Moreover, the darkening begins from the edges of the blades of the fruiting body. The pulp is white and dense, has a smell that is not like mushroom and a taste reminiscent of a nut. Young mushrooms have brittle flesh, but over time it becomes woody.

The central leg reaches a length of 13 cm, but almost all of it is hidden underground. This is due to the fact that curly sparassis is a parasitic species that settles on the roots or at the base of the trunk of a coniferous tree, causing the development of red-brown destructive (destroying) rot of the roots and base of the trunk. Sometimes he can settle on fresh stumps.

While the mushroom is young, its wide, up to 5 cm leg, from which all the blades grow, has a shade variation in the border from white to pale yellow. But as it grows and, accordingly, aging, it darkens and becomes brown or black.

For your information. If in a deciduous forest on an oak they met a mushroom similar to curly sparassis - you are very lucky, because you were able to get acquainted with the closest relative of this species - lamellar sparassis.

Sparassis curly settles on conifers

The consistency of the pulp in the plates also gives away the age of the specimen. In young people, it is soft, tender, the taste is nutty and pleasant. Over time, it becomes tougher, and it can no longer be used as food.

Mushroom properties

Curly Sparassis contains a large amount of beta-glucan polysaccharide, more than 40% dry weight. This substance has a striking immunomodulatory property and is widely used in pharmacology in all countries of the world. It is a strong antioxidant, counteracts the development of tumor, inflammatory and allergic processes.

Sparassis curly contains sparassol - a compound that prevents the development of molds, protects against pests and various diseases. It also benefits people, as it has antimicrobial and antimycotic activity.

The components of curly sparassis have the following medicinal properties:

antineoplastic;
antioxidant;
immunomodulatory;
antibacterial;
antifungal.

The fungus helps allergy sufferers, hypertensive patients and people who have suffered post-stroke conditions, as well as those suffering from diabetes.

Traditional medicine is known for the effectiveness of sparassis curly in the fight against malignant tumors, especially melanoma and sarcoma. It is also used in the treatment of hormonal disorders, obesity.

By the way. In the countries of Southeast Asia, sprassis has long been widely used in pharmacology.

Option 1: Hearty stewed cabbage with mushrooms - a classic recipe

Stewed cabbage prepared according to the classic recipe is not only tasty, but also nutritious, despite the fact that no meat is added to the dish. In terms of nutritional value, mushrooms can completely replace it. You can stew cabbage with any lamellar mushrooms. It can be champignons, oyster mushrooms or forest mushrooms, such as honey agarics and chanterelles.

When choosing cabbage, you should pay attention to the following: the forks should be dense, with juicy leaves and preferably white. Salad cabbage, the leaves of which have a greenish tint, is not suitable for stewing

Ingredients:

a pound of fresh white cabbage;
champignons - 300 gr.;
one carrot and a large onion;
five tablespoons of frozen oil and one - tomato paste;
a small leaf of lavrushka;
drinking water - half a glass.

Step-by-step recipe for stewed cabbage with mushrooms

We clean the mushrooms from dirt. After rinsing thoroughly, put in a colander or on a clean towel to dry. We dissolve mushrooms in thin plates, small ones can be left intact.

In a massive frying pan, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil and fry the mushrooms in it until fully cooked. Do not cover with a lid, all the moisture should evaporate completely, and the champignon slices should brown a little.

Cut the cabbage into thin and short strips. After pouring into a bowl, coarsely rub the carrots to it and, stirring, lightly squeeze it with your hands. Chop the onion into small cubes.

Heat the remaining oil in a deep frying pan or small cauldron and dip the onion into it. While stirring, sauté the slices until they lose their dullness. We spread the cabbage to the onion and add some salt. Stir occasionally, cook over medium heat until cabbage is soft, about half an hour.

Stir in the tomato and previously fried mushrooms into the cabbage, lay the lavrushka. If the dish, in your opinion, turned out to be dry, add warm water and, covering with a lid, bring it to readiness. Simmer on low heat for another ten minutes.

Description

Young fruiting body of curly sparassis

The fruiting body of the fungus is bushy, round, spherical or irregularly spherical, 5–20 cm in height and 6–30 (up to 60 and more) cm in diameter, sometimes reaching a weight of 6–10 kg. It consists of a mass of "curly" branches or lobes extending from a short central leg, with hymenium located on both sides. The blades are flat, wide (0.7-3 cm wide and 0.3-0.8 cm thick), with a wavy and often dissected edge. Outwardly, the fruiting body of the fungus resembles the head of a cauliflower. Young mushrooms are whitish, later yellowish and finally, when mature and when dry, ocher or brownish. The edges of the lobes usually darken first.

The pulp of the mushroom is white, dense, brittle in young mushrooms (over time and upon drying it takes on a hard, waxy-horny consistency), with a strong specific odor, not like mushroom. It tastes like a nut.

The hymenophore is smooth or rough, waxy, whitish-cream or grayish.

The stem of the mushroom is central, thick (2-5 cm in diameter), deeply buried in the ground, so that, despite the length (5-13 cm), it is hardly noticeable from the outside. The color of the stem in young mushrooms is whitish or yellowish, later brownish to black.

Spore powder - from whitish and yellowish to ocher and orange-ocher. Spores (6-7) × (4-5) µm, ellipsoidal, slightly narrowed at the base, smooth, colorless, with a large drop of oil.

Sometimes the fungus forms a pseudosclerotium (20–70) × (7–10) cm in size, consisting of soil particles intertwined with mycelium and attached to the roots of the tree.

How to cook?

How to cook mushroom cabbage? In cooking, for the manufacture of various dishes, curly sparassis is boiled, baked and stewed along with other products, fried, dried, pickled and salted (some cooks do not recommend using the last two methods of preparation for this product). But all the recipes for making mushroom cabbage say that you need to use only a young mushroom of a light color. If the curly sparassis has a brown tint, then the pulp will be tough and undercooked.

You can cook mushroom cabbage both in a regular saucepan and in special kitchen appliances (multicooker and double boiler). Let's consider each cooking method in more detail.

To cook curly sparassis in a saucepan, you need a couple of these mushrooms, which should first be soaked in cold water for a quarter of an hour to make them easier to clean. After fifteen minutes, clean the mushroom cabbage of dust and dirt, and then rinse again under running water. Next, the mushrooms must be divided into smaller pieces, put into a container, completely filled with water, add salt to taste and put on the stove. When the broth boils in a saucepan, reduce the heat to a minimum, remove the foam that appears and boil the pieces of mushroom cabbage for about twenty minutes. After that, the boiled curly sparassis should be laid out in a colander so that the remaining liquid is drained from it.

How to cook mushroom cabbage in a slow cooker? First, you need to put the peeled and chopped mushrooms into a special steamer, and pour water into the container for the device. Then put the steamer with mushroom cabbage on top of the multicooker container, close the lid and turn on the "Steam cooking" program, setting the timer for half an hour. At the end of this program, pour out the liquid from the container of the electrical appliance and transfer the pieces of curly sparassis there, adding salt at your discretion. Select the "Extinguishing" program for twenty minutes. By the way, you shouldn't add water to mushrooms, as they will languish in their own juice. When the mushrooms are slightly stewed, switch the "Stew" program to "Baking", setting the timer for ten minutes so that the remaining moisture will come out of the mushrooms.

Cooking mushroom cabbage in a double boiler does not take much time and labor. Pour water into a special tray of a household appliance, install a container on top, putting pieces of washed and peeled curly sparassis there. Close the steamer and set the timer for thirty minutes.

When boiling mushroom cabbage, you should not add various spices to the broth, because this can spoil the specific aroma of the mushrooms and their nutty flavor. It is also worth sticking to the specified time. If you digest curly sparassis, it will fall apart and lose its taste.

To taste the fried mushrooms, you need to peel the mushroom cabbage, wash and disassemble it into small inflorescences, or just cut it. Next, put a little butter on a preheated frying pan and, when it melts, put the inflorescences of curly sparassis. Fry the mushrooms over medium heat for about twenty minutes, stirring regularly.

Dry mushroom cabbage in the same way as other types of mushrooms. But only first you need to divide the curly sparassis into inflorescences, then cut, and then spread out on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. It is necessary to dry such a mushroom in an oven with a slightly open door at a temperature of no more than seventy degrees for five hours. If the house has a special electric dryer, the drying time will take about three hours. If, after drying, a powder is made from the mushroom pieces, it means that the inflorescences of mushroom cabbage should first be soaked in water, then dried, then put on a baking sheet and dried in the oven for about three hours at a temperature of forty degrees. After that, increase the temperature regime to sixty degrees and dry for no more than four hours.

To make mushroom powder from dried sparassis curly, you need to grind pieces of dried mushroom cabbage in a blender to a powdery state, adding salt to taste and a little clove with cinnamon. You need to store such a spice in a glass container with an airtight twist.

Description

Hat

The dimensions of such a fruiting body are very impressive - it reaches 10-15 centimeters in height, and up to 30 centimeters in width, although such large specimens are rare, most often the diameter of the cap is about 10-15 centimeters. At the same time, the weight of the fruiting body can reach 5.7, and in record mushrooms and 10 kilograms!

The cap is colored yellowish-white, beige at a young age and brownish-brown at mature and old.

The flesh of a young mushroom is tender, brittle, as it ripens and ages, it becomes more and more firm and tough. The aroma is pleasant, but not mushroom, the taste is pronounced nutty, in the old mushroom with a noticeable bitterness.

Spore-bearing layer

It is located on one side over the entire area of the “blades” of curly sparassis, differing from the side devoid of hymenophores by some roughness. Spores are elliptical, yellow or cream colored.

Leg

Almost completely submerged in the soil or wood on which sparassis grows. Leg thickness - up to 5 centimeters in diameter, length can reach 10-12 centimeters. Colored in yellow, yellowish-white, with aging of the fungus turns black.

Primary processing and preparation

Very pleasant taste and delicate flesh - these qualities became famous in cooking curly sparassis. It is usually fried, dried, or made into soups. Only young fruiting bodies are suitable for cooking, since they are still quite soft. Mature mushrooms, the flesh of which has darkened, become tough. Before using the sparassis, it is necessary to thoroughly wash it off the ground. Note that he is reluctant to part with the dirt.

This mushroom is not only tasty, but also healthy: it is often used in folk medicine. It contains substances that have a suppressive effect on cancer cells. Also, the pulp of the mushroom has an immunomodulatory and bactericidal effect. Unfortunately, this species is on the verge of extinction due to the irrational exploitation of the forest fund. Therefore, having met this type of sparassis in the wilderness, it is better to just take a picture of it as a souvenir, do not collect this rare mushroom.

Growing sparassis on tree trunks

Description of the mushroom curly sparassis, places of its distribution

A very rare and tasty edible mushroom - curly sparassis, it is listed in the Red Book.Where does it grow, at what time does it bear fruit? Description, use, similar types. This mushroom, in its appearance, rather resembles some kind of fantasy flower or a head of cauliflower. Curly sparassis is a very unusual and interesting organism, and besides, it is very rare - it is listed in the Red Book. But where can you find this curly miracle of nature? Let's get to know him better.

Curly sparassis (Sparassis crispa) belongs to the Sparassaceae family, which unites only 7 species. This edible mushroom, due to its unusual appearance, has several names: mushroom happiness, mushroom cabbage, ram mushroom, hare cabbage, curly dryagel, upland cabbage and king mushroom. By the way, the name "ram mushroom" in relation to sparassis is usually used only in foreign reference guides. Mycologists of Russia under this name mean one of the tinder fungus - curly griffin.

the fruit body consists of a large number of fleshy, curly, branched blades and resembles a lush spherical bush. The dense blades are smooth or wrinkled, have a split or wavy edge. The fungus sometimes reaches quite large sizes: the diameter of the fruiting body is usually 6-35 cm, but some specimens grow to a record 60 cm.Its height is about 20 cm, and its weight often exceeds 6-8 kg: it happens that mushrooms weighing 14 kg. The color of the fruit body in young mushrooms is whitish-yellow, and in mature ones it is brown with a tinge of rust,
the stem is tapered, attached to the middle of the fruiting body, thick (up to 5 cm in diameter), goes deep into the ground and therefore is hardly noticeable. Its length is about 13 cm.The color is yellowish-white, sometimes darkens with age, up to black,
the pulp is dense and fleshy, fragile in young specimens, similar to wax, in adults - hardening, tough. Has a nutty taste and gives off a strange odor that does not at all resemble the aroma of mushrooms,
the spore-bearing layer is located on one of the sides of each lobe of the fruiting body. It has a grayish or white-cream shade, slightly rough to the touch or, conversely, smooth,
spores are elliptical, from white to light yellow.

Distribution and fruiting season

This type of mushroom grows in the Northern Hemisphere and is found in mature coniferous or coniferous-deciduous forests of Krasnodar, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk Territories, Altai, Primorye, Karelia, as well as in Moscow, Sakhalin, Chelyabinsk regions and the Caucasus. It also grows in Georgia, the Baltics, Asia, some European countries and North America. The fruiting period is August-September.

Sparassis is a parasitic fungus that grows on the roots of trees, gradually destroying them. It is mainly found in splendid isolation on pines, but it can also be found on other conifers, including fir, larch or cedar. Sometimes it develops on young stumps, but more often at the base of tree trunks: the mycelium is tightly bound to the root.

Sparassis can cause the development of red-brown rot, which often causes the death of plants.

Similar species and how to distinguish from them

The peculiar appearance and habitat practically excludes the possibility of confusing curly sparassis with any other species. Outwardly, it bears a strong resemblance to Sparassis laminosa. However, it is quite easy to distinguish them from each other - the lamellar has more rigid blades with a solid edge, yellow in color, and grows mainly on oak. This is also an edible and tasty protected mushroom, but it is even less common than the hero of our article.

Primary processing and preparation

Very pleasant taste and delicate flesh - these qualities became famous in cooking curly sparassis. It is usually fried, dried, or made into soups. Only young fruiting bodies are suitable for cooking, since they are still quite soft. Mature mushrooms, the flesh of which has darkened, become tough.Before using the sparassis, it is necessary to thoroughly wash it off the ground. Note that he is reluctant to part with the dirt.