Olmi: Wild Mushrooms that Arrive with the Monsoon in Goa
The monsoon brings with it a treasured Goan delicacy — olmi, or wild mushrooms, known as Goa’s Truffles. A species that cannot be cultivated, this mushroom is at risk of being over-harvested, with far-reaching ecological consequences, finds Rashi Goel.
The monsoon in Goa brings a wide variety of seasonal leafy greens, vegetables and most exciting, wild mushrooms called olmi.
“Of course, I know what you’re talking about, my grandmother used to cook it,” exclaims my friend, Sheetal Shanbagh, a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin from Belgaum. “My mouth waters just thinking about the way she used to make it. We call it alambi,” she adds, stressing on its pronunciation.
These wild mushrooms found in Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra go by many names depending on the region —olmi, alami or alambi, roenichim olmi, khut, shiti, shiringar olmi, shendari, kuski, dukor, surya olmi, tel alami, fuge and bhuifod. The roen olmi are a Termitomyces species, growing on termite hills in Goa (which are called roen, hence the name), and are believed to have been harvested in the wild for 120 million years. In many parts of Goa, the mushrooms are considered sacred.
Olmi or wild mushrooms are a seasonal treat in parts of the Konkan coast.
Sheetal’s excitement around the mushrooms is palpable and refreshing. She cannot stop talking about the delicious alambi randai she had eaten the previous week. “We always eat it with tandla bhakri (a chapati made from raw rice). Only we make it,” she says, a hint of pride coming through in her voice, that this was a GSB (the common abbreviation for Gaud Saraswat Brahmin) recipe. Sheetal’s family cooks these flavourful, seasonal mushrooms every year. For the GSB community, this monsoon-essential is almost always paired with bamboo shoots. “These mushrooms can only be harvested at a particular stage. After that, once they have bloomed beyond that stage, they become poisonous,” she explains. These mushrooms are harvested near Dandeli; she tell us that the taste varies depending on the region.
Olmi is only cooked and eaten in the monsoon, because the torrential rains in the Western Ghats bring this culinary delicacy with them. “For some families, there is a tradition around the first olmi of the season — it is a meal the entire family eats together and cherishes,” says Kishor Khambadkone, who lives in Dandeli. In parts of Karnataka where these mushrooms are found, a rava-fried version is also a popular snack. “The act of collecting the mushrooms is a highlight of the season. When I was young, I used to venture into the forest with my uncles to collect wild mushrooms. Today, we mostly buy them from the Siddi tribals who live in the region, and are experts at collecting and selling them.”
In Goa, olmi is typically cooked in a xacuti, a tondak, or a masala fry. Pictures credit: Kishor Khambadkone
Its nutty, earthy flavour and unique texture, mean they elevate the simplest curries. In Goa, a traditional mushroom xacuti is only made using wild mushrooms, and therefore is only prepared in the monsoon. Apart from a xacuti gravy, olmi tonak, a Goan chilli-fry and a masala-fry are the most popular local ways of eating this fungi.
Given the seasonality and perhaps the recent demand for a larger variety of vegetarian dishes on menus, artificially-cultivated mushrooms have replaced olmi in the local specialties. But those born and raised in Goa have a strong connection with the wild mushrooms, and for them, relishing this delicacy at least once a year is a must. Pretam Lotlekar says, “I’ve been enjoying these almost every single year since I was a child. And so did my father and grandfather. These mushrooms were well known during their time as well.” She shows me that the small buds are the tastiest and hence the most expensive.
In my experience, the women that sit in the local vegetable markets are unlikely to sell you only the small buds, but Pretam manages to get them because she has been buying from the same people for years. The mushrooms come wrapped in a little pouch made from large leaves, which is the typical way it is sold by locals from different villages. “Olmi sautéed with turmeric, chilli powder and salt are a favourite snack in my home,” she adds.
The fact that they cannot be artificially cultivated or mass-produced makes them even more attractive to gourmands in the state, who pay around Rs 15,000 per kilo. They have sometimes been referred to as ‘Goan Truffles’.
While in the past, the wild mushrooms were only used to make a select few dishes, present-day chefs, and home chefs are getting more experimental with these fungi, sprucing up their menus with these hard-to-find shoots. Chef Avinash Martins of Table at the Farm, picks the mushrooms himself to make sure he’s using the tastiest ones — he even took his audience on a harvesting trip into the forest virtually, through a video he shared on his Instagram. At the temporarily closed, Fig and Maple in Goa, Chef Radhika Khandelwal has included olmi in a limited edition monsoon menu — last year, serving up wild mushroom parcels. Food Bbogger Mridula Ramesh makes a wild mushroom curry that she enjoys with finger millet balls (ragi sangati), while Malika Coutinho shares a recipe does a Mushroom Solantulem.
Popular food writer, Vikram Doctor says “I've bought and tried them once and have to admit I didn't get anything special other than a general mushroom-iness. Nothing that cultivated oyster, king or enoki mushrooms can't give you.” He adds, “I realize their value as part of Goa’s monsoon eating traditions and the income it brings to the people who collect them is important, but against that is the impact that over-collecting due to the hype over them is likely to cause.”
These mushrooms act as decomposing agents in the forest, and a fall in their numbers could have adverse effects on forests. The organic matter in the forest will not degrade as quickly, which could increase the populations of virus-carrying ticks. Dr Kamat says that over-harvesting these ecologically-essential mushrooms might then release zoonotic viruses from the forest and could even be the cause of the next pandemic. Given that these mushrooms occur naturally in the forests and cannot be cultivated, overharvesting could also lead to the sheer numbers of the mushrooms going down, given the slow rate of replenishment. this could in turn have other harmful impacts on the overall ecological balance. A blanket ban by the government on the harvesting of these mushrooms in 1992 was quickly edited the following year to ban them from being harvested in forest or sanctuary area which didn’t help the cause.
It might be best that the charm and nostalgia connected to olmi is left for the locals to cherish, and the hype surrounding them dies down soon.
Rashi Goel is an independent marketing consultant and writer based in Goa, India. You can find her on Instagram on @rashicreates.
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