All about favorite bubwoba types of my childhood. Including tips from Luhya culture on how to know which wild mushrooms are edible.
Bubwoba Types
Get to know about bubobwa types that were common on Luhya tables as food.
Jump to: Bubwoba Bukusuma, Buchelamachi, Bubwoba Bukochwe, Bumekele, Bubwoba Busina/Nasina
I have seen guys going to school to learn how to grow mushrooms. Modern life! How I wish for the days when the coming of April meant the start of mushroom season. With the coming of the rains, all one had to do was to wake up early and walk about the homestead and village. For like a gift from heaven, one was likely to chance upon a cluster of mushrooms that just the evening before, were not existent.
To try and recreate this magical experience, I’ve made a habit of going all organic on my farm and throwing about pieces of wood that I read somewhere are the best base for wild mushrooms to sprout as they rot. I await the results.
Bubwoba is the Bukusu word for mushroom. There are many types of wild mushrooms. For purposes of this post will just accommodate five. We surely will share more when we get a chance to. We also have a recipe for preparing and cooking delicious bwoba the Luhya way that you must absolutely try. Next time you find yourself in the Western region of Kenya, our contemporary take on cooking mushroom will be of good use after shopping for these bubwoba types in the market
Bubwoba Bukusuma
Bubwoba bukusuma is the crème de la crème of all wild mushrooms. This type of mushroom is usually found on hills that house termites. They grow in colonies. Let me tell you, this mushroom is beautiful. It is brown in color with a white underside. Heads can grow to the diameter of a standard plate. Their stocks are strong. You can pull out almost 15cms long stocks on a good day.
They have a navel stack in the middle of their heads. When you see signs of two or three Bukusuma, all you need to do is cover them with dry banana leaves and leave it to grow. In the ways of my people, covering them this way symbolizes that they belongs to someone.
Once covered, the owner allows a day or two before they begin harvesting. So yummy is bukusuma that it has been said that people even sit strategically guarding their bukusuma spots. Let me tell you, beyond being tasty, bukusuma is a bubwoba that gives and gives – one can harvest bukusuma for like two weeks nonstop.
Thanks to these desirable characteristics, growing up I remember our village elders sorting one or two tiffs after people fought or reported each other to village elders over bukusuma. Village rumour has it that people have also bewitched each other over this bubwoba! Hahahah. For now, let me not get into describing bukusuma’s the taste. Its Sweetness is just on another level.
Buchelamachi
Buchelamachi is the most common mushroom. It grows freely in fallow lands. It also loves farms where sugar cane previously grew. They may either grow in colonies or can be lone rangers. Buchelamachi is light brown in color with flat heads. The biggest heads grow to size of a soup plate. They have white bottoms and fibrous stocks.
These type of bubwoba grow abundantly during rainy seasons. These mushrooms are the ones our mothers dry and send some us watu wa Nairobi. They are also the type that are commonly bought in markets. A kilo of mushroom costs between Ksh 400-600 onolee!
Bubwoba Bukochwe
Bukochwe is this mushroom that grows in swampy areas near rivers. It is a lone ranger. It comes in grey color and is almost the same size as buchelamachi. Bukochwe thrives in virgin lands. It comes with white bottoms and spongy stocks. The taste is also like that of buchelamachi. It is basically Buchelamachi growing in swampy areas.
Bumekele
These are the small tinny white mushrooms found in colonies. They cover the entire area they colonize. It can be under a tree, on an anthill or simply in an open space. They are our Bukusu form of manna as they seem to appear from nowhere and disappear just as fast. These type of wild mushroom grow and get bad in less than two days.
When it comes to this type of bubwoba, the devil is in the detail. You see when mum sighted bubwoba bumekele, she would task us to go harvest them for our use later that day. Harvesting Bumekele is a slow laborious task that needs a lot of patience. Let me put it this way: it is easier for one to sort beans than it is to harvest bumekele.
But still, we bore the brunt of it all because boy, the mushroom is sweet! Its aroma is just out of this world. Bumekele forms thick soup when simply boiled with salt. Let me not get into the details of picking and cooking bumekele yet. But I just can’t stop drooling when my mind drifts back to those suppers in my childhood when we got to enjoy the toil of our sweat feasting on bumekele!
Bubwoba Busina/ Nasina
Busina is the white mushroom that grows in cowsheds. Nasina comes with white heads, white bottoms and white stocks. There are many mushrooms that grow in cowsheds and paddocks. Not all of them are edible though. However, one can pick the edible one, busina/nasine, by looking at the bottom. IT HAS TO BE WHITE. This mushroom is the most abundant of them all. They just need rain and cow dung
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