Cultivating mushrooms

Mushroom-gathering

Context

Mushrooms can be sun-dried, oven-dried, made into tea or have their juice bottled to ward off stomach ailments. They are salted, pickled and marinated to provide winter vitamins.

Claim

Eastern European countries are so obsessed by mushrooms, that by September, at the peak of the season, even the laziest people will have dragged themselves out of bed before dawn to tramp through the dewy forest in search of mushrooms.

It is being there as the sun rises, the early morning mist, the scent of the forest. It is an emotion impossible to describe when you find your first mushroom. A true gatherer must understand the sky, the weather, the breeding habits of the mushroom - he must be able to commune with nature.

There is even an expression in Russian - gribny dozhd, or mushroom rain - to describe the rain after sunshine which is perfect for the fungi.