Since it's the mushroom season in Poland, here is my series of posts about edible mushrooms.
In Poland, going into the woods and picking edible mushrooms is a long tradition. Some people are so invested in it, that if they find a good place where mushrooms grow, they will never tell anyone about it. They wake up at 5 and set out into the woods before the sun rises. It's very important to go early, because if you go mushroom picking in the afternoon, the chances of you finding more than a few mushrooms are very slim.
The knowledge about which mushrooms are edible, how to find and prepare them is passed down from parents and grandparents.
There's many reasons to go mushroom picking and here are few of mine:
1. Mushrooms are delicious (they're not really nutricious, but people should more ofter eat purely for pleasure)
2. It gets you out into the woods. When you go mushroom picking, you spend hours in the wild, breathing the clean air.
3. It builds your attentiveness in nature. To spot the desired mushrooms, you don't only need to know how to distinguish them from other mushrooms, but you also have to be able to spot them between the moss, fallen leaves and other parts of forest litter.
4. It builds your chances of survival. To pick mushrooms, you have to learn which ones are dangerous and could kill you. It's a lot of interesting knowledge, that can one day save yours, or someone's life. While learning which mushrooms are edible, you also learn which ones look similar to other poisonous mushrooms.
5. It's a great way to bond with your family or friends. Going mushroom picking is a great activity to do with them. You can then meet up and eat the mushrooms together.
6. Learning about mushrooms builds your curiosity about the rest of surrounding nature.
7. Any type of nature foraging is such a great vibe and it helps our natural instincts to wake back up.