Mushrooms (grzyby) are a popular feature of Poland national cuisine. Forget about the bland mushrooms you get at Western supermarkets – mushrooms that grow naturally in Poland are full of flavor (smak, aromat). Polish people seek out their mushrooms in the forest; this is a tradition (tradycja) that usually involves the whole family. And of course I remember going mushroom picking with my family when I was a child, especially in the fall. Then we would make pickled mushrooms, mushroom sauce and soups…yummy!

Mushroom hunting or mushrooming (chodzenie na grzyby, grzybobranie) is the activity of searching for mushrooms in the wild, typically for eating. It is popular in most of Europe, from the Nordic, Baltic and Slavic countries to the Mediterranean Basin. To some it is a sport – one in which the mushrooms may actually have a chance of “winning” different games. For example, we as kids would always set up a time of, let’s say 2 hours, and compete who will pick the most mushrooms during that time.

Picking mushrooms and eating them is a safe occupation, provided one recognises the toxic types (trujące rodzaje), properly identifies the species (gatunki), and stays with the most common edible (jadalne) ones. There is a large number of mushrooms species that are favoured for eating by mushroom hunters. The king bolete (król babka) is a popular delicacy. Sulphur shelf (siarki) is often gathered because it occurs in bulk, recurs year after year, is easily identified, and has a wide variety of culinary uses. Chanterelles (kurki) and morels (smardze) are among the most popular types of mushrooms to gather, the latter being fairly hard to misidentify by anyone with practice. Only experts, however, collect from dangerous groups, such as Amanita (muchomor), which include some of the most toxic mushrooms in existence. Identification is not the only element of mushroom hunting that takes practice – knowing where to search does as well. Most mushroom species require very specific conditions some will only grow at the base of a certain type of tree, for example. Finding a desired species that is known to grow in a certain region can be a challenge.

Have you gone mushroom picking in Poland? Polish people even organize mushroom picking tours for visitors:)

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)