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Picking mushrooms in the forest is not only the search for fruiting bodies for further culinary use. It is also relaxation, entertainment, a way to spend several hours in silence, to enjoy the beauty of nature, to dream, to think about something sublime. Or, on the contrary, you can pick mushrooms as some amateurs advise – in a cheerful company, with songs and jokes.
residents have always shown a love for nature. Yields for mushrooms, or “mushroom”, years are not celebrated every season – it all depends on the vagaries of the weather. Everyone should always follow the simple rules for picking mushrooms, which will protect you from poisoning and bring maximum pleasure from the “quiet hunt”.
You will learn how to pick mushrooms in the forest by reading the material on this page.
How to pick mushrooms in the forest
A brief reminder of the mushroom picking rule is as follows:
- In any case, decisively throw away unfamiliar mushrooms, even if you have even the slightest doubt, remember that even one dubious fungus can cost you your life.
- For the first time or with little experience, go to the forest with experienced mushroom pickers who are familiar to you personally, use reference books.
- Following the basic rules, picking mushrooms should be carried out in ecologically clean places, away from cities and large industrial enterprises, at a distance of at least 500 meters from highways.
- Do not take old mushrooms and specimens even with slight signs of mold.
- Mushrooms should be harvested, preserved and stored according to the recipes of experienced specialists.
- Never buy mushrooms from unfamiliar sellers and in the absence of an official store.
See a photo of how to pick mushrooms in the forest:
Go to the forest in tight, closed clothes, be sure to wear a hat, use mosquito and tick repellents, shake out clothes after a forest walk, contact a doctor immediately if ticks are found on your body (in some areas, ticks are not encephalitic and at the first signs of poisoning fruiting bodies.
This video details the correct picking of mushrooms in the forest:
Proper gear for picking
It is not enough to know how to pick mushrooms correctly. Going into the forest, mushroom pickers need to have the right equipment. Otherwise, forest trips can result in health problems.
According to the rules for picking mushrooms in the forest, a mandatory set must contain:
- waterproof suit for rainy weather;
- tight jeans and a jacket like a windbreaker that do not bite through mosquitoes and even wasps, for dry and sunny weather;
- boots in rainy and wet weather, as well as early in the morning when the grass is wet with dew;
- comfortable and durable sports shoes such as sneakers for dry weather;
- hand or pocket compass, do not forget to determine the opposite direction when entering the forest;
- mosquito repellent;
- sharp knife for mushrooms, preferably folding;
- a basket is required, do not take plastic bags: in them, the mushrooms crumple and deteriorate ahead of time;
- if you collect different types of mushrooms, among which there are raincoats and hedgehogs, in which spines fall off and stick to all other mushrooms, or mokruhi, which can stain all other species, as well as tender young dung beetles, then you should make one or two in a basket partitions or take an additional small basket;
- a headdress or a scarf in the forest is necessary.
Many mushroom pickers are looking forward to the start of the autumn season. It is no coincidence that autumn is sung by many poets, how can one calmly relate to the beautiful golden foliage and the unique beauty of the autumn forest! There are a lot of mushrooms in autumn. However, mushrooms can be harvested at any time of the year. You just need to know where and when to look for them. And, of course, do not forget about the basic rules for collecting edible mushrooms.
Good mushroom pickers in the fall prepare substantial stocks of pickled, salted, frozen, dried mushrooms, which they have enough until the next season.
Search for mushroom places
The climate significantly affects the time of fruiting and the amount of collection. For example, in the very rainy summer of 2008 in central Our Country, a massive harvest of autumn mushrooms was observed a month earlier than usual – from August 15 to 25. The weather anomaly also affected the harvest: the peak was powerful, but short-lived, in 10 days all honey mushrooms came down. The anomaly also affected the fact that in the unprecedentedly early harvest of autumn mushrooms, each mushroom contained small brown bugs. In addition, in 2008 there was a peak harvest of winter mushrooms. Many of the most beautiful pearl-red and brownish-yellow shiny mushrooms were on the spruces, and in 2009 and 2010 – yellow-brown in the parks. In 2011, there were few mushrooms, but in humid places there were a lot of boletus and Polish mushrooms. In 2012, there were a few mushrooms, russula and few chanterelles, but nature is never “empty”, in the same year there were many beloved white mushrooms.
If we consider different families of edible mushrooms, then we can say with confidence that there are good mushroom places where valuable mushroom species grow at different times or even in different years.
If you have identified three or four such mushroom sites, then you can be sure that they will not let you down and will continue to delight you with new types of mushrooms, depending on the climate and season.
Thus, the well-known phrase becomes clear that it is necessary, first of all, to search for mushroom places, then there will be mushrooms themselves.
In some cases, one careful look is enough to identify good mushroom places. So, a pine forest is visible from afar, usually on the banks of rivers and reservoirs, there are often butterflies, champignons, porcini mushrooms, mushrooms, spring mushrooms. But the “honeycomb” places (where autumn and summer mushrooms grow) are most often located in windbreaks, where there is an abundance of fallen trees and stumps. In addition, there are many of them near summer cottages and villages, where there are a lot of cut and broken trees and stumps.
Here you can see a selection of photos about picking mushrooms in the forest»:
Spread of fungal spores
By learning how to properly pick mushrooms, you can bring joy to others if you spread spores near residential buildings. It doesn’t take much effort to do this. You need to know that your favorite porcini, boletus, boletus, mushrooms, milk mushrooms and other mushrooms grow successfully only in symbiosis with the roots of certain plants and trees. It can be spruce, birch, mountain ash, pine, alder, ferns, mosses and so on.
If in your garden partnership or in the village there is an alley of birches, firs, pines, then you can safely pour mixed water with old mushrooms near the roots. Often they throw out old porcini mushrooms, boletus, boletus. Take the down from them, or the tubular part lower from the hat. It contains a large number of spores. Stir it in warm water, and here you have a solution for planting. Next, pour this solution under Christmas trees, birches, mountain ash and other trees. As a result, only the lazy do not collect boletus, boletus and other valuable mushrooms in the alley next to the houses.