Greetings from the soggy Czech Republic.
Welcome to another Friday open thread diary from your ol' fuzzy friend, Marko. It rained all last night. It has rained all day. We've been getting a lot of rain lately. What is there to do when it's been raining? Well, folk in these parts head for the woods.
And no, not all of them use the woods like a trash bin. See that bottle? The Czechs are known for a few things like glass and crystal, beer and hockey, but some of you may not know that this is a nation of mushroom hunters-- the world champions of champignons.
Actually, few Czechs collect those little white mushrooms so commonly found in grocery stores and scattered over pizzas. Champignons are field mushrooms. Czechs generally prefer to stalk their prey in the forest.
There's an abundance of good eating hiding in the forest...
And so we start right out with a nice, bright, colorful, toxic mushroom. Yeah, this is the disclaimer folks. You won't learn which varieties you can safely pick here. I learned to identify several edible varieties by going out to the woods and picking mushrooms with people who knew what they were doing. This bright red beauty was very popular for killing flies. So popular that in English it is called "Fly Agaric". The caps set in saucers of milk attract flies and kill them. It may not kill you. You're a bit bigger than a fly-- well, never assume anything right? Eating one of these is asking for trouble.
In fact, eating anything you're unsure of is dangerous.
But taking pictures of mushrooms is pretty safe.
You have to be careful if you're going to pick wild mushrooms. Most of the edible varieties that I pick have relatives that are not compatible with your internal organs.
And every year a few people around the world die from eating the wrong mushroom. Often it's experienced mushroom hunters who try their luck while visiting a foreign land and end up skewing the local statistics for death by fungus. When Mrs. the Werelynx has visited the US I've occasionally reminded her that there are tens of thousands of varieties of mushroom and it's well known that what you think may be an old friend may be a toxic look-alike.
When I was a kid growing up back in cheesey ol' Wisconsin my parents were familiar with morel mushrooms and once in awhile we'd find a few and saute them in a bit of butter. I think I've always liked the taste of mushrooms and morels are very tasty mushrooms. But they were the only type of mushroom that my parents felt safe picking.
Even before I moved way out here to the Liver of Europe I had spent a couple of summers walking through the Czech woods learning to identify mushrooms. I have treasured memories of going into the woods early in the morning with Mrs. the Werelynx's grandmother or occasionally her uncle. And after one of these trips we discovered that I'd picked nearly a full basket of a bitter, gut-ache inducing variety that somewhat resembled the varieties that I had thought I had recently learned.
It may not be much to look at under all those spruce needles, but that's one of my personal favorites. Czech common names for it refer to its rosy pink shading or its meaty flavor and texture. It does however have a dull gray cousin that is very toxic so not many Czechs pick it. Lucky for me...
Turns out that I'm still learning. Last week when I took these pictures I picked a variety that is nearly identical to one that is shown in the two photos below. That's not good. The Macrolepiota family contains a few unpleasant individuals. I figured out my mistake while cleaning and preparing the mushrooms. After cutting one in half I noticed that the cut areas were turning a bright orangey-pink. Just the one mushroom-- and I'd never noticed these mushrooms turning pink before. Turned out to be a variety with some indication that not everyone finds it agreeable. Not exactly toxic, just not particularly digestable for some people.
Needless to say, I'll be checking for that color change from now on.
There are a few varieties that I know people around here praise and pick, but I don't know them well enough to trust myself to pick them. And there are varieties that I pick with certainty that the folks around here seem to avoid.
The Czech Republic hasn't fallen yet into the mania for putting fences around woodlands. Most of the forests are still considered state property and those that have been given back into private hands for the most part remain open to the public. Sure, you'll see signs forbidding the collection of wood-- but I've yet to see a sign forbidding the collection of mushrooms.
It's something of a national pastime. This weekend there'll be cars parked on every logging road and trail head across the whole country. Whole families will take to the woods swinging their woven baskets and staring at the ground. I suppose the root of the Czech passion for mushrooms is from privation and hunger in a land ravaged repeatedly by invaders, but today it's a proud tradition.
Pretty tasty too.