What are the best places to look for mushrooms? How to search and find wild mushrooms
The most necessary things for every mushroom picker are a mushroom picker's calendar and a mushroom guide. By checking the mushroom calendar, you can easily understand which mushrooms to pick at this particular time. Despite the fact that the timing of the appearance of a particular type of mushroom is not constant and depends on weather conditions, each mushroom has its own specific dates for the beginning and end of the season. These are what the mushroom picker’s calendar for 2017 contains. If you have forgotten the main differences between poisonous mushrooms and edible ones, be sure to refresh your memory by looking at the mushroom guide.
Mushroom picker calendar for summer
- Mushrooms in June. According to the mushroom picker's calendar, in the first ten days of June, those who like to pick mushrooms should look for boletus in the pine forest, and boletus mushrooms in the birch groves. In the second half of June, the mushroom season begins for white mushrooms. Pogruzdki are fruitful mushrooms; they are collected all summer and until late autumn.
- Mushrooms in July. In early July, the season of saffron milk caps begins, and at the end of the first ten days of July, the most desirable for mushroom pickers are porcini mushrooms. At the same time, according to the calendar, the first russula appear - the most productive mushrooms. They can be found in almost any forest from July until late autumn frosts. In the second half of July, milk mushrooms and black milk mushrooms begin to be found in coniferous and mixed forests, and on the edges and forest clearings mushroom pickers are delighted with chanterelles and pigs.
- Mushrooms in August. August is considered the most mushroom month. In fruitful years, mushroom pickers in August collect porcini mushrooms, milk mushrooms, saffron milk caps, boletus mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, russula, boletus and other mushrooms in baskets. At the beginning of August, the first honey mushrooms appear, and in the middle of the month - moths and white mushrooms. The second half of August and the first ten days of September are the best times for picking mushrooms.
Mushroom picker calendar for autumn
- Gibs in September. Mushroom pickers are happy in September. As the mushroom picker’s calendar says: many summer mushrooms continue to grow, while at the same time autumn mushrooms appear in large quantities. In the second half of September, some species of mushrooms disappear, but honey mushrooms, volushkas, white mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, pigworts, and white cape mushrooms are still abundant.
- Mushrooms in October. At the end of October, you can postpone the mushroom picker's calendar until next year, because the mushroom season is ending. In the second ten days of October, when the average daily air temperature drops to 4-5 degrees Celsius and night frosts begin, the mushroom picking season will end. However, you can still find young honey mushrooms preserved under the foliage and grass of saffron milk caps, saffron milk caps and white mushrooms.
Mushroom picker calendar for 2017
The mushroom picker's phenological calendar will come to the aid of beginning mushroom pickers. The mushroom picker's calendar marks the most popular mushrooms and the period when to collect these mushrooms in the forest. Of course, everything depends on the region and the weather in each season, but the mushroom picker’s calendar fully provides some of the useful knowledge of when to pick mushrooms. You will also find it useful
What mushrooms to collect |
When to pick mushrooms |
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April | May | June | July | August | September | October | |
Morels | + | + | + | - | - | - | - |
Stitches | + | + | + | - | - | - | - |
May mushroom | - | + | + | - | - | - | - |
Oyster mushroom | - | + | + | + | + | + | + |
Meadow honey fungus | - | - | + | + | + | + | - |
boletus | - | - | + | + | + | + | - |
Oiler grainy | - | - | - | + | + | + | - |
Summer honey fungus | - | - | + | + | + | + | + |
The fox is real | - | - | - | + | + | + | - |
Porcini | - | - | + | + | + | + | + |
Boletus | - | - | + | + | + | + | + |
Pluteus deer | - | - | + | + | + | + | + |
Spiky raincoat | - | + | + | + | + | + | + |
Common champignon | - | - | + | + | + | + | - |
Field champignon | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Valuy | - | - | - | + | + | + | - |
Funnel talker | - | - | - | + | + | + | - |
White umbrella mushroom | - | - | - | + | + | + | - |
Variegated umbrella mushroom | - | - | - | + | + | + | + |
Real milk mushroom | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Poddubovik | - | - | - | + | + | + | - |
Ivyshen | - | - | - | - | + | + | + |
Loader white | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Loader black | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Fat pig | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Russula yellow, food, etc. |
- | + | + | + | + | + | - |
Green moss | - | - | + | + | + | + | + |
Yellow hedgehog | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Ringed cap | - | - | - | + | + | + | - |
Larch oiler | - | - | - | + | + | + | - |
Volnushka pink | - | - | - | - | + | + | + |
Black breast | - | - | - | + | + | + | + |
Spruce green camelina | - | - | - | - | + | + | + |
Pine mushroom | - | - | - | - | + | + | + |
Gray talker | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Late oiler | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Winter mushroom | - | - | - | - | - | + | + |
Loader black and white | - | - | - | - | - | + | + |
Polish mushroom | - | - | - | - | + | - | - |
Autumn oyster mushroom | - | - | - | - | - | + | - |
Gray row | - | - | - | - | - | + | - |
Autumn stitch | - | - | - | - | - | + | + |
Autumn honey fungus | - | - | - | - | - | + | + |
Row purple | - | - | - | - | + | + | - |
Greenfinch | - | - | - | - | + | + | + |
Hygrophor brown | - | - | - | - | - | + | + |
Mushroom picker calendar 2017
for the Moscow region and central Russia
Types of mushrooms | May | June | July | August | September | October | ||||||||||||
Decades | ||||||||||||||||||
I | II | III | I | II | III | I | II | III | I | II | III | I | II | III | I | II | III | |
Morel | ||||||||||||||||||
Porcini | ||||||||||||||||||
Boletus | ||||||||||||||||||
boletus | ||||||||||||||||||
Chanterelle | ||||||||||||||||||
Oiler | ||||||||||||||||||
Mosswort | ||||||||||||||||||
Honey fungus | ||||||||||||||||||
Ryzhik | ||||||||||||||||||
Volnushka | ||||||||||||||||||
Gruzd | ||||||||||||||||||
Valuy | ||||||||||||||||||
Russula | ||||||||||||||||||
Champignon | ||||||||||||||||||
Belyanka (white volnushka) | ||||||||||||||||||
Gorkushka | ||||||||||||||||||
Greenfinch | ||||||||||||||||||
Serushka | ||||||||||||||||||
Kozlyak | ||||||||||||||||||
Raincoat | ||||||||||||||||||
Cap | ||||||||||||||||||
Ryadovka | ||||||||||||||||||
Violin |
Mushroom picker calendar 2017
for the Leningrad region and northern places of Russia
The mushroom season in the forests of the Leningrad region is from August to November. There are countless mushroom places in the Leningrad region, the main thing is to know when to pick this or that mushroom. The mushroom picker calendar for the Leningrad region will help with this. Edible mushrooms in the Leningrad region are varied: these are bright aspen boletuses and delicious boletus mushrooms, valuable porcini mushrooms and boletus mushrooms, red chanterelles, slippery boletus and moss mushrooms, as well as milk mushrooms, milk mushrooms and honey mushrooms. If you check the mushroom picker’s calendar, you can pick up delicious morels, puffballs, and russula. Don’t be lazy, if the weather is right after the rain, look at the mushroom calendar and get ready for a mushroom trip. Refer to the mushroom picker calendar below for the Leningrad region.
Mushroom picker calendar for the Leningrad region | ||
When to pick mushrooms | What mushrooms to collect | Where to pick mushrooms |
March | Oyster mushroom, tree mushrooms, talker | There are practically no mushrooms, but at the end of the month the first snowdrops may appear. If the winter is warm, you can find fresh oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms usually grow on trees, the cap of such a mushroom is one-sided or rounded, the plates run down to the stem, as if growing to it. It is not difficult to distinguish oyster mushrooms from inedible mushrooms - it has a cap that is completely leathery to the touch. |
April | Oyster mushroom, tree mushrooms, govorushka, morel, stitch | Snowdrop mushrooms are quite common - morels and stitches |
May | Morel, stitch, oil can, oyster mushroom, raincoat | Most mushrooms can be found not under trees, but in clearings, in thick grass. |
June | Oiler, boletus, boletus, oyster mushroom, morel, honey fungus, chanterelle, porcini mushroom, puffball | In June, mushrooms of the highest (first) category begin to appear. |
July | Oiler, boletus, boletus, oyster mushroom, morel, puffball, honey fungus, chanterelle, porcini mushroom, moss mushroom | There are already quite a lot of mushrooms - both in the clearings and under the trees. In addition to mushrooms, strawberries and blueberries are already found. |
August | Oiler, boletus, boletus, oyster mushroom, morel, honey fungus, chanterelle, porcini mushroom, moss mushroom | At this time, mushrooms can be found almost everywhere: in the grass, under trees, near stumps, in ditches and on trees, and even in city squares and on the sides of roads. In addition to mushrooms, lingonberries have already ripened, and cranberries are appearing in the swamps. |
September | Oiler, boletus, boletus, oyster mushroom, morel, honey mushroom, chanterelle, porcini mushroom, moss mushroom, | September is the most productive month for mushrooms. But you need to be careful: autumn is coming to the forests, and in the bright foliage it is difficult to see the multi-colored mushroom caps. |
October | Valuy, oyster mushroom, camelina, honey fungus, champignon, boletus, porcini mushroom, milk mushroom, moss mushroom, russula | The number of mushrooms in the clearings begins to decrease. In October, it is better to look for mushrooms near stumps and under trees. |
November | Butterfly, greenfinch, oyster mushroom, tree mushrooms. | Frosts are beginning, but there is a high probability of finding frozen mushrooms. |
You will also find useful material about mushrooms with a mushroom picker’s calendar:
Mushroom key
There are no reliable methods for distinguishing edible and poisonous mushrooms by eye, so the only way out is to know each of the mushrooms. If the species identity of mushrooms is in doubt, you should under no circumstances eat them. Fortunately, among the hundreds of species found in nature, many have such clearly defined characteristics that it is difficult to confuse them with others. However, it is better to always have a mushroom identification guide on hand.
Mushroom Guide - How to distinguish edible mushrooms |
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1 - breast; 2 - saffron milk cap; 3 - cone mushroom; 4 - greenish russula; 5 - edible russula; 6 - fox. |
7 - oiler; 8 - morel; 9 - porcini mushroom; 10 - large umbrella; 11 - row; 12 - field champignon. |
Mushroom identification guide - How to distinguish poisonous mushrooms |
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1 - paneolus; 2 - gray float; 3 - glowing talker; 4 - common veselka; 5 - pale grebe; 6 - white fly agaric (spring). |
7 - red fly agaric; 8 - variegated champignon; 9 - russula emetic; 10 - value; 11 - entoloma |
Taking a mushroom guide and a mushroom picker's calendar with you as you make your way through the forest in search of mushrooms, you can entertain yourself with a conversation about mushrooms. Share interesting facts about mushrooms with your friends.
The most poisonous mushrooms
There are about one hundred species of mushrooms in Europe that are undoubtedly poisonous. Of these, only eight are deadly poisonous.
- The most poisonous mushroom is Galerina sulciceps, which grows in Java and Sri Lanka. Even one eaten fruit leads to death in half an hour or an hour.
- In Europe and North America, the most poisonous are the white (spring) fly agaric and the stinking fly agaric.
- The most poisonous and deadly to humans is the toadstool, for which no antidote has yet been found.
The largest edible mushrooms
The largest mushroom in the world grows in Malheur National Park in the Blue Mountains (Oregon, USA). This mushroom covers an area of 890 hectares. However, we are interested in edible mushrooms.
- The largest edible mushroom was discovered in Canada by Jean Guy Richard. The unique raincoat (Calvatia gigantean) had a circumference of 2.64 meters and a weight of 22 kilograms.
- The largest champigno was found in Italy by Francesco Quito in the province of Bari. The mushroom weighed 14 kilograms.
- The largest truffle found weighed even less - only 7 kilograms.
The most expensive mushrooms
- Of course, the most expensive mushrooms are truffles, white and black. Incredibly expensive white truffles grow mainly in Italy, in the Piedmont region. The Perigord black truffle or Tuber melanosporum is also considered a real masterpiece of nature.
- The matsutake mushroom competes with truffles for the title of the most expensive mushroom. This mushroom is often called the king of mushrooms due to its rich mushroom aroma and excellent taste. No one has yet managed to grow matsutake artificially, which is why the price for them has increased significantly, unlike truffles, which the Chinese have learned to successfully cultivate.
Now, thanks to the mushroom picker's calendar, you know what mushrooms to pick and when to pick them in the Moscow and Leningrad regions. A short mushroom guide will help you distinguish edible and poisonous mushrooms. Happy quiet hunting.
Achieving the art of a true mushroom picker in picking mushrooms is possible only after several years of practice. But learning to entertain yourself with quiet hunting is very simple!
Mushroom picking places
Each mushroom picker has his own favorite places. One walks along the edge of the forest, the other picks up the spreading paws of spruce trees and finds porcini mushrooms under them. The third has all the mushroom places registered, and he doesn’t wastelessly walk through the forest in search of the treasured porcini mushrooms, but moves from one place to another, almost without looking at the ground. Some are waiting for autumn fogs; to start collecting real milk mushrooms.
Other mushroom pickers-experts go in the morning to the cattle field, where just yesterday they grazed cattle, where, it seems, everything has been trampled, and return from there with a basket of young porcini mushrooms that have grown near the juniper bushes and under the branches of young fir trees. City mushroom pickers learn about the appearance of mushrooms by stopping by the nearest market in the morning on their way to work.
Forest roads after rains are also examined by mushroom pickers quite carefully and, in most cases, successfully.
How to pick mushrooms
When harvesting, mushrooms are placed in a basket with their caps down. Mushrooms with long stems (porcini, boletus, aspen) are best placed on their side. Cut or picked mushrooms are cleaned of debris and soil by hand or with a knife so that they do not contaminate the basket and other mushrooms. The stems of all lamellar mushrooms going into pickling are cut off. They are preserved only in saffron milk caps, chanterelles, russula and voles. As a rule, all edible mushrooms are collected together and sorted at home by individual species or by method of further use: for drying, salting, pickling. By the way, this procedure gives a real mushroom picker no less pleasure than picking mushrooms itself.
It is very important to know, when entering the forest with a basket, what and where mushrooms can grow at a given time. When the summer is humid, they are looked for where there is less moisture, that is, in dry, elevated places well warmed by the sun, on the edges, clearings, away from tree trunks. On the contrary, in hot and dry summers they grow more in the shade of trees, under spruce paws, in thick grass, on the slopes between hills, where moisture is retained in sufficient quantities.
You should start picking mushrooms as early as possible, even before sunrise (at this time, in the absence of oblique sunlight, they are much more noticeable). After sunrise, the search route is laid out so that its rays do not hit the eyes directly. You need to walk through the forest slowly, carefully looking at all the places characteristic of mushrooms. Having found one mushroom, look around, even sit down to change the angle - and you will be rewarded. Many mushrooms grow in families, groups, or even entire colonies, especially milk mushrooms and saffron milk caps. It happens that under one old birch you collect 2-3 dozen white ones.
How to extract mushrooms from the ground
Mushrooms can be cut, broken, pulled out or unscrewed. Among the people, such expressions as “breaking” and “taking” mushrooms are common. They “break” lamellar mushrooms, and “take” (cut or twist) tubular ones. If we talk about mushrooms grown under artificial conditions, then practice has shown that it is impossible to rudely pull out mushrooms, disturb the top layer of the nutrient medium and break the mycelium. Probably this situation was transferred to the forest, to natural conditions. Mushroom pickers who uproot mushrooms are called mushroom poachers, and this method of collection is destructive. And, of course, we can agree with this. As for the harm to the mycelium, this is a controversial issue. In pastures where cattle are grazed, where the top soil layer is damaged by the hooves of domestic animals, mushrooms grow especially well (there is, however, a completely opposite opinion).
Near forest roads, where the top layer of soil is damaged and mixed, more mushrooms grow than away from roads. It turns out that loosening the soil and violating the integrity of the mycelium threads does not lead to a decrease in the number of mushrooms, but to an increase. Damage and rupture of the mycelium contribute to the appearance of mushrooms. There are more mushrooms in clearings prepared for planting than in untouched areas. After burning brushwood and wood debris, more mushrooms, butterflies, and other mushrooms appear in forest plots. But frequent visits to mushroom places, trampling and compaction of the surface layer of soil near cities leads not only to a decrease, but also to the complete disappearance of mushrooms.
So how do you pick mushrooms? Probably, the collection of volnushki should be left the same, that is, only the caps should be broken off. But, of course, you shouldn’t pull mushrooms out of the ground. You need to cut the mushroom with a knife as low as possible so that the remainder of the large root does not rot and harm the mycelium. There are other recommendations that it is better to twist some mushrooms out of the soil. One must assume that one should not object to this either. One thing is important here - we must take care of nature and especially such wealth as mushrooms.
Tips for those who pick mushrooms:
- Do not take a mushroom in its embryonic state: nothing will be added to the basket, but in two or three days it will grow and then it will be nice to put it in the basket.
It is better to take the mushroom by cutting it at the base of the stem, but without tearing off the moss cover: this leads to drying out of the mycelium and the formation of mushroom-cutting bald patches.
- Place the taken mushroom in a basket, clearing it of debris: pine needles, leaves, soil.
“If you don’t know a mushroom and don’t take it, then don’t trample it: maybe another mushroom lover will take it.”
- Choose medium and large healthy mushrooms - without signs of rot and wormholes, but not overripe or flabby, since such substances quickly accumulate toxic substances dangerous to humans; For the same reasons, the collected mushrooms should be processed as quickly as possible: drying, salting, pickling:
— When collecting fragile, brittle mushrooms (russula, volushki, etc.), if possible, place them separately from large, heavy mushrooms.
Most city dwellers gradually lose the skills of navigating the forest, as well as distinguishing between edible and inedible forest products. The same goes for mushrooms, because it seems that they are much easier to buy in the store. But at the same time, we must also take into account the pleasure that can be obtained in the process of hunting for them. So, for example, how to search
About mushrooms
Most associate these organisms exclusively with their fruits - what can be seen, for example, in stores. But many people remember from biology courses that everything is not so simple. The first feature is that mushrooms are not plants. And they are really very different from them. Second: a mushroom is not only what is visible on the surface. This is only his body, a small part. And the main one lies underground - this is the mycelium. Few people do not notice that mushrooms grow in groups - having discovered one, you can find several more nearby. And all because the same mycelium is located in the soil, which is not roots in the usual sense of the word, but has a number of similar functions. It can extend over a fairly large space and comes to the surface in the form of mushroom bodies.
Properties and nutritional value
They are called forest meat, and this name is not accidental. They consist almost entirely of water, with proteins in second place, about the same amount of carbohydrates and very little fat. When dried, the amount of protein per 100 grams increases to approximately 30%, but it cannot serve as a substitute for meat. The fact is that most of the protein is not absorbed by the human body due to a special substance - chitin, which is included in the cell membrane of mushrooms.
But we cannot ignore the fact that they contain a huge amount of useful microelements and vitamins. Some of them can even serve as a medicine against certain diseases - a separate area called fungotherapy is studying these properties. But besides, we must not forget that this is quite a heavy food that takes a long time to digest.
Silent hunt
Mushroom pickers are often called hunters, and this is, in general, fair. Their task is actually to stalk their prey, since luck rarely smiles on those who go at random. And these people have the secrets of how to look for mushrooms, where to do it, and at what time. Of course, they are also distinguished from poisonous ones and have a number of special skills and knowledge. So, what are the basic rules you need to know for a “silent hunt” to be successful?
Where and how to look for mushrooms?
There are places in the forest where a hunter is more likely to meet his prey. The main weapon here is knowledge. Some species prefer sunny edges and clearings, while others prefer shady lowlands. But there are some universal rules that help both beginners and more experienced mushroom hunters.
Firstly, you need to go out into the forest early in the morning, when there are still no slanting sun rays and the dew has not dried. It is the moisture after a cool night that will help you notice the shiny wet caps in the grass.
Secondly, you need to remember the principle of mushroom growth - if you find one, then there will definitely be several more nearby. So you need to take a closer look around.
Thirdly, it is better to organize your first trips with more experienced guides. This will allow you to gain orientation skills in the forest, as well as understand how to properly look for mushrooms.
Fourthly, a special stick about a meter long with a slingshot at the end will be a good helper. It is very convenient to move the grass in front of you and to the sides so as not to miss a single boletus or boletus.
And yet, every fan of “silent hunting” has his own secrets, how to find porcini mushrooms, where to look for milk mushrooms. When going into the forest for specific species, you need to know not only when is the best time to collect them, but also their favorite places.
Mushroom season in the Moscow region
It is traditionally believed that it is necessary to obtain forest meat in the fall, but this does not mean that lovers of “silent hunting” put down their baskets for almost a year in October. In fact, the first mushrooms may appear as early as March, although there are very few of them at this time; it is better to delay the start of the season until April-May (depending on the speed of snow melting and the rise in average daily temperature). In the Moscow region at this time, morels and strings are collected, which look rather strange, but have excellent taste.
At the end of May and beginning of June, boletus and many other summer mushrooms begin to appear, and in July all the main species gradually begin to bear fruit, although this time is considered not very fruitful. The real active season opens in August, when the forests truly hide untold riches! This golden time lasts until about mid-September and makes it possible not to have to figure out how to look for mushrooms in the forest, because they are literally everywhere and practically ask to be added to the basket. Experienced people know that over the summer there are several “waves” of growth or “layers”. The first of them occurs in the second half of July, and the rest for a short time before the beginning of real autumn. This is exactly the moment when it is best for a beginner to try his hand.
The main season closes at the end of October, although individual fans can extend it for a few more weeks. And yet, where to look for mushrooms so as not to go at random? Each type requires its own approach.
To begin with, you can go in the directions considered the most “fruitful”. In the Moscow region, mushroom pickers often go out at the stations Zhavoronki, Tuchkovo, Dorokhovo, Pobeda, Dachnaya, White Pillars, Lvovskaya, Donino, Gzhel, Zelenogradskaya, Abramtsevo, Khimki, Povarovo, etc. In fact, at the height of the season, it’s easy to understand what places are now They are popular - a lot of people with baskets come off the morning trains.
Other Features
When going into the forest, you must dress properly and follow all the necessary precautions. For example, wear a hat and high boots. This will help protect you from ticks and snakes that are found in the grass and bushes.
Each mushroom picker must have a knife and a special container with him. An ordinary bag will not work, because what is collected in it will quickly “suffocate”, lose all its appearance and usefulness, crumble and immediately begin to rot. Willow baskets work best. Regarding the collection method, there are two directly opposite opinions: some believe that it is better to cut the mushrooms, while others insist that this method provokes rotting and death of the mycelium, so it is better to unscrew the stem from the ground like a screw. Unfortunately, there is no general opinion.
Edible and inedible
One of the first rules of mushroom pickers is this: when in doubt, it is better to refuse. Learning to distinguish edibles from their poisonous counterparts is not so difficult; it is a matter of practice. But the fact is that even the most delicious boletus, boletus and boletus mushrooms can be fraught with danger. Before deciding where to look for mushrooms, you need to find a suitable place for this - a forest that is located far enough from highways and any other sources of pollution. Every cap and beautiful appetizing leg found near such places threatens to be poisoned. The fact is that mushrooms absorb all harmful substances like a sponge, and it is impossible to get rid of them. Therefore, you should think several times when choosing places to look for mushrooms in the Moscow region.
Another feature that affects edibility is the relative position of different species. Sometimes it happens that a mushroom picker finds a clearing with a whole family of caps. And suddenly, in the middle of this crowd, it is discovered that it is better to throw away what you have collected, since the poison that gets into the mycelium can, in the best case, cause severe poisoning.
In addition, you should not bring home large overripe specimens. It’s better to do it differently - pin the hat on a tree branch in the forest. This will make it easier for the spores to spread, and next year there is a chance to see many more mushrooms in the same places.
Symptoms of poisoning
Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but it is important to correct it in time. After eating mushrooms and suddenly having doubts, you need to analyze your condition. The following symptoms should alert you:
- abdominal pain;
- nausea, vomiting;
- rise or fall in temperature;
- drowsiness;
- increased salivation and/or sweating;
- strong thirst.
The appearance of several of these signs after eating mushrooms is a reason to immediately seek help, even if it seems that this is not necessary. This can save someone's life, and you can even get poisoned by edible, but improperly processed species.
How to cook?
Before looking for mushrooms in the forest, it would be useful to ask how they should be processed. They are hardly stored, so they must be processed immediately after collection. Just a few hours - and all the forest wealth can be safely thrown into the trash, so it’s better to hurry. First of all, you need to sort through everything, clean and cut it. Species such as morels and stitches require special attention - they need to be washed very carefully. As for conventionally edible mushrooms, as a rule, they need to be soaked for several hours to get rid of bitterness. In general, the preparation of each type requires its own approach. Some are more suitable for frying, others for stewing, and others for pickling. But in the end it's a matter of taste.
Overgrown with bushes and forests, as well as sunny sides of the glades. One of the reasons for the appearance of boletus mushrooms is damage to the mycelium located in the soil under the forest floor. Therefore, many porcini mushrooms can be seen along the sides of forest roads, fire protection and drainage ditches, where livestock grazed for some time.
Look for large porcini mushrooms in spruce and pine forests. Boletuses found in birch and other deciduous forests tend to be smaller in size. The “King of Mushrooms” is often under sparse old birch trees located in juniper thickets. In productive years, these mushrooms may appear in unusual places: in a mixed grove, young pine, aspen or oak forest, on hillocks with sandy soil.
Try looking for boletus in lingonberries and heather. If the year turns out to be dry, with a high degree of probability these mushrooms will appear in a pine forest, where there is a damp sandy area overgrown with soft greenish mosses. Look around to find an abandoned clearing or thicket of willow trees. If in front of you there is a small ravine in which there are no anthills, you don’t have to waste time searching.
Remember other presences of porcini mushrooms - the presence nearby of red fly agaric, whitebeard, wintergreen, heather, mynika, blue molinia and blueberry. Valuis are considered the most faithful companions of boletus. Do not waste time looking for porcini mushrooms in damp lowlands, deep and dense forests with thick grass: boletus loves moderately damp, bright places. It is often camouflaged in mosses, decaying brushwood, fallen leaves and other forest “garbage”.
Look around carefully when you find one porcini mushroom: if you go on a “quiet hunt” in the fall, you’ll probably soon find several of its neighbors nearby. Remember that the greatest benefit can be obtained from five-day-old mushrooms with a cap whose diameter exceeds 4 centimeters.
Summer is the time for “quiet hunting”. Avid mushroom pickers and ordinary city dwellers, eager to escape into nature, take baskets, board trains and go into the forest. You just want to not only wander through the forest, but also bring home your catch.
Instructions
You can beg experienced mushroom pickers to show you their favorite places, but it’s unlikely that anyone will decide to give you the coordinates of the treasured clearings where you can fill all the available baskets and buckets in half an hour. At best, they will tell you which station to get off at and which direction to go, so as not to be left completely without the gifts of nature. The situation is approximately the same on forums dedicated to “silent hunting”.
If you have no preference regarding the mushrooms you collect, look into a mixed forest consisting of oak, birch, aspen, pine, and spruce. Such places have always been considered mushroom. Here you are likely to find porcini mushrooms, boletus and boletus, chanterelles, russula, milk mushrooms and other mushrooms. You should not climb into the thicket in the hope that there are gifts of the forest growing there that no one has yet reached. Most likely, there will be nothing there - mushrooms prefer more open places.
If you go hunting for a particular mushroom, you should know which places it prefers. Chanterelles love illuminated mixed and deciduous forests. The porcini mushroom is most often found in oak forests. Milk mushrooms can be found in pine-birch and spruce-birch forests. When gathering for boletus or aspen boletuses, look for them among the young growth of birch or aspen trees, respectively. But boletus prefer to grow in young spruce plantings.
Closer to autumn, honey mushrooms appear. These mushrooms prefer to live in damp deciduous forests. They can be found on stumps, in ravines, and sometimes on trees. And saffron mushrooms and saffron milk caps should be collected in mixed and spruce forests.
Berry bushes also have their own preferences. Blueberries love moist or slightly swampy mixed and coniferous forests. At the same time, blueberry trees growing in well-lit areas are larger and have more berries. Strawberries prefer sunny meadows in the middle of mixed or deciduous forest. Raspberries also prefer clearings or clearings. But at the end of summer, cranberries should be collected, of course, in damp and marshy places.
Each experienced mushroom picker has his own signs when he should go mushroom picking. Some people go to the forest after waiting for fogs, some for warm rain, and others when they see the first forest mushrooms collected in a given area for sale at the city market. An inexperienced mushroom picker, who wants to bring home a full basket, wonders how to properly look for mushrooms and where they usually grow. There are subtleties to searching for mushroom glades on forest edges.
Instructions
The first spring mushrooms are morels, you will find lines at the edge of the forest (approximately in mid-spring, in April), in the moss along forest paths, near tree clearings, in places where many fires were kindled before, near stumps, in a mixed grove of conifers and deciduous trees.
A true mushroom picker will never harm nature and will take what it gives, while preserving the reproduction of its gifts for the future. These people also have a special sense; they can find mushrooms in the forest and where an ordinary amateur would simply pass by, perhaps even step on a boletus hidden under a leaf.
Mushrooms in our area begin to be collected in mid-July and are collected until frost. The peak of the mushroom harvest occurs at the end of August - mid-September. If the summer was humid and the nights were warm, we can consider that the year was a success in terms of mushroom picking, and mushroom pickers are guaranteed about five months of quiet hunting.
As you know, mushrooms do not grow on asphalt, and for this reason the mushroom picker’s equipment must be special: rubber boots, trousers made of thick material, a raincoat or long jacket, very good if with a hood, and always a hat.
With such ammunition you will not be afraid of the ubiquitous ticks and annoying mosquitoes. It will also save you from autumn rain, prevent your feet from getting wet in swampy areas and soften the blow of a branch in the thicket.
We've sorted out the mushroom picker's equipment, now about the accompanying items: This is a wicker basket or basket (such containers are most convenient for collecting mushrooms), a small knife to cut off the fungus and not damage the mycelium, and also to make sure that it is not wormy. And the last thing is a convenient stick on which you can lean and, most importantly, without bending over, stir up fallen leaves or moss and check if there is a mushroom hidden there.
Well, now you can go to the forest, just keep in mind that there may also be mushrooms in roadside plantings and forest edges approaching the road. There can be quite a lot of them, and they look healthy and beautiful, but you shouldn’t collect them, because mushrooms absorb, like a sponge, all the harmful substances found in the exhaust gases of vehicles.
And near populated areas, myceliums in all likelihood can be trampled or destroyed, so it will be better if the forest that you chose for collecting mushrooms is somewhere far away from populated areas and highways.
Surely you know that when going to look for mushrooms in the forest, it is easy to lose orientation, in other words, get lost, especially if you are picking mushrooms in an unfamiliar area, so it is better to go to an unfamiliar forest with an accompanying person who knows this area of the forest well.
To collect mushrooms, choose areas that retain moisture and are not too dark; such places are always the most productive. The banks of reservoirs, open clearings with thick grass, dense spruce forests in which the soil surface is very dark, have never pleased mushroom pickers with the abundance of what they are looking for.
In fact, each type of mushroom prefers to grow in its favorite place. So:
Borovik, it is also called porcini mushroom, the most desired trophy for any mushroom picker, it prefers to grow in a pine forest, by the way, this is where it got its name - boletus mushroom. It also grows in mixed forests, in the roots of large pines, in moss, in hazel thickets or places where ferns grow. Often this fungus, especially a young one, produces only a barely noticeable bump of compacted leaves, which can only be noticed by an experienced mushroom picker. Next to such a tubercle there may be, and most often it is, another and another and...
In fact, porcini mushrooms do not have the ability to grow in colonies; usually there are one or two fungi, but in a small area of just a couple of square meters you can collect a decent amount of them. If you see a beautiful fly agaric, look carefully, there is a high probability that there is a boletus growing nearby. Most of all, mushroom pickers value young porcini mushrooms with a cap that fits the stem; such a fungus resembles a barrel.
Chanterelles found in clearings near stumps or near bushes. This is a golden fungus with a curved and lamellar cap at the bottom. It has dense flesh and for some reason the worms bypass it the tenth way. Chanterelles grow in large families, and if you have already found a place that they have chosen, then you will immediately collect a lot. When fried and pickled, it is a dense and crispy mushroom.
Butter- these mushrooms already like to grow in more open areas, in thinned out mixed forests, but the most favorite place for them is young pine trees. This fungus got its name because its cap is covered with a slippery oily film. Butterflies can be found in thick grass even in the middle of an open field. If there is a fire in the forest, then these mushrooms will be the first to populate the burned area. Finding boletus is a great success for a mushroom picker, because it is a real delicacy. These mushrooms, especially young ones, are suitable for frying, pickling, and canning.
Honey mushrooms. At their core, these are woody mushrooms that grow in old deciduous forests, on fallen trees and stumps; you can often collect honey mushrooms from clearings. You can find a stump or a fallen tree trunk, all overgrown with honey mushrooms, and from one stump immediately fill all the containers you have. Honey mushrooms also grow on living trees, but such a tree is soon destined to die, since a colony of these mushrooms quickly destroys the wood, and after a short period of time it simply turns into dust. Honey mushrooms love honey mushrooms and gully places where they raise families, and if you find such a place, you can immediately fill your basket.
Boletus, boletus. These mushrooms grow in mixed, deciduous forests, and from the name it already follows that they grow at the foot of aspen and birch trees.
These mushrooms are very beautiful and elegant, and especially the boletus, with a reddish cap, noticeable from afar. Both the boletus and the boletus have high legs and they don’t really hide from the mushroom picker.
Russula. This is perhaps the most common mushroom in our area and the most unpretentious. It can grow in any conditions, the main thing for it is high humidity. Most mushroom pickers neglect russula, since it becomes wormy very quickly, and you are unlikely to bring it home in a basket, since it is a soft and loose mushroom. However, it should be noted that young russula are quite nice mushrooms and represent almost the entire color range. Russulas are only suitable for frying; the main task is to bring them home whole, which is extremely rarely possible.