Search This Blog

Monday, September 20, 2010

Mushroom Picking/Eating a National Past time in the Czech Republic












This past time has so many funny memories for me as a child. This is one of my Father's favorite things to do! We often joked that he would kill us with his random find in the woods ...alas my brother and I are still here...any damage at this point being self inflicted! Similar to Dad having us go in the yard to pick dandelion greens for a salad for dinner...I mean they're sold in stores now, who knew at the time he knew what he was talking about???

Back to the mushrooms, on a recent hike with my cousins, we found a few mushrooms of our own! Chanterelles for one, as I chef I was thrilled to find these. We found many other varieties...some pictured here! The red one is not for eating, sure is cute though! Often you find obviously seasoned "pickers" riding home on the metro with huge baskets filled with mushrooms. If your going to do it, rising early is very important! If you wait, they will be gone! The obvious key to this is to pick the safe ones and not poison your family! Although there are many that are safe to eat, there are equally as many that are poisonous...so be careful and do your homework. It is said that 7 out of 10 citizens in Czech Republic are seasoned mushroom pickers. Over 25 million kilos were harvested from the countries woodlands last year alone!

www.mushroomexpert.com has all the info you might need...for this worldwide past time!

Have fun:)

No comments:

Post a Comment