POTSDAM, Germany (AP) – Wolfgang Biver carefully moved a basket of freshly foraged mushrooms to a forest floor covered in fall leaves. Brown-capped boletus and laurel cockatoos lay next to slimy purple spidergills and honey-coloured oak mushrooms, including a deadly green deathcap.
One of the bivars, german most famous fungi The enthusiasts described various species that had just been collected in an oak and beech forest outside Potsdam in eastern Germany. Around 20 people, including university students, retirees, and a Chinese couple with their 5-year-old daughter, were listening intently.
Across Germany, the traditional forest art of mushroom picking is making a comeback. coronavirus pandemic Regulations have forced people out of their cramped apartments and into the woods, and its growing popularity has vegan lifestyle. Growing interest in the use of medicinal bacteria also plays a role.
People in the countryside have traditionally gone mushroom hunting, but now city dwellers are discovering the joys of mushroom hunting as well.
Mushroom hunting was a necessity for many people in Germany during the difficult post-war years. world war iiwhen people scoured the forests for something edible. However, as West Germany’s economy began to boom in the 1950s and East Germany’s economic situation also improved, many turned away from this practice.
Images of mushrooms have gone viral on social media in recent years, turning a hobby once considered uncool into a chic lifestyle pastime.
Guided mushroom picking tours are very popular
Mr. Biver, a 75-year-old retired meteorologist, said on a recent drizzly autumn day that the tour he led “wasn’t primarily about filling the basket, although it’s always nice to find something for the dinner table.”
Instead, it was “to teach people about the importance of mushrooms in the ecosystem and, of course, biodiversity,” he said.
If mushroom poisoning is suspected, the hospital may search your biver.
He has also been conducting mushroom tours in the Potsdam region southwest of Berlin for more than 50 years.
When members of his group showed him mushrooms, he identified them by their German and sometimes Latin names. He talked about their healing properties and toxicity, gave suggestions on how to prepare some of them, and provided historical anecdotes. He encouraged them to smell and taste something that was not poisonous.
Karin Flegel, managing director of Urania, the Potsdam educational institution that organizes Mr. Bibour’s tours, said Mr. Bibour’s classes are quickly filling up.
“I’ve noticed a huge increase in interest in mushrooms,” she said.
Biver said she, too, has noticed an increase in interest in her longtime hobby. He started sharing his best finds on Instagram and Facebook, wrote a book on the subject, and even hosts the popular Pilz Podcast, a play on the German word for mushroom, Pilz.
fear of poisonous mushrooms
Many people embrace their new passion cautiously, worrying that they might accidentally pick and eat a poisonous mushroom.
The poisonous red cap and white dot fly agaric is easy to identify, but the highly poisonous green death cap is sometimes confused with the common button mushroom, or champignon, which is most widely sold in stores across the country.
Every year, some people die Frequently after eating Deathcap immigrants from the middle east People who are not familiar with local mushroom types.
Tim Kester, a 25-year-old university student from Berlin who took part in the excursion with his girlfriend, said he never foraged mushrooms as a child and was often satisfied with eating white button mushrooms at the store. But he also wants to be able to find and cook his own porcini mushrooms, the most popular delicacy of Germany’s more than 14,000 types of mushrooms.
In Italian cuisine, porcini are often served with risotto or pasta, but in Germany, porcini and bay bolete are fried in butter and served on toasted sourdough bread with salt and pepper.
Standing among the lush yellow and red leaves, Kester said the tour was off to a good start. But when asked if he was ready to start collecting mushrooms himself, he replied, “I’m not brave yet.”
Instead, he said he is considering collecting the mushrooms and taking them to an expert to see if they are edible. Experts often offer their knowledge on fall weekends at markets and community colleges, where people can bring their blessings and make sure they haven’t accidentally picked up a toxic piece.
Margit Reimann, 42, who took the tour with her mother, said she was surprised by the variety of edible mushrooms.
But despite her newfound knowledge, she plans to stick to familiar things like boletus, butter mushrooms, slippery jacks, and bay leaves when she goes out into the woods with her kids. During the field trip, she learned that color and grain patterns cannot always be clearly determined.
“I think a lot of them can be culinary experiences if enjoyed in moderation, but I still don’t believe in myself,” she said.
