Saturday, June 6, 2009

Summer Fun - Mushroom Hunting

Czechs love mushroom hunting. It's a summer passion for pro's, families, young and old. When they drive somewhere abroad (where the hobby isn't taken up on a national sale) they always come back with sacks of shroom and stories of just stopping anywhere and picking kilos worth.

And I have to say it is a great thing. The verities of mushrooms and ways in which they can be used are huge. They are pickled, breaded and fried (best in fresh, home made lard), dried for later, put in soups and sauces, scrambled with eggs and caraway (much tastier than it might seem), and probably a bunch I've forgotten. And the woods, in a good year, are full of them.

But the activity itself is what I like. You wander through the woods in a semi-meditative state. Hurrying is counterproductive, as (at least for me) is too much concentration. I just sort of clear my mind and bring up an image of the two or three kinds I recognize and go. I can do so for hours. I'm not the best hunter - I always say they hide when they see me coming, preferring to be found by my wife or her father some 20 paces behind me. But I do find them. It's a bit like a cross between fishing and hiking.  Yup - fishing... you do it for the fun of the hunt and if you get anything worth eating all the better. But while doing it you relax and enjoy.

You may think this isn't exactly Prague related but it is. Prague has several forest parks - and though you have to get up before dawn to beat the neighbors out doing the same thing after a rain - there are lots of mushrooms to be had.

If you want to try something the locals do, that's free, and certainly not what all your friends did while here, try it. As they say here, all mushrooms are edible... at least once.


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