Mushroom Hunting

During the start of autumn break my host family took me mushroom hunting. Before we go over my experience, let us first look over the history of mushroom hunting. Mushroom hunting is an activity was especially popular during the Soviet era. There was a lack of food available so people had to find a way to fend for themselves thus they started picking mushrooms and berries. Whatever the land could provide for them. People would then either bring the mushrooms back to their families or sell them in the market. This cultural aspect is something that is still evident and somewhat popular in the Lithuanian culture

A few days before we went on the hunt for mushrooms, my host mother, host brother, and I had a debate over why it was called mushroom hunting instead of picking. The side for picking was that we weren't trying to chase the mushroom down or trying to shoot it, we were just going up and cutting/picking it. The side for the hunting was that the mushrooms, like a deer or elk, are hard to see and that we had to have a hunter eye in order to find them and grab them. Therefore, since we had to have the eye for it like a hunter we agreed to call it hunting.

  My host family and I got up at some hour early in the morning, picked up a friend who was our guide (aka mushroom expert), and drove out to Dzūkija (or somewhere near that area), a south eastern part of Lithuanian that borders Belarus. When we got there we put on our boots, grabbed our baskets and knifes, and started the hunt. My host mother and were teamed up and my host sister and father were with the friend (or separate, one of the two). The ground was soft and nice to walk on but it was quite hard to see any mushrooms. I found a couple but they were not the ones we were looking for. All throughout the search my host mother was passing on some of her knowledge of mushrooms to me. She told to always remember that the most beautiful ones that sort of scream 'pick me' are the ones that you do not want to pick. Ever. They are poisonous. Also that the ones with a collar sort of thing around it is another indication that they are poisonous.

 
This was one of the mushrooms that we saw a lot of but never picked because they are classified as poisonous

   After about 20 minutes, my host father shouted that he had found one. It was a portobello, which were the ones that we were looking for. They let me do the picking and put it into my basket. We then continued the hunt. We were going deeper and deeper into the forest and my host mother and I weren't finding anything. Another 10 minutes passed and we started to hear shouting. We had gone too far and nobody knew where we were exactly. We also weren't quite sure the way back to the car. But my host father and mother kept doing their calling/shouting and we slowly found our way back, searching for mushrooms in the process. After having not much luck in that area we decided to get back into the car and try somewhere else.

All ready to start the hunt

Picking the first mushroom

 We drove for a couple minutes, stopped, and then continued the hunt. My host mother and I found plenty of mushrooms but none of them were the ones we were looking for. Then we reached the Dzūkijos Nacionalinis Parkas and could no longer walk through the forest or pick mushrooms so we walked up the road. Then we reached the Čepkelių Gamtinis Rezervatas which is home to a bog. We walked onto the lookout and then hiked around to go to an area where the ground was like a sponge. We walked on it which felt unreal. I had no idea that natural ground could feel like that. We also ate a few cranberries that we found which is also something I've never done before. After exploring the bog, we slowly started to head back to the car. My host father and the friend/guide continued to search for mushrooms as we walked back while my host mother and I looked but weren't trying as hard (or at least I wasn't because I was super tired and my contacts were being weird and I couldn't see very well). When we made it back to the car we finally had some breakfast of tea and breakfast cookies. My host mother then taught me some others ways of trying to find your ways through the woods. She told me that the sun is one way to remember where your car is but isn't always reliable because the sun moves throughout the day. She also told me that there is more moss on one side of the tree than the other and that the side with more moss is generally north. Finally, she told me a story about how she remember when her father went mushroom hunting and didn't come back until late into the night because he had lost his way in the forest and was alone. We found about four mushrooms overall and my host family said that we were either late going out there or that the moon just simply wasn't right for the growth of the mushrooms the night before. Overall, I was quite happy to be fortunate enough to have experienced this older, Soviet part of the Lithuanian culture and hope to be able to use this knowledge that I gained again either here or back in Oregon where mushroom hunting is popular as well.

The bog