Living in Estonia: mushrooms

October. The season of mushrooms is over. And this year was a memorable one, as Estonians told me. I cannot compare but I can tell, from my personal experience, that it was good indeed. Fun and tasty... so, even if I already talked about mushrooms earlier, I could not not write a post about mushrooms.

An afternoon at the museum

Mushrooms are everywhere, even at the museum. The Natural History Museum had the great idea to make a (of course) temporary exhibition with real-life mushrooms in September. And it was very popular. With families introducing kids to mushrooms but also with adults who simply want to increase (or confirm) their knowledge about mushrooms. The focus of most people is on whether the mushrooms they see in the forest are edible or not. Although no general rules were given, it was clearly indicated for each mushroom whether you coud eat it or not, and if you needed to boil them first. Many mushrooms need to be boiled in a lot of water to strip them of their toxicity or irritants  before actually starting to cook with them (the water used is then full of these substances and cannot be used, it is not bouillon). Mushrooms are so integrated in the Estonian culture that they also have a word which is used only for the boiling of mushrooms: kupatama. It was interesting to know that there are mushrooms which have different effects on different people: some might eat them without any trouble and even like them, while others could have severe disturbances. It was also remarkable how two types of mushrooms can look similar but one species can kill you while the other can be eaten. 

"Real-life" mushroom exhibition at the natural history museum in Tallinn

Some mushrooms are so big they can feed one person, or hide you from the burning sun

Recognising edible from poisonous mushrooms is essential, but sometimes far from easy: on the left poster, a perfectly good mushroom, on the right, a highly poisonous one (some sources online say as little as 7 g of this white Amanita can already lead to a very sad end)

This family of mushrooms is good to eat, in case of doubt you should boil them first

A French poster in the museum

Finding your own mushrooms

Mushrooming is kind of a national sport in Estonia. And many foreigners travelling to Estonia want to join the activity. Now, the problem is that mushrooming is also surrounded by secrecy. Every Estonian has its spot(s) where to pick mushrooms and they are unlikely to reveal it to others. It kind of goes like : "I could tell you where is my mushroom spot, and maybe even take you there, but I will have to kill you shortly after that!"... I did a web search on the topic and I was surprised to find out that, among most Estonian families, talking about your mushroom place is taboo. Yes, you don't even reveal your favorite places to your own family, you just keep it for yourself! wow! From that perspective, I think we have been lucky as Katri's family has always been quite open: two of her aunts have told us accurately where to find good mushroom forests, and one of them even took us there herself!

Most of the time, if you ask an Estonian about mushroom places, they will look at you oddly and give you an awkward, vague answer which will not be very helpful. Well, Katri and I now have a "secret" spot on our own. And, of course, I will not tell you where it is :)

Finding good mushroom forests is one thing. The next issue is: which mushrooms to pick? As Katri told me: "Not many things can kill you in Estonia, but mushrooms are one of these things!". A bit scary, but it is a fair warning. There are hundreds of species of mushrooms in the Estonian forests and some tend to look very similar while having very different properties. At first, it is frustrating, but it is safe to only pick the few species you know for sure you can eat. If you are in a good forest at the right moment, you may easily fill your basket or bucket with only one or two species. I can tell now that I have behind me a good half a dozen of mushrooming days and I am able to recognise 6-7 families of mushrooms. On a good day, it is sufficient to have good fun, fill my bucket and have reserves for a reasonable time afterwards.

Lunch break in the forest, at the menu: tea and orecchiette with cream and... mushrooms!

Mushroom picking in the "Switzerland of Estonia", a hilly area close to Aegviidu

These russula are beautiful mushrooms, but need to be boiled before eating and lose their color and a lot of their texture in the process so they will be brown and grey blobs by the time they hit the table. Better than nothing though.

Me in my frenzy mushroom picking in our "secret spot"

Our pick from the "secret spot": buckets are full, so I start filling my backpack too... 

This is what a mushroom looks like when worms have gotten to it before you. This mushroom would be good to eat, if weren`t for the worms -  this you leave in the forest.

No, this one you can't eat: this is the famous Amanita Muscaria. It will not kill you but it has hallucinogenic effects.

This is also an Amanita Muscaria, a young (cute?) individual

A family of amanites. There are many amanites in the forest, also the deadly white and green ones. Do not eat.

These hallucinogenic mushrooms remind me a Disney scene, when Alice meets the smoking caterpillar.

With full bucket and backpack, we can head home now, where the next tasks awaits... processing and cooking.

Cooking with mushrooms

Picking mushrooms is fun. It is even addictive, I can tell you. The other day, when we ended up in what I call our "secret spot", I got so much into it that I could not stop picking mushrooms. There were so many nice ones and I was sad to think that in a couple of days they would grow old and all this food would be wasted...  So, even if my bucket was overfull, I continued picking the most beautiful specimens and started stacking them in my backpack!

Once you get home, however, the work starts! Yes, you need to process the mushrooms immediately otherwise they will go bad very fast. And when you get home on a Sunday night, tired of a nice weekend in the open air, you have to dedicate some hours to it. Some mushrooms just need to be brushed to get rid of the little bit of forest that came with them and then you can eat them, often by frying them in a pan. It is the case of the gyrolle (this is the French name, it is called chanterelle in English) or the kitsemampel (gypsy mushroom in English). Other mushrooms - like the cèpe (boletus in Latin and porcini in English) - require you to remove the mossy part. Then you have those that you should soak for a day or two - e.g. the männirisikas (milkcaps in English) and those that you have to boil (sometimes, twice) to get rid of any (potential) toxicity - e.g. the pilvik (russula in English).

Just a small part of our bounty

This is the gypsy mushroom, a good mushroom. It can be fried and eaten directly, no boiling at all needed, or frozen for winter. We have 5 litres in the freezer. It is also good because it grows in groups and when  you find one there are usually many more around.

Just took a photo to record some physiology. The bottom mushrooms are the red hot milk caps; they are actually super bitter when fresh, burning the tongue with their sap, but after a long soak, cooking and a marinade, they are very good to eat.  Their advantage is also than unlike the red ones on top (russula), they maintain their color and shape in the process and still look good after it all.

This reminds me of this inspired sequence from the Disney movie Fantasia, on the tune Nutcracker by Tchaïkowski.  

My mushroom risotto with porcini

The delicious mushroom quiche Katri prepared with our own picks (and on the right, the caprese with yellow tomatoes from her brother's garden). Never will you have  a another quiche with so much mushroom in it.