Mushrooms and mushrooming in Ukraine

[Zbyszek]

Hi people,

I had a nice discussion with Johnstruthers in Politics tab on the Ukrainian lifestyle. I live in Warsaw and I do not know of any Ukrainians in my family tree but I am interested in many aspects of Ukrainian history, life and prospects for the future.
I have a wooden house in the Mazovian village (Mazovia is a historic land, semi-independent for centuries, then incorporated into Poland in 1526). Mazovia inspired many poets and composers including Chopin who lived here when a child and youngster.
My village (I say 'my' because I have a lot of family there and there are graves of my ancestors in the neighbouring parish graveyard) is encircled with woods.
I love mushrooming and I can distinguish a nice set of mushroom species. Forester(lat. Boletus Edulis) is surely the mushroom No 1.
I would like to ask you whether mushrooming is a popular custom in Ukraine? Has Chernobyl disaster changed anything in this respect? What about food based on wild mushrooms? How can you process it?
What about poisoning with wild mushrooms? Are the accidents numerous in Ukraine?
Are forests easily accessible for mushrooming lovers?


I would like to dedicate the following poetry to you:
Who is the author of this ? (Lechistan residents and emigres are asked not to prompt)


....
Mushrooms were plentiful: the boys preferred
The vixens (that's the Lithuanian word)
Emblems of maidenhood; uneat by worms
No insect ever lights upon their forms.
The girls the slender forester pursued
In song called colonel of the mushroom brood.
All sought the orange agaric, less tall
And famed in song, but tastiest of all,
Or salt or fresh, and good in any season.
The Seneschal picked flybane-for a reason.

The other kind of mushrom are not favoured,
Because they are harmful or are evil-flavoured.
They are not useless but for beasts are good,
Shelter the insects and adorn the wood.
They stand upon a grassy cloth in order
Like rows of plates: such as scalloped border
The small leaf mushrooms, silver, red, and gold
Like goblets that all kinds of liquor hold;
The kids like swelling cups turned upside down;
The funnels slim like champagne glasses grown;
The kind called white that broad and flattish gleam
Like chin coffee cups filled full of cream;
The puff-ball, like a pepper-pot, with black,
Dust filled. The others all distinction lack,
Save by the wolves and hares unrecognized,
By human kind untold and unbaptised.
There wolf and hare kinds man disdains to take
And if he stoops to take one by mistake,
He kicks and shatters it with vehemence,
Spoiling the turf and showing lack of sense.
...

It was written more than 150 years ago.

Mushrooms are emperors' food. The Roman Emperor Claudius liked them very much. In fact, he was deadly poisoned with mushrooms, probably of a flybane( Amanita) family. In Poland, several people die after eating some poisonous mushroomes every year, in the most of cases Amanita Phalloides. (Muchomor sromotnik).

Greetings from Mazovia.

[Edited by Zbyszek on 22nd October 2002 at 13:24]

[Kathy]

Mushroom picking was always popular in Ukraine. My grandmother, God rest her soul, always picked mushrooms (after emigrating to Canada), and knew all species. My godfather, God rest his soul, told me of a mushroom called "mushka". It was a poison mushroom that was sprinkled with sugar. Flies were attracted to it, and of course, died instantly.

Mushroom picking in forests throughout Ukraine, even near Chernobyl' (though not in the zone) remains very popular. Every year, starting in early summer, television and newspaper ads appear showing poison mushroom varieties, as every year, many people die eating poison mushrooms. This "art" has lost been lost in my family. I am not confident enough to pick safe mushrooms, so I stay with store bought varieties.

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by Kathy
This "art" has lost been lost in my family. I am not confident enough to pick safe mushrooms, so I stay with store bought varieties.

Kathy, thank you for your description. I think you still can learn the skill of picking mushrooms and telling the poisonous from them edible ones. It is easier than maybe you think and it is a pleasant job. I can not imagine Christmas without a delicious soup made of dried-up wild mushrooms. The cultivated mushrooms definitely can not match.
If just limit the species you pick to Boletus, Xerocomus and yellow Cantharellus, you are bound to succeed. Someone is needed to give you the basic instructions and you can enjoy! The poisonous species called Amanita is just your "mushka". It is called mukhomor (which means fly-killer) in Poland and I remember people in the village used them the way you described to kill flies (sometimes cats were seriously sick after eating such a delicatesse).
The traditional Polish cuisine is based on mushrooms and a lot of various species are involved.

[Kathy]

Hello Zbyszek - Yes, the poison mushrooms are called "mukhomor" in Ukraine as well. "Mushka" is a regional word - likely from my Godfather's (God rest his soul) village. My husband says Chukchas soak these mushrooms in vodka and drink them in certain rituals. They are hallucinatory, unless too many are consumed. Then they are deadly. Perhaps I will try to buy a book on local mushrooms. I enjoy cooking mushrooms, although my children have not yet acquired a taste for them. Ukrainians use many mushrooms in their cuisine as well. By the way, my Grandfather, God rest his soul, was half Polish, as was my husband's Grandmother (God rest her soul). In Kiev after the Soviets seized power, being Polish was not something one admitted to - she always spoke Polish (and Catholic), but was quiet about her origins. My husband speaks very good Polish and remembers many tourists from the 1970's who would come and buy goods with gold or jewellery, then sell them in Poland. They told him they had to do this to survive. Enjoy your soup!

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by Kathy
Hello Zbyszek - Yes, the poison mushrooms are called "mukhomor" in Ukraine as well...
My husband says Chukchas soak these mushrooms in vodka and drink them in certain rituals. They are hallucinatory, unless too many are consumed. Then they are deadly...

In Kiev after the Soviets seized power, being Polish was not something one admitted to - she always spoke Polish (and Catholic), but was quiet about her origins. My husband speaks very good Polish and remembers many tourists from the 1970's who would come and buy goods with gold or jewellery, then sell them in Poland. They told him they had to do this to survive. Enjoy your soup!

Hi Kathy,
I can tell you that some kinds of hallucinatory mushrooms are unfortunately fashionable among the selcted groups of very young people in Poland.
And yes, the information of your husband on the rituals connected with these mushrooms can also be found in one of numerous books about mushrooms in Poland.
Kathy, if you are Ukrainian, you probably know pierogi, because it is a very popular Polish and Ukrainian food. What kind of filling do use for your pierogi then? We often use sauerkraut mixed with the dried mushrooms. I have a family in the USA, they love traditional Polish cusine, but unfortunately my cousin does eat neither fish nor mushrooms.
I often joke that she misses an ocean of a wonderful and diversified taste. My wife was not so enthusiastic about mushrooms before we married. Now, she just loves picking them and she is an outstanding specialist in processing them. They can be pickled or just pasteurised. I told Johnstruthers that it is a nightmare for the poor European Union officials in the context of the Poland's admission into EU. They do not know what kind of food category can be attributed to our unconventional food.

My parents are renowned family specialist in a special kind of food called pyzy in Poland. These are a kind of noodles made as a mixture of pre-cooked and fresh potatoes. They are rubbed through a strainer and squeezed (carefully, because they should hardly contain any juice), then they are mixed (the mixture is relatively loose) and cooked. They can be without or with some kind of filling. A mixture of carefully selected minced meat ( I do not trust a butcher and I mince it myself) and the pre-cooked dried wild mushrooms is a delicious filling. It is served with some kind of the animal fat (o gosh, those calories and tasty cholesterol!) and it will make you feel that you were born just to eat. I normally do not like greasy food but this an exception. Do you have something like that in Ukraine?
Kathy, I wrote something about XIXth century Kiev in History forum. Maybe you or your husband will be interested. It is on a research of the Sorbonne University historian Daniel Beauvois. Here is a link for you:
http://www.ukraine.com/forums/showth...8&pagenumber=4
I am also going to make a comment on your husband's experience with the Polish amateur traders in the seventies soon.
Kathy, is your name real? We have a very popular women's name, something like Kasha(a diminutive of Katazhyna) in Poland and it sounds nice to me. How does it go in Ukrainian?
Kasha would be probably even more popular, but unfortunately Catherine II empress ruined many good prospects, LOL.
Regards from Warszawa.
Zbyszek

[Edited by Zbyszek on 8th November 2002 at 09:43]

[johnstruthers]

I just returned from the second day of a wedding. I left early, or I would not be able to type this. One of the dishes was blini filled with shrooms. It melts in your mouth. They were probably simple champignon, but just fine, thank you. Yes, from May through the summer, I assure you mushroom picking is popular, and the ones who poison themselves are not taking care. But maybe they enjoy the hallucinations before their hearts stop. Who knows. All that is not necessary. If someone serves me mushrooms, I don't ask if they are poisoning me. It wouldn't be nice. I just enjoy them. I have a jar at home I haven't opened yet, pickled by someone who is a friend. Shrooms don't hold up well, unless you preserve them some way. The best recipe is simple salted water, a little vinegar, with a laurel leaf and some pepper corns.

[Kathy]

Hello Zbyszek - yes, my name is Katherine, Kathy is a diminutive. In Ukraine I was Katya (from Kateryna). I have Ukrainian friends from Poland who called me Kasha.

Pierogi - in Western Ukraine, we call the "pyrohy", in Eastern Ukraine, they are "varenneki". I like them filled with sauerkraut, my children like meat and fruit filled pierogis. I agree they would be good with mushrooms too - I will have to try them added to sauerkraut. My children have not yet acquired a taste for sauerkraut.

Thank you for the history link.

Weddings in Ukraine are a real event, aren't they Vanya? You must have been in a village.