Ode
to Mushrooms
Walter
Kish
This
past weekend I took advantage of what little time remains for enjoying
one of my favourite summer pastimes, namely
camping.I packed up the trusty Toyota
with my well-used camping gear and headed for that magnificent yet accessible Ontario
wonder known as AlgonquinPark.September
is probably one of the best months of the year to enjoy Algonquin – the
crush of summer tourists has disappeared, the trails and lakes are peaceful
and relatively empty, the mosquitoes and flies have disappeared, and the
weather, aside from somewhat chilly nights, is still comfortable.
There
for at least a couple of days I was able to escape the noise, smells and
stresses of the urban environment. There I breathed the pine-scented air,
enjoyed the tranquil beauty of its numerous lakes unmarred by the sound
of outboard motors, and trod endlessly down the many trails through a wide
variety of forest ecosystems.This
past week having been somewhat damp, I was able to witness in great abundance
another of nature’s wonderful creations: namely, the mushroom.Everywhere
we explored, we found a veritable bounty of fungi of all kinds.There
was a stunning rainbow of colours – brown
mushrooms, yellow ones, bright orange, red, grey and pure white.They
were arrayed in a multitude of shapes –
little round globes, flat round pancakes, cones, funnels, and irregular
growths that defy description.
I
have always been fascinated by mushrooms and part of that, no doubt, comes
from being Ukrainian.Mushrooms have
always played an important part in Ukrainian cuisine.I
can remember that as a small boy growing up in northern Quebec,
one of the highlights of the fall season was going mushroom picking in
the vast forests that are common to that part of the country.My
parents would wait for just the right weekend when ideal mushroom-growing
conditions prevailed and we would then mount expeditions to their favourite
mushroom picking grounds.These areas
were closely guarded secrets, shared only with the closest of friends or
relatives. It would be an all-day affair with a break for a huge picnic
lunch that my mother had prepared for days prior.We
would return at the end of the day with bushels of wild mushrooms, or “pidpenky”
as they are known in Ukrainian, and my mother
would spend the next several days canning them for the long winter ahead.Needless
to say, we would gorge that week on fresh mushrooms fried with onions or
made into that staple of the Ukrainian culinary canon, namely mushroom
gravy.
As
tasty as those wild mushrooms were, nothing could compare to the wild mushrooms
called “hryby” that we would get occasionally
in a package from Ukraine.These
were dried and strung together in long strands.They
had a pungent, wild, earthy flavour that
when reconstituted into some of my mother’s favourite
recipes, were a flavourful delicacy beyond
compare.I have since found out that
the official scientific name for them is Boletus Edulis,
but this in no way detracts from my addiction to them.
When
I was finally able to visit Ukraine
over a decade ago, I was able to eat my fill of these wonderful fungi,
and my cousins marveled at the copious amounts that I would demolish in
one sitting.Although they are plentiful
in central and western Ukraine, at the time of my visit, many people were
quite reluctant to eat them as a result of finding out that mushrooms tend
to concentrate any radiation found in the soil, and in the aftermath of
Chernobyl, radiation was on everybody’s mind.The
seriousness of this was such that the government undertook to issue notices
as to which areas were safe and which were contaminated for mushroom picking.
While
in Ukraine,
I was thrilled to discover that “hryby” were
but one of a vast variety of edible and delicious species of mushrooms
native to the country.Among others
that I was able sample and enjoy were the “masliuk”
(butter mushroom), the “lysychka” (chanterelle),
the “mokhovyk” (mossy mushrooms), and the “openok”
(honey mushroom).Nonetheless, to
me the regal “hryb” remains the epitome of taste
as far as mushrooms go, and I am already looking forward to my next trip
to Ukraine
so that I can once more indulge in this heavenly addiction.