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On the hunt: Lithuanians race to pick wild mushrooms

On the hunt: Lithuanians race to pick wild mushrooms

On the hunt: Lithuanians race to pick wild mushrooms

2017-09-24 10:06 Last Updated At:10:06

Hundreds of Lithuanians ran around with baskets and buckets Saturday in a southeastern pine forest.

Why you ask? It's the national championship of wild mushroom picking — a competition always held on the last Saturday in September.

That's when conditions are "not too dry, not too wet, the humidity is perfect," explained mushroom hunter Janina Juodine.

In this grab taken from video, young boys collect mushrooms at the foraging festival, some 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) south of the capital of Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017. Thousands of Lithuanians have been running around with baskets and buckets in a pine forest in southeastern Lithuania for the national championship of wild mushroom picking. (Mindaugas Kulbis via AP)

In this grab taken from video, young boys collect mushrooms at the foraging festival, some 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) south of the capital of Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017. Thousands of Lithuanians have been running around with baskets and buckets in a pine forest in southeastern Lithuania for the national championship of wild mushroom picking. (Mindaugas Kulbis via AP)

A rainy, relatively warm summer created ideal conditions for the foraging festival in Lithuania, where forests cover more than 33 percent of the Baltic country and mushroom-hunting is considered the second-most popular sport after basketball.

"Walking between trees and looking for big brown mushrooms is a great way of spending a Saturday," said Julius Sostakas, an IT engineer from Vilnius. "It is a part of our cultural heritage."

Mushrooms — fresh, dried, salted or marinated — are considered an essential element in Lithuanian cuisine, used in many dishes to add special flavor to meat, fish and potatoes.

More than four hundred edible varieties can be found in Lithuania's forests, including edible boletus, slippery jacks, chanterelles, blewits and morels.

The festival Saturday took place 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the capital, Vilnius, close to the border with Belarus. It drew thousands of onlookers as well as local mushroom sellers dressed in Lithuanian folk costumes — colorful knee-long skirts with embroidered aprons and woven sashes.

In this grab taken from video, people gather mushrooms at the foraging festival, some 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) south of the capital of Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017. Thousands of Lithuanians have been running around with baskets and buckets in a pine forest in southeastern Lithuania for the national championship of wild mushroom picking. (Mindaugas Kulbis via AP)

In this grab taken from video, people gather mushrooms at the foraging festival, some 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) south of the capital of Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017. Thousands of Lithuanians have been running around with baskets and buckets in a pine forest in southeastern Lithuania for the national championship of wild mushroom picking. (Mindaugas Kulbis via AP)

"This is a great event," contest judge Rimute Avizininene told The Associated Press.

She said 21 teams had participated, adding that the largest picked edible boletus — known in the country as the king of Lithuania's forests — weighed 621 grams (22 ounces).

A local team called Mushroom Nightmares won Saturday's contest by delivering 58 kilograms (128 pounds) of mushrooms.

In this grab taken from video, women dressed in Lithuanian national clothes gather mushrooms at the foraging festival, some 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) south of the capital of Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017. Thousands of Lithuanians have been running around with baskets and buckets in a pine forest in southeastern Lithuania for the national championship of wild mushroom picking. (Mindaugas Kulbis via AP)

In this grab taken from video, women dressed in Lithuanian national clothes gather mushrooms at the foraging festival, some 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) south of the capital of Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017. Thousands of Lithuanians have been running around with baskets and buckets in a pine forest in southeastern Lithuania for the national championship of wild mushroom picking. (Mindaugas Kulbis via AP)

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Mushrooms foraged in Sweden could help research Chernobyl fallout

2024-09-06 23:59 Last Updated At:09-07 00:01

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden's strong foraging culture could help determine how much radioactive fallout remains in the Scandinavian country 38 years after the Chernobyl nuclear explosion.

The Swedish Radiation Safety Authority has asked mushroom-pickers to send samples of this season's harvest for testing. The goal of the measurement project is to map the levels of Cesium-137 in mushrooms, which can absorb the isotope from soil, and see how much remains after the April 26, 1986 disaster at the Soviet nuclear power plant in what is now Ukraine.

Cesium, the key radioactive material released in the fallout, has a half-life of some 30 years. It can build up in the body, and high levels are thought to be a risk.

The radiation watchdog is counting on the foraging lifestyle in Sweden, which is covered by more than 60% of forest, to aid its research. In late summer, many Swedes spend days in the woods collecting berries, mushrooms and plants.

It's asking foragers where they found their bounty — though they don't have to disclose the exact whereabouts of the prized golden chanterelle mushroom.

Spots that regularly produce such chanterelles — often called “the gold of the forest mushroom” — are closely guarded family secrets that could cause headaches for researchers who need data points.

“It doesn’t have to be the exact location of the most secret chanterelle spot,” said Pål Andersson, an investigator at the Radiation Safety Authority.

Mushroom-pickers are instructed to send in double-bagged edible fungi — at least 100 grams (3.53 ounces) of fresh mushrooms, or 20 grams (0.71 ounces) of dried mushrooms — picked in 2024.

Sweden’s safety authority did not say when a result of its research was expected.

Dozens of people were killed in the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, while the radioactive fallout spread across Europe. The long-term death toll from radiation poisoning is unknown.

Swedish authorities were the first to detect radioactive fallout in Europe, forcing Soviet officials, who had attempted to cover up the disaster, to open up about it days later.

In 2017, a state veterinary agency in the Czech Republic said about half of all wild boars in the country’s southwest were radioactive and considered unsafe for consumption. The boars feed on an underground mushroom that absorbs radioactivity from the soil. Similar problems with radioactive wild animals were reported in Austria and Germany.

——

Dazio reported from Berlin.

FILE - A shelter construction covers the exploded reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine, April 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

FILE - A shelter construction covers the exploded reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, in Chernobyl, Ukraine, April 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

A golden chanterelle mushroom, shown here in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Natalie Li)

A golden chanterelle mushroom, shown here in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Natalie Li)

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