![Cover art of the first issue of Sverchok [Cricket] magazine, 1937.
“This is a mailman. It brings newspapers and magazines to all forest bugs and critters. It’s been walking the forest for a long time today, got tired and sat down on the mushroom for...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/cc2067aec385c72bb202eb82f0a3c3e6/cddb0efc1fad42c3-c1/s1280x1920/1703402514f9b25030a7572336d8e8b819c1c340.jpg)
Cover art of the first issue of Sverchok [Cricket] magazine, 1937.
“This is a mailman. It brings newspapers and magazines to all forest bugs and critters. It’s been walking the forest for a long time today, got tired and sat down on the mushroom for a bit of a rest.”
“Bears Hunting for Mushrooms”, a traditional Russian Dymkovo clay toy (1983)
A pair of mushroom-shaped porcelain knicknack boxes. Made at Korosten Porcelain Factory (Ukraine, 1960s).
Illustration from “Rainbow-Bow” (a book of nursery rhymes) by Yuri Vasnetsov, 1969
Белый—white mushroom— the king of muhsrooms, cep, porcino, penny bun, boletus edulis!
SO MANY in the forest yesterday, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one day. I pickled the young ones and froze the rest. Space left in my freezer: none.
“You’re not welcome right now, rain, pouring as if from a bucket*.
Hedgehog must hurry - it has a lesson soon.”
(*Of rain, to pour as if from a bucket is a common Russian idiom meaning a really heavy rain, in sheets.)
Illustration from Murzilka magazine, Oct. 1957
Did another mushroom run today. It’s one of those days when you go into the forest and emerge half an hour later with a full bucket of mushrooms. So awesome.
(And then you spend 6 hours prepping and canning them.)
It’d be be great harvest if I were there for toadstool! So so many of those in the forest.
Photos from my own mushroom run yesterday!
1 - cep (the best edible mushroom)
2 - birch bolete (edible)
3 - toadstool (poisonous)
4 - some sort of stump mushrooms, don’t know what type, probably inedible
I picked a whole bucket of mushrooms, mostly oil caps and birch boletes + one cep + 3 moss boletes.
Mushroom harvest in a forest near Moscow (1967)
“Little Blue Tit’s Calendar” by Vitaly Bianki. Illustrated by Erik Bulatov and Oleg Vasilyev (1973).
Весёлые картинки. 1973. Август
“How Lesik picked mushrooms”. Illustration by G. Riznik, published in Funny Pictures, Aug. 1973.
Cover of Kolobok magazine, Aug. 1977
Anonymous asked:
can you tell us a bit about mushroom-hunting as a pastime? I (american) didn't realize it was a big cultural Thing in russia until my mother, who lived in moscow for several years, explained it to me recently. it sounds fun!
Quite a cultural staple, that’s for sure. Aside from the Southmost regions (which are tiny), mushrooms grow in all Russian forests. Children are always brought along and taught different kinds of mushrooms, the good and the bad that you must stay away from.
Mushroom season, typically, is from mid-summer to mid-autumn. Mushrooms love it when it’s wet and not too hot.
As soon as the season starts, you’ll hear грибы пошли (mushrooms are here) everywhere. All families have their own secret spots, and they’ll be different spots for boletus, for chanterelles, for saffron red caps, for milk mushrooms (they require different forest settings).
Mushrooms are fried, pickled, canned in oil, dehydrated or frozen to be enjoyed during the winter. I always try to prepare dried porcini - they are great gifts for my friends in Moscow! (It’s more hassle to go mushroom picking in large cities simply because the forests are far away and there’s so many people.)
Of course, it’s possible to buy canned or frozen mushrooms in the grocery store now, so it lost its vital importance as a winter food source. However, enough Russians are hooked on the process itself to keep the hunt alive. :)
We’ve had a very hot and dry August, but I hope September is wet enough and brings lots of mushrooms!
Mushrooms. Photo by Yuri Sadovnikov (1994).