Mushroom gourmandise in Rõuge
Photos: Arne Ader
Vladi interviewed by Toivo Tuberik
Translation: Liis
Giant puffball (Langermannia gigantea).
On Saturday at 11 am the mushroom preserve competition begins, and Vladislav Koržets talks about mushroom cooking. At 15 o’clock Mats Kangur’s presentation of his nature photos starts.
Looduse buses go from Tartu to the Mushroom week. Your guides in the mushroom forests are Toivo Tuberik, arranger of the event, and mycologist and nature photographer Vello Liiv. Departure from Keskkonnahariduse Keskus (Kompanii 10) at 9.30 on Saturday morning, back in Tartu at 18.
Price for adults – including students and pensioners – is 150 Krooni, schoolchildren 100 Krooni, children under school age free. Bring along your mushroom basket and bread and butter!
Mushrooms have a prominent place in the "Korilase käsiraamat” – “Nature gatherer’s field guide"...
Mushrooms have a prominent role in nature as well, although it is not always very evident, unless we happen to be in a good mushroom forest at the right time. In human cultures the status of mushrooms has varied, and so it has been in Estonia too: on Kihnu island for instance nobody would even touch the “earth mould” for food.
Which is your favourite mushroom?
I really haven’t a definite favourite, but the woolly milkcap (Lactarius torminosus) and the ugly milkcap (Lactarius necator) are worth attention. They have dense, thick ”flesh”, and when fermented they provide a truly great culinary experience.
Do mushrooms go with for instance fish on the dinner table?
Fish and mushrooms go together like a horse and carriage. Mushrooms are good in a fish soup, as stuffing in the belly of fish to be roasted, with fish in piroshki and so on. And fish that one has caught oneself and mushrooms that one has picked oneself are particularly well suited.