Mushrooms 1

England has great climate for mushrooms, and I’ve heard that you can find chanterelles (лисички), penny buns (белые), scaber stalks (подосиновики) and birch boletes (подберезовики). However, vast majority of people can’t tell difference between edible and poisonous species, so we don’t dare to pick them.

There is good reason for this. When William Conqueror successfully invaded England in 1066, just 15% of country was covered by woodland. He passed law which made all country’s forests property of crown. From then on, foraging in woods was risky activity. main goal of law was to prevent hunting of deer and wild boar, but it also made it difficult for ordinary people to pick mushrooms. If they were caught trespassing in forest, they could be accused of poaching (браконьерство) and severely punished.

Nowadays, most woodland is still private property but there are public footpaths which allow people to explore it. However, we lost ability to identify and prepare mushrooms hundreds of years ago and so even if English person is lucky enough to find beautiful penny bun, they don’t know what treasure it is!