Hundreds of Lithuanians on Saturday ran around with baskets and buckets in a southeastern pine forest.
It was for the national championship of wild mushroom picking — a competition always held on the last Saturday in September.
That is when conditions are “not too dry, not too wet, the humidity is perfect,” mushroom hunter Janina Juodine said.
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 took place 60km 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.
“This is a great event,” contest judge Rimute Avizininene said.
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 621g.
A local team called Mushroom Nightmares won Saturday’s contest by delivering 58kg of mushrooms.
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