“Every variety has a poisonous duo”

Porcini mushrooms, morels, chanterelles – all kinds of mushrooms sprout from the mossy and moist soil in the forest. They hid underground during the dry past summer, but with the change of weather they found their way to the surface.

Conditions for the “Pilzlen” are currently very good due to rain and low temperatures. People bring a few kilos to checkpoints in this country, SRF reports.

This is the mushroom inspector and St. Gallen Mushroom Association member Eva Stieger (62). “You can find a wide variety of mushrooms in the forest right now,” he tells Blick. According to the expert, the hobby also involves risks.

Great risk of confusion

About 6,000 different species of large mushrooms grow in Switzerland, of which only 250 to 300 are edible. “Every variety has a toxic couple,” he says. “This is why I always advise beginners to bring mushrooms to a review point.”

It can be eaten with false chanterelle, which can cause gastrointestinal problems, and true chanterelle, also called chanterelle, is often confused. The false chanterelle has thin and easily detachable lamellae, while the true chanterelle has broad, forked ridges that are tightly attached to the flesh and run down the stem.

By noon the mushrooms are gone or dried up

Mushrooms grow almost anywhere, according to Stieger. Diversity is especially great in mixed forests or where there are old tree populations. “Pocket mushrooms are mostly found at an altitude of 800 meters. There are chanterelles in the plains too,” he says. According to the expert, harvesting conditions are optimal after a rain or storm, as mushrooms love moist and mossy soil. Locations near roots or between trunks are also good places to find them, as they form a symbiosis with trees.

It is important to go mushroom hunting in the morning. “So they’re still fresh,” says Stieger. “If mushrooms are heated by the sun all day, they will dry out more and more.” It’s worth being in the woods at 7am with the popular porcini mushrooms or they’ll be all gone.

Mushrooms mold in plastic bags

Mushrooms can be easily removed with a pocket knife or mushroom knife. “It’s best to cut them as close to the ground as possible so that you can get the whole mushroom to the checkpoint and clearly identify it,” says the expert.

Cloth bags or baskets are suitable for transporting the collected mushrooms. “Plastic bags are bad because the fungi inside are starting to mold. You need air,” says Stieger. You should also have a separate basket for each variety. If a poisonous mushroom gets lost in edible food, it can infect others.

Stieger doesn’t think practices to identify fungi are bad in themselves. “They’re useful as a comparison tool if you already know a few mushrooms and their characteristics.” However, according to the expert, beginners should never rely on just one app when collecting.