Maggots weaken yield of lucrative boletus mushrooms
Some remnants of the bumper crop of chanterelles can still be found in the woods, but in general, mushroom harvests are smaller than usual this year
By Liisa Kukkola in Lappeenranta
Marjukka Skyttä’s nose for mushrooms detects the smell of a lilac northern milkcap (Lactarius trivialis), but she walks brusquely past the elite individual.
I am not picking milky mushrooms to be salted, but porcini mushrooms (Boletus edulis). I will also accept chanterelles, if I happen to come across them”, Skyttä notes.
On her previous mushroom trip to a nearby marshy island, Skyttä dropped her mobile phone, which got bogged down and was never seen again. On the same outing she ran into fairly fresh droppings of a bear.
I am just wondering when the bear phones me”, Skyttä laughs.
Around mid-September there are many sorts of mushrooms available in the Rapattila woods in Lappeenranta.
This summer, there have been enormous amounts of chanterelles in the woods. At the moment, trumpet chanterelles (Cantharellus tubaeformis) are beginning to be at their very best”, Skyttä knows to say.
On the other hand, the quality and quantity of this year’s mushroom crop have both been lower than normal, according to managing director Loreno Dalla Valle of Dalla Valle Oy, which exports mushrooms to Italy.
However, it is not possible to draw any final conclusions of this autumn’s mushroom yield, as the season has not come to an end quite yet, Dalla Valle points out.
At the beginning, the quality of porcini mushrooms was really poor, at least in North Karelia. But it took only a couple of frosty nights, and since then the quality has been better”, Dalla Valle says.
This year like last year, too, the delicious wild mushooms known as porcini, penny buns, or ceps have been annoyingly wormy in many places.
The joy of discovery has turned into annoyance when the entire haul has had to be left in the forest.
The worm-eaten mushsrooms are to be blamed on the mild autumn preceding the harvesting season. When the soil does not freeze properly, larvae have good growing conditions”, explains Simo Moisio, the executive director of Arktiset Aromit/Arctic Flavours Association.
The association is a nationwide natural products industry association specialising in wild berries, mushroooms, herbs, and special natural products.
As a result of warmer autumns, the conditions in the southernmost mushroom areas are favourable for mushroom insects. According to Moisio, Finnish mushrooms have been appreciated in other countries especially because of their high quality and the lack of interference fromn pests.
Let’s hope that global warming will not continue, and the soil will freeze properly this autumn in order that the taste and reputation of Finnish porcini mushrooms will not be lost”, Moisio frets.
Previously boletus mushrooms were exported to St. Petersburg, but today 90 per cent of the mushrooms purchased by Loreno Dalla Valle’s enterprise go straight to Italy. All the rest of the various edible mushrooms the company buys remain in Finland.
Russian consumers know how to pick mushrooms; it is not worthwhile to export them there. The only mushrooms profitable enough to be exported to Italy are porcini. Italians will certainly eat chanterelles willingly enough, but in Finland mushroom pickers are paid more than the retail price of chanterelles is at an Italian shop”, Dalla Valle explains.
Milk-caps are not worthwhile to export there, as Italians do not accept them, even if they got them free of charge”, he continues.
The boletus mushrooms are divided into three quality classes. According to the definition, grade I and II ceps are worm-less, but as they are sold whole, the buyer has to take the risk.
A boletus mushroom may feel strong and firm, with the pore surface being totally white, and yet there might be worms inside. We run random checks: we split eight to ten mushrooms down the middle and if they look clean, the mushrooms are sent forward”, Dalla Valle reports.
According to Simo Moisio, Italians accept even those penny buns that Finns regard as not worthy of the bother.
A few worms and grubs do not spoil mushrooms. If mushrooms are cleaned right after coming home from the forest, and fried in the pan, any possible extra living organisms die, and the mushrooms are perfectly edible”, Simo Moisio asserts.
FACTFILE: Picking a penny bun is a worthwhile exercise
In 2011, the revenues from the gathering of wild berries and mushrooms in Finland amounted to EUR 23.6 million. Lapland accounted for 14 per cent, Oulu and Kainuu 42 per cent, Eastern Finland 15 per cent, and Western Finland for 30 per cent of the total revenues.
Boletus edulis - commonly known as the penny bun, porcino, or cep - is the most important edible mushroom, and the second most important wild mushrooms are the Lactarius varieties, which are usually pickled.
In 2011, the average price for porcini was EUR 3.56 per kilo. The price for fresh northern milk-caps (Lactarius trivialis) was EUR 1.99 per kilo and that of the Rufous milk-cap (Lactarius rufus) EUR 1.50 per kilo.
In 2011, the porcini mushrooms gathered the largest revenues: EUR 1.2 million.
