The Pine forests of Poland are full of flora and fauna, wild mushrooms, fruits and berries much of which is dried and or preserved and harvested annually by local polish families as essential homemade food supplies for the cold and often harsh long winters ahead.
These highly sort after mushrooms really are a blessing to so many Polish families in Poland. They are a magical source of wild food and income. These mushrooms appear as if by magic early in the mornings when most of us are still asleep all except the avid mushroom hunters who wrap up in layers upon layers of wooly clothes and a jacket topped of with a knitted woolen hat. To Search for the world best tasting mushrooms known as Borowki in Poland and highly regarding by top chefs around the world.
These mushrooms are lovingly collected preserving the natural environment in which they are found and air dried on strings to preserve the flavor and texture. Once the mushrooms have thoroughly dried the often elderly and female mushroom hunters proceed to the local markets or roadsides and wait for hours just to sell the string mushrooms to passers by. This money is used by the families to buy much needed fuel and food for the harsh winter months to follow. A truly magical tradition preserved and maintained in this truly romantic region of eastern Poland.
Some interesting facts about mushrooms
Mushrooms are one of the most mysterious kingdoms of living organisms. Once in the past they were referred to the lower plant-forms, but it is proved today: mushroom combines both the plant and the animal characteristics. Consistence of chitin, urea formation, sexual reproduction and heterotrophic exchange type rank mushrooms to animals.
There are lots of mushroom species: their amount exceeds 100 of thousands, and biologists regularly discover new ones. The most mushroom places of the world are the Europe and the Northern America, and the majority of species, especially edible, is represented on the territory of Russia.
The whole science - mycology makes the study of mushrooms and the application sphere of each species is very wide. Mouldy mushrooms are used in microbiological and pharmaceutical industries for production of vitamins, antibiotics and enzymes.
Edible mushrooms having relatively big fruit body are used in cookery for cooking of nourishing, protein-rich dishes. Palatability of some rare species is so good, that they are sold by the piece on European auctions. It first of all concerns white truffles.
Boletus (Borowiki) mushroom is considered to be the king of all forest mushrooms in Europe not only by its size, but also by amazing flavor.It is interesting, that lots of mushrooms in Russia are named according to places of their habitat; it seems to be for search simplification. Boletus grows in the piny wood, Aspen mushroom under the aspen, Birch mushroom under the birch, Honey Fungus on the stub and so on.
These names reveal that mushrooms were very popular even in the Ancient Europe and they were one of the food sources. It is not surprising, because mushrooms stand on the second place after meat on protein consistence, it apparently can be explained by their characteristic. Among other things, one more special property of mushrooms is widely used today they can accumulate radiation and remove it out from the organism.
