Czechast: Czechs and mushroom picking
Three out of for Czechs have at least some experience with mushroom picking. You would find similar if not higher proportion of mushroom pickers in other Central and East European countries. In Britain or Scandinavia the picture is completely different.
The idea for this episode came to me a few months ago when I spoke with Karina Giffard, a Czech woman who found a new home in Britain. Even after decades of living in the UK, she described how her English friends and neighbors saw her:
“The strange lady who loves picking mushrooms and stinging nettles and things which English people generally don’t do.”
Forget the stinging nettles for a moment. The first thing Karina mentions as something that makes her distinctly different from her neighbors is her tendency to pick mushrooms! This is an activity still largely viewed in Britain as risky and potentially deadly. James Wood, founder and owner of Totally Wild a small business that teaches foraging—collecting wild food resources from nature—confirms this cultural perspective:
“Everyone obviously sees them, but I think as we’ve not done it, it’s not a pastime, it’s not normal for us to go out and pick these things. We might actually end up instilling a fear into the next generation just because we’re not confident. So let’s say one of our children goes out and looks like they’re going to pick a mushroom; we would be so worried that it’s going to be deadly toxic that we’d try and put fear into them about it. ‘Don’t touch that, it could kill you,’ yeah. And then that obviously makes them scared of picking mushrooms. It has a further knock-on effect of them teaching their kids and all that—it puts a fear into learning.”
So, while in Czechia there are even children books about mushrooms, in Britain they are viewed as something dangerous. Karina Giffard and most other Czechs, Moravians, and Silesians certainly don’t strike me as people born with a death wish or as risk-takers. Yet, as anthropologist Karel Šima from Charles University explains:
“According to research by experts studying forest use, up to 75% of the Czech population has some experience with mushroom picking. This tradition is deeply rooted in Czech culture, passed down through generations, and remains a popular activity in the country.”
Why is that? What does such a popular pastime as mushroom picking tell us about Czech society, its history, and its place in Europe? This episode of Czechast answers that!
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Czechast, Radio Prague International
Czechast is a regular RPI podcast about Czech and Moravian culture, history, and economy.
