The mushroom season is almost over.
The result: the forest is full - of people.
Mushroom professional Kurt Drews from Martinsried is already thinking about a new activity in the forest for fun.
Würmtal
- He is so well-versed that people sneak after him because they think they can find a few more mushrooms in his slipstream.
But Kurt Drews neither reveals his best seats, nor does he leave anything when he is looking for mushrooms.
“I collect the ones I know, I leave the others behind,” says Martinsrieder.
He only collects for his own use, which is a matter of course for him.
But: “Nothing works at the moment.” He and his wife Katharina have been looking for mushrooms in the Würmtal for years and are very successful with it.
But "now it's pretty cold again".
The season is coming to an end.
As of this week, the experts from the Association for Mushroom Science in Munich will no longer offer their Monday mushroom advice in the Pasing town hall.
If you can still find mushrooms, you have to contact the mushroom advice center on Implerstraße in Munich.
The forest is full of people
The fact that Drews thinks that nothing works in the forest at the moment is not only due to the fact that fewer mushrooms grow in the cold.
Drews got too crowded in the woods.
There are just too many people there.
He observed that people with ten-liter paint buckets were looking for mushrooms.
That probably covers more than the approved personal requirement of one kilogram per week per person.
Besides, a plastic bucket or a plastic bag is not a suitable container.
It has to be a basket, Drews knows.
He knows various good places in the forests in the Würmtal and the surrounding area.
If there were three or four cars nearby, he wouldn't stop at all.
“You never find much there,” he says.
Drews is already joking about how he could use the new situation for himself: "I'll buy myself a mobile sausage stand and drive from one forest to the next."
A good year for porcini mushrooms
But he prefers to go to the mushrooms himself.
“It was fantastic last year,” he enthuses.
This year was a good year for porcini mushrooms.
Even if the season was short.
There were also many chestnuts.
“There weren't many chanterelles at the start.” He and his wife wouldn't have found more than three handfuls.
Edmund Garnweidner, who has headed the mushroom advice center in Pasing town hall for 50 years, confirms that this year was a boletus year.
As soon as word of this gets around, a lot of people come to the forest.
"Then the cars quickly come to a standstill at the edge of the forest." Overall, however, he does not have the impression that the forest is too full.
There are always phases like this, he says.
His association chairman Helmut Grünert has a different opinion.
Together with his wife Renate, he leads the advisory service on Implerstraße.
“People don't travel and go into the forest.” Grünert is responsible for the poison emergency number in the region and states: “We have strong demand.
This year more people than usual believed that they had poisoned themselves. ”Out of ignorance, people collected poisonous or generally edible but old mushrooms.
They would throw away a rotten salad completely, but with a moldy, old mushroom they would cut away all rotten areas: “The main thing is that I have something in the pan.” Afterwards they feel bad.
Only eat mushrooms fresh
The mushroom advisors welcome anyone who cares to their consultation hours.
People should pre-sort and try to determine for themselves.
Grünerts and Garnweidner do not like it when someone puts a bag in front of them and says: "Mushroom consultants find my pan full." The advice is about helping people with their determination - also for the future.
Since it always takes place on Mondays, it is often no longer possible to eat the mushrooms collected on the weekend.
Only those who store the mushrooms in a cool dry basket covered with a cloth have a chance of enjoying them after the consultation.
In any case, the consultation hour offers the opportunity to learn something about mushrooms and their purpose.
Kurt Drews, who only collects what he knows, no longer needs advice.
He freezes part of his porcini mushrooms.
"Sometimes we dry them on the balcony." That takes two days, then you can put them in a paper bag and keep them.
When it gets colder and there is less going on in the forest, Drews is happy.
"Then you can sneak through the forest again," he says.
"You might find something here and there."