2019

The Mushroom of the Day Competition Results in Gorgeous Forest Bounties

During the active mushrooming season - from August to October - for the ninth year already mushroom picking enthusiasts took part in the photo contest the Mushroom of the Day (Dienas sēne) organised by the newspaper “Diena” and JSC “Latvia's State Forests”, sharing their photos of mushrooms found in forests and voting for pictures taken by other participants. This year, 319 mushroom photos were submitted for the competition, the most popular of which were photos of boletus.

The authors of the most popular pictures were selected and congratulated on a weekly basis, while the photo of the rosy russula made by Elvīra Lemenšoka won the largest audience vote - 957 votes.

The special prize of the competition - the Bank of Latvia's new silver coin “Forest Bounty” was awarded to the photographers of three most artistic mushrooms: Juris Krastiņš, Linda Krupenkova and Karīna Ezerniece.

Karīna Ezerniece has been enjoying mushroom picking for at least 30 years. When she lived in Čiekurkalns, she used to travel by train to Krievupe; she was in the forest already by seven in the morning and stayed there until as late as four in the afternoon. She has never got lost in the forest in all these years: “No matter where the forest takes me, I will find a boletus there! I have probably inherited my ability to find my bearings from my father. He also taught me to recognise mushrooms. My dad was a chef on a ship, and when he was home he used to go mushroom picking for an entire week with two big baskets in his hands.”

Ezerniece rated this mushroom year as a very good year for boletus. “In the twilight of July, there was an abundance of boletus in Silakrogs. If it is the season of boletus, I only pick them, and no other mushrooms. You say that there were no mushrooms in Kurzeme? There was a plenty of mushrooms. Now Bērzciems and Mērsrags are full of boletus.” Chanterelles grew well in Silakrogs area in late July and August. “This year they were big - chanterelles were almost in the size of carnations!” Ezerniece brings less known mushrooms to the Museum of Nature to show them to professionals.

Inita Daniele, a mycologist at the Latvian Museum of Nature, considers this mushroom year to be a very versatile year: “When the museum needed mushrooms to grow at the time of the mushroom exhibition, there were literally no mushrooms around, but now, in the second half of October, it is just a fabulous mushroom year in terms of diversity because the weather is very warm! As for edible mushrooms, there were a lot of boletus this summer. Of course, when there was drought, you could not count on boletus in traditional boletus sites. If frost arrives at the end of October, the mushroom time will be over.” The mycologist also tells that new species of mushrooms are discovered almost every day. There are some two thousand plant species in Latvia, but the total number of mushroom species could be at least 20 times bigger. It is not difficult to find a new species, because there are not many mushroom researchers in Latvia.

The new coin of the silver coin collection called “Forest Bounty” is designed to celebrate Latvian forests, their bounty and forest-related traditions (mushroom picking, berry picking, etc.). The graphic design of the coin was developed by two authors - Edmunds Jansons (obverse) and Edgars Folks (reverse) - the plastic formation of the reverse was created by Ligita Franckeviča. One side of the coin shows a mushroom with mycelium stylized by Edmunds Jansons, and the other side shows a mushroom picker with a basket, a boletus with a snail, a small boletus in moss and a bunch of raspberries drawn by Edgars Folks. The coin was made at Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt (the Netherlands).

All photos submitted for the contest will be available until the next mushrooming season at www.diena.lv/sene.