For the second year in a row, we went mushroom picking in the forest with the young people from Annekese. This time, both Estonian- and Russian-speaking young people picked mushrooms, as well as young people from Tartu with Ukrainian and Iranian roots. There were lots of emotions, and forest spirits too! Going to the forest turned out to be quite an adventure for the city kids, and there were challenges too.
A mushroom foraging trip with young people requires proper preparation, as young people (and their parents) need to be clear about where they are going, for how long, what to wear, and what to pack in their backpacks. For the excursion destination, both times we have chosen a forest near Vara, which can be conveniently reached by a county bus.
Upon arrival, we will discuss the principles of moving in the forest and mushroom picking: I will move so that the rest of the group is visible, I will not go anywhere alone, I will only pick known mushrooms that I am sure of, and I will not touch white mushrooms at all. It is also important to remember to put on a hood when entering the forest, otherwise insects and ticks might climb into your hair. Right at the beginning, it must be ensured that all young people have the youth worker's phone number just in case.
An important part of visiting the forest is also a picnic. We all sit down on a picnic blanket at the edge of the forest, enjoy the sun, rest our feet, and eat homemade sandwiches. We check the collected mushrooms, discarding some or exchanging them: whoever collects only birch milkcaps gets all the birch milkcaps, and whoever has collected scaly hedgehogs but doesn't dare to take them home gives them to a more knowledgeable companion.
Moving through the forest proved to be a challenge in itself, sometimes requiring us to push through thickets, and other times the nettle family threatened the mushroom pickers' hands. Fortunately, the insect repellent worked well, and we only found ticks on the dog's fur, not on ourselves.
We spent about two hours in the forest and eventually made it to the bus that took us back to Tartu. The young people were tired but happy with the outing: those who hunted for mushrooms found them, and those who wanted to walk with friends had an exciting walking experience. What kind of mushrooms did we find? Aspen boletes, birch boletes, orange birch boletes, chanterelles, russulas, milk-caps, hedgehog mushrooms, yellow coral mushrooms… We also saw many fly agarics, but those beauties were left in the forest.
We encourage going to the forest with young people: a change of environment, new knowledge, teamwork, self-improvement, and physical activity in the fresh air make a mushroom-picking trip a valuable experience for both young people and youth workers.
Author Julia Barsukova
