On hunt for fly agarics

WRITING AND PHOTOS BY MONIKA CSAPO

Each year in September and October the hunt for fly agarics begins for me. I just love these mushrooms because they are so colorful, mystical and pretty. So when autumn comes I can not wait to find out where I will see the first of them that year. Usually it happens in Finland because the the climate is colder so they start to grow already in September.

Once we were on a hike with someone on Vallisaari and as we sat down to have a picnic I just discovered the first ones that year on the way to the picnic table. An other year as I was walking to Siwa in my street I looked by accident to a small stone cave under a garden and I saw three fly agarics there.

This year I saw the first ones in Tampere under a bush while walking to a nearby lake to see the squirells there.

These mushrooms are not only beautiful, they have been part of many myths and cultural ryths as well from the Celtic culture through the shamans of Siberia to the Viking fighters of the North. If you want to know more about the cultural history of them I highly recommend you to read this article because it is really interesting and thorough: Fly Agaric.

The fly agaric highlight for me this year were these merging fields of fly agarics in a pine forest in Hungary. I got the hint about this place earlier and I missed it two years in a row but not this year! We knew about this place in the family through acquintances who posted about the mushrooms three years ago. Here I would like to point out how important it is to live with open ears and eyes. Sometimes you get super amazing tips just by listening to others and paying attention. And mostly if people see that you are genuienly interested in nature and will not spam the whole internet with the exact location of the place they will gladly share secret local info with you.

 But enough from words now, voilá, this was that dream-like forest with this super abundance of fly agaric mushrooms. I really felt like being in a dream there. I hope the photos can give back at least a part of that atmosphere. (Clickable pics, to see them in a bigger format, please click on the photos.)