Very expensive mushroom picking. You can pay a high fine for a mistake

This news made millions of Poles happy. In the first days of August, the mushroom picking season began. The forests were swarming with seekers of the first forest specimens. We didn’t have to wait long for the effects. More and more mushrooms appear in Polish bazaars. You can already buy boletes, kites, butter mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, butter mushrooms, red boletus (chervoniaki) and porcini mushrooms. Buyers are also very interested in Koźlarz babka (Kozak), which is extremely popular in Polish forests.

The interest in mushrooms is huge. “Demand is greater than supply”

So far, the offer of mushrooms for sale in local bazaars has been very limited, you could only buy chanterelles, champignons or oyster mushrooms, which many sellers call przyczepki. Now the situation has changed dramatically. The prices of products of forest origin are varied, usually starting at PLN 40/kg, but as sellers assure, they will be getting cheaper week by week. The peak season for mushrooms in Poland falls on September and October.

Customer interest in mushrooms is huge. This can be seen along many major roads across the country where mushroom pickers line up. Many drivers stop for a moment to buy the first, long-awaited mushrooms. Buyers admit that after returning home, they want to prepare dinner for the whole family or preserves for the winter. – Demand is greater than supply — say the sellers, who do not hide their joy about this.

An interesting offer is accepting orders for various species by mushroom pickers. – I have regular customers who call me every year and ask for specific mushrooms – says Alicja, a pensioner from Piastów. – Customers most often ask for chanterelles, kites, boletus, boletus or a mixture of different species. Some order a few kilos, others ask for two or three buckets of mushrooms in one day he points out.

Mushroom picking can be expensive. Watch out for bans

Every day in many forests near Warsaw you can meet crowds of mushroom pickers. Unfortunately, not everyone respects the regulations mentioned by the representatives of the State Forests. “There are mushrooms, there are holidays – we wish you a successful harvest and we remind you of the basic rules to avoid trouble” they report on social media.

The point is that picking mushrooms in can cost a lot. A permanent ban applies to forests growing up to 4 m high. Mushrooms are also not allowed to be picked in nature reserves and national parks. The ban also covers places that are a refuge for animals, springs of rivers and streams or areas at risk of erosion.

If you break the ban, you may receive a fine. Fines range from PLN 500 to PLN 5,000. zloty

For breaking these regulations, you can receive a fine from forest or city guards in the amount of up to PLN 500. To find real specimens, many people enter the forests, which are military grounds. There are very strict rules here.

Even higher penalties can be imposed for collecting protected species. And the list of protected mushrooms is long. According to the regulation of 2014, there are as many as 232 species on it. It is worth getting acquainted with it before we go mushroom picking. The maximum fine the court can impose is $5,000. gold for picking mushrooms. The first mushroom pickers have already paid heavy fines for non-compliance with the regulations. Most of them pleaded ignorance.