Mushrooms from the forest – a sustainable hobby and a culinary highlight

In times of electoral Bavaria, truffle mushroom hunters were appointed by the elector. The oldest (known) certificate of appointment was issued by Elector Max Emanuel (1662 to 1726) in Nymphenburg in 1718. It stipulated that the court truffle hunter was to be granted one guilder a day and one item of clothing a year for his truffle hunting, in return for delivering the captured truffles to the court kitchen.

Collecting mushrooms is popular in several European countries. For example, the Czech Republic calls itself a “mushroom eating nation”, with 83% of the population indicating that they are regularly going on a “mushroom hunt”. Collecting mushrooms also has a long tradition in Sweden, as the Swedish have loved the mindfulness regarding the forest and picking mushrooms –also based on “Allemansrätten” (i.e. roam free in nature), they long before the trends moved towards sustainability.