Mushroom picking 2018

Back to nature …

... an experience on the "path".

Every year again, when the days are getting shorter and cooler, summer is slowly approachinghen farewell and fall is the best time for forest walks. Because in late summer and early autumn, the mushroom season is in full swing. Also 3 Shinson Hapkido disciples: Prisca, Brigitte and Marcel put on sturdy shoes, took the wicker basket and set off.” Brigitte Bütler, a gifted florist and gardener from Dojang Cham, who introduced us to the art of “searching and finding” mushrooms, took us into a fascinating world.

In Lauchern in Oberiberg (Canton Schwyz) she explained to us the flora of the area and how to find the tasty porcini mushroom.

At the beginning we were instructed about the golden rules of mushroom picking:
  1. Check mushrooms, never eat a mushroom, enn you don't know exactly. There is no single criterion by which one can distinguish a poisonous from a non-poisonous mushroom! A fungus can often only be reliably identified on the basis of five or more distinctive features. Go to the fungus testing center…
  2. The early bird... You have to get up really early. The real mushroom fools are already in the forest at sunrise. If you come too late, you will only find the mushrooms that others have left over.
  1. Don't cut mushrooms! Important characteristics of a fungus are often found in the tuber - or in its absence. Therefore, mushroom experts never cut their finds by the stem, but carefully twist the whole mushroom out of the ground.
  1. Only the good mushrooms in the basket! Do not randomly collect all the mushrooms in the forest and only try to identify them afterwards, because this way fragments of toadstools can get between the edible mushrooms. Toadstools should be left where they are and never destroyed. They are food for other animals and of great importance to the ecosystem. Mushrooms, as it were, transmit messages between trees as the "Internet of the forest".
  1. Clean the mushrooms now! Roughly clean the mushroom on the spot and remove needles and leaves. It is also advisable to generously cut off areas eaten by snails and worms, otherwise they will be gone before you get home.
  1. Never mushroom in plastic! Mushrooms should never be collected in plastic bags, as protein decomposition accelerates in the absence of air. In addition, in bags or backpacks, the mushrooms crush very quickly. Instead, take a classic mushroom basket with you.
  1. No mushroom babies and seniors! Collecting young mushrooms is not only greedy, but also dangerous, as they are often very difficult to identify. Old mushrooms no longer taste good, and if you leave them, they can pass on their spores and thus ensure the preservation of their kind.
Prisca Portmann, a very experienced and nature-loving woman from the Dojang Zurich, knows a lot about nature and the mountains and forests, it is exciting to hear her stories. Once upon a time, people avoided the forest, warnings were given about it in fairy tales. The forest was a place of horror, of ghosts, of the inhospitable. But times are changing: Today, for many, it is an almost spiritually charged place of refuge to recharge their batteries. When spring awakens, it lures with the first green, in midsummer it offers cooling shade and in autumn colorful foliage and rustling leaves - many people like to go into the forest to enjoy nature there and to find themselves again. You intuitively seem to sense a deep interweaving between man and nature. A trend from Asia is forest medicine, the so-called "forest bathing" - immersing yourself in a forest with all your senses - a recognized method of preventing diseases. The forest activates and strengthens important components of the human immune system. Less stress hormones such as cortisol would be released there. Trees are observed to release so-called terpenes - proteins that protect against cancer. Forest air is therefore a "wonderful medicine" and can be used free of charge by anyone who has a forest within reach. Breathing in this air is like a "cocktail of bioactive substances" and is "like a healing drink to breathe in". Even without knowing about the latest scientific findings - the bond with nature seems to lie in people's genes. After all, people have been living in and with nature for well over two million years. It's a human need, it's to connect with other living beings, be they plants or animals. "In the forest we can be who we are... Nature, the animals, the plants, they don't judge us". This "being-allowed-as-one-is" is "one of the most well-known psychological healing effects of spending time in nature". Nature is the origin of man long before he became sedentary. Nature is the antithesis to everything that dominates us in our modern world: there is no traffic jam here and no boss warns us to be more motivated. In it we experience the return to an inner peace that can hardly be found anywhere else. Hardly any other form of physical activity is as original and so beneficial for the “whole human being” in so many ways as hiking: It not only trains, but also gives the soul a lot of freedom. Even in its basic form, this most original of all modes of transport is such a relaxing source for body, mind and soul to find something positive for your everyday life between mental relaxation, fresh air and physical exercise. Like the soul, our mind is also overwhelmed by the modern way of life: sensory overload and stress prevail in practically everything we do. Colorful advertising here, more action there. And in between the compulsion to have to participate in order not to be "out". Many have a crowded working day - but don't switch off afterwards, instead throwing themselves into the leisure stress between partying and the gym. Who can claim today that they get enough exercise every day? So not just enough to let the body conform to some kind of ideal of beauty, but actually enough to satisfy the inner urge to move that is innate in everyone (and is often simply wiped away with the ADHD diagnosis)? Every year, thousands flood the gyms where they lift weights, dance, jump, row, and run. Only: Very few people recognize the easiest way to hike out into nature. It starts with the very source of life, breathing: Due to our stressful situations and the fact that people are evolutionarily not used to staying in closed rooms, many breathe too short and shallow. That alone reduces our vitality. Hiking is a strain on your body. As a result, he automatically begins to breathe biologically optimally, letting his lungs fill with fresh country air far away from exhaust fumes. In addition, hiking strengthens the entire musculoskeletal system: Our body, which is forced to spend working days sitting, returns to an upright position. Our leg muscles are stressed, better supplied with blood and strengthened. The more it wanders, the more a human organism returns to the strength of a prehistoric hunter - and this power directly improves our everyday life.

When hiking, maximum relaxation is the motto: no time pressure, no distance requirements and if your body wants it, just lie down on a bench and listen to nature.

Hiking is natural, hiking is original and hiking is good for body, mind and soul in many different ways. Anyone who learns to let go here not only reaps more than enough strength for a stressful life in the modern world, but also bends their inner balance back and, last but not least, gives their body the movement it needs.

After an exciting, fulfilled and happy day in the mountains and a basket full of mushrooms, with a warmth that is missing and forgotten in the city from a farmer “Maria” who lives in nature and who inspired us with her hospitality and treated us wonderfully, ... Brigitte invited us to her home for the great find to process immediately and review the day again.

Brigitte's partner Werner, a gifted cook, conjured up a wonderful dinner for us. A day in nature, so rich in experiences, impressions and stories and full of warmth... Find your own food and then prepare it fresh... A day that will be remembered for a long time... I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful experience people 😉 ...

"What is natural is good"

Sabomnim Marcel Mayer

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