Franz Knierer was a forester in the Odelzhausen district in Dachau for 35 years. In addition to his professional work in the forest, he has always been a passionate collector of mushrooms – and has remained so now that he has retired. In an interview, he explains what you should pay attention to, what is different this year than usual and what effect the dry summer and climate change are having on the mushrooms.
SZ: Mr. Knierer, as a forest ranger, the forest was your workplace, so to speak, for years. Can collecting mushrooms still be a hobby?
Franz Knierer: Of course. Gathering is a basic human instinct, so I can’t just walk past it when I see a nice porcini mushroom.
Have you been collecting this year?
We’ve been collecting a few times. This year the mushroom season started very late compared to previous years. Due to the drought, there were almost no mushrooms in some places, not even any inedible ones. But for a few weeks, after the rain, they’ve been coming and now it’s really starting.
Are you mainly on the move in your old area in Odelzhausen?
Yes, and besides me there are many others who are busy collecting. Especially near the motorway you can see a Munich license plate in almost every driveway to the forest.
So are the forests in the district particularly suitable for collecting?
Exactly, the coniferous forests are particularly suitable for porcini mushrooms or chestnuts. These are the mushrooms that people collect the most.
Franz Knierer is a passionate mushroom picker.
(Photo: Toni Heigl)
As a former forester, do you have any insider tips?
You can figure that out yourself if you walk a bit through the forest. But you can basically say: Where there are many fly agaric mushrooms, there are usually also porcini mushrooms nearby.
What should collectors look out for when searching?
Only harvest mushrooms that you know. Incidentally, most mushroom poisoning is not caused by poisonous mushrooms, but by spoiled mushrooms. So you should always harvest young, fresh mushrooms and then not leave them standing around forever, but process them quickly – if possible on the same day or the next.
Are there any poisonous mushrooms that should be avoided?
For example, when you collect boletes, the worst thing is catching Satan’s boletes – that gives you a stomach ache. Or bile boletes that taste bitter and spoil the mushroom dish. Then you learn very quickly (laughs). It only becomes dangerous if you look for agaric mushrooms, such as mushrooms, and mistake them for the death cap mushroom. At first you can’t taste anything. However, if symptoms appear 24 hours later, things can get dicey because the fungus is deadly. You should therefore be sure when searching.
You initially mentioned the drought. One dry summer follows the next, extreme weather events are increasing and climate change is making itself felt. How does this affect the fungal population?
In answer to the question, I see mushrooms not only as a collector’s item, but also as a very important symbiosis partner for forest trees. What we harvest for the cooking pot is only the fruit. The actual fungus takes place underground and, as a complex living being, exchanges nutrients with the tree, for example. The root capacity of the trees is increased tenfold by the fungi in the fine roots. Therefore, fungi play an important role in the forest ecosystem. If external influences, such as temperature increases or nitrogen inputs, disturb the balance, this can have unforeseen consequences.
Have you already noticed any changes in this respect during your time as a forester?
In my opinion, yes. Due to the increased nitrogen inputs, the forest soil is over-fertilized, which, for example, has increased the population of honey fungus. This is not a symbiosis fungus, but a parasitic fungus that rots the roots of the trees and the trunks. As a result, the spruce trees, for example, are more heavily attacked by the bark beetle and can be felled more quickly by a storm.
How much longer can collectors go on the hunt for mushrooms this year?
As long as it’s raining and humid. It’s over when the frost comes.