The knife that goes well, the book to avoid poisoning yourself, Christophe had planned everything to launch, at the age of 40, into a new bucolic activity: mushroom picking. But that will be for next year. “I wait for the rain like Brice desperately for the wave,” says this novice collector. Rest assured, even the most experienced porcini hunters get the blues. Grégory, an Aveyron resident who gets his mushrooms from his grandmother, masters the influence of the new moon on the vigor of the mycelium, and leaves “at night” in the woods, doesn’t fare well either. “It’s really not fun. Times are tough,” admits the thirty-year-old. In four autumn outings with his usual “colleague”, they brought back a total of 15 kg of porcini mushrooms, compared to 50 to 60 kg in good years.
The fault of lack of rain. “When we go into the woods, we feel like we’re walking through a bag of chips, it cuts the growth,” says the man who will move on to real hunting at the end of October. A heavy walker, he is reduced, for his poor collection, to walking further and surveying the “northern slopes” hoping that the night dew has not evaporated there too quickly.
“Since last year, it’s zero! »
According to Internet users 20 minutes, it seems that the phenomenon of mushrooms which no longer look like mushrooms mainly affects the South-West. 30°C in October is probably great for prolonging your tan or saving a tank of fuel. But not to fill your basket. “Around ten years ago, we found several kilos of porcini mushrooms in autumn,” notes Paco, a Gironde walker and picker. But for the last four or five years, it’s been a few per year and since last year, it’s zero.”
On the side of the Pink City, even those who don’t hunt down mushrooms to make stir-fries have fangs. The mycological association of Toulouse, which trains pharmacy students by taking them into the undergrowth, had to gain altitude at the start of autumn. “We had to go to the Col de Port [en Ariège], explains Marie-France Massari, his secretary. In the plains, there is nothing, it’s a disaster for the pickers! “.
The north of France better off
A Tarnais, despite an annual harvest well below his expectations, still sees the crate half full. “At least we no longer see the gangs of looters coming from far away,” he puts things into perspective. Because, failing to transform into a storm chaser or find the right choreography for the rain dance, the solution seems to be to migrate north. “ “In Île-de-France, we find them in certain corners of the forest and much more than in other years! » assures us a reader.
Good luck also for Claude, a gourmet who, like every year, rented a rural gîte in Aisne. He notes the harvest “six out of 10”, enough “to prepare an omelette and a risotto for 11 couples the first evening, then a sauté of boletus and vineuses in the pan and… especially raw porcini mushrooms in coarse salt with a drizzle of ‘olive oil “. Lucky one. Luckier in any case than Christophe (another). This inhabitant of the Fontainebleau forest has failed, even in his “favorite corners”. Suddenly, incomprehension seizes him when friends send him photos of overflowing baskets.
“Almost want to replace that with climate marches”
This doubt can also be found on the forums of enthusiasts from the South. This year, the “big pickers” who display their treasures are sometimes suspected of “importing”. In any case, the sign that the year is bad is that porcini mushrooms are sold for 39.95 euros on markets in Haute-Garonne. “While in good years, you can find them for 10, 15 or 20 euros,” underlines Grégory l’Aveyronnais. Inflation, directly caused by the weather but which some do not hesitate to include in the broader problem of global warming. “Almost want to replace that with marches for the climate,” confides an Internet user who found an unfortunate porcini mushroom in three hours of research. For Paco, no mystery either. The shortage of mushrooms is “another of the visible consequences of global warming”. But immediately Gian Marco disagrees: “Well, yes, no water, no mushrooms… But that has nothing to do with climate change…! Well no boudiou there have always been seasons without mushrooms. »
This weekend, the first one predicted to be really rainy in the fall, could well bring everyone into agreement. In the wake of the latest heat, a specialist tells us that the real ones, the tough ones, should think about selling a few RTTs during the week. Before a cold snap comes and cuts the fungi out from under them.