If there is one thing that immediately makes me think of a Polish autumn, it has to be mushroom picking.
It is such a Polish tradition that I honestly can't imagine growing up in Poland without at least going mushroom hunting a few times.
And of course, when we went back to Poland this summer, we had to do it too.
Well... It wasn't exactly the perfect time for mushrooms. 😂
But we tried anyway!
Mushroom Picking — A Very Polish Tradition 🍄
Mushroom picking is a big part of Polish culture.
It is something people have been doing for generations, and it is often a family activity. Parents take their children, grandparents teach their grandchildren, and somehow everyone seems to have their own secret knowledge about where the mushrooms are hiding.
And there is always that one person in the family who somehow finds mushrooms that nobody else can see.
Traditionally, people go very early in the morning. I'm talking about 5 or 6 AM.
Yes. On purpose. To go into the forest. To look for mushrooms. Apparently, serious mushroom hunters don't have time for sleep. They have mushrooms to find.
When the season is really good, you can apparently walk into the forest and within minutes already have several mushrooms in your basket.
Unfortunately, we were visiting Poland in mid-August, which isn't really the peak mushroom season.
The main mushroom season is usually later in the summer and especially in autumn, with September and October often being the best months.
And this year, the weather wasn't exactly helping us. It was HOT. We had temperatures over 30°C, very little rain, and the forest was quite dry. And mushrooms... Well, mushrooms like moisture.
So we were basically looking for mushrooms in a forest that was thinking: "Nope. Not today." 😂
Still, we were lucky enough to find some mushrooms. And we found quite a few chanterelles, or kurki in Polish. These are one of my favourite mushrooms, and we collected enough to take home and cook later.
So even though it wasn't a perfect mushroom season, I wasn't complaining.
We were actually pretty happy with what we found.
Adrian, on the other hand... At the beginning, he was enjoying himself. Walking through the forest. Looking for mushrooms. Checking what everyone else had found. But after a while... It was getting HOT.
And then came the question: "When are we going home?" 😂
We had already been walking around for at least two hours. And honestly, I couldn't really blame him.
Walking through a forest in 30°C weather is not exactly the most relaxing activity. Especially when you are wearing long trousers and long sleeves.
But unfortunately, you don't really have much choice. There are ticks. There are mosquitoes. There are all kinds of little creatures waiting for you in the grass and bushes. So even though it was hot, we were covered up. Which meant we were basically walking around the forest dressed for autumn... in the middle of summer. 😂
And Of Course... We Needed Berries Too 🫐
After mushroom hunting, we decided to look for something else. Wild blueberries. Or, more accurately, bilberries.
By this point in the summer, the season was already coming to an end, so the berries were pretty small. But that didn't stop us. My uncle had a very simple rule: We weren't going home until everyone had a full jar. 😂
So we started collecting. And somehow... I was the first person to fill my jar! Victory!
Except...
Adrian decided that my berries looked much more interesting than his. So he basically robbed me of my berries. 😂 And there went my full jar.
Back to the forest I went. I had to collect them all over again. I'm not entirely sure Adrian was still enjoying the activity at this point. I think the heat, the forest and the berries had already become a little too much for him.
But hey... At least we got our jars filled!
Round Two... And Absolutely No Mushrooms 😂
A few days later, we decided to try mushroom picking again. Maybe we would have better luck? Nope.
Actually... It was even drier.
We walked through the forest and found almost nothing. Not even many of the mushrooms you definitely don't want to eat. 😂
At that point, we gave up.
I kept thinking how nice it would have been to come back in September or October, when the forest is full of mushrooms. Because that is when I really remember mushroom picking from my childhood. Cooler weather. Damp forest. And mushrooms everywhere.
The Next Day... Honey! 🍯
The next day, we had another very Polish activity waiting for us. Honey harvesting.
My uncle keeps bees, so we got to see how the honey goes from the beehive... to the jar.
And it was actually really interesting.
This was only part of the honey harvest because there were still plenty of framesin the hives that were ready to be harvested.
First, we had to uncap the honeycombs. Basically, the bees seal the honey inside the honeycomb with a thin layer of wax. So we had to remove that wax before the honey could be extracted. Everyone helped.
And my husband actually did a pretty good job! I think he was taking his new job as a Polish beekeeper very seriously. 😂
One thing I found really interesting was how different the frames looked. Some were light. Some were much darker. And no, it doesn't mean that the honey is dirty or bad. The difference comes from how the frames have been used. New honeycomb is light in colour. But when the same frames are reused over and over, especially when bees have raised brood in them, they gradually become darker. Over time, the wax can become almost brown.
You could also see darker areas inside some of the honeycomb. Those were often pollen stores, which the bees collect and keep as food. So basically, the whole frame is like a little bee pantry. 😂
Once the frames were uncapped, they went into the honey extractor. This is basically a big machine that spins the frames very quickly. The spinning force pulls the honey out of the honeycomb. And watching the honey drip out was probably one of my favourite parts. There is just something about seeing fresh honey coming straight from the comb.
After extraction, the honey is filtered to remove small pieces of wax and other bits. And finally... It gets poured into jars.
That's it!
From the bees... to the honeycomb... to the extractor... and finally into the jar.
Another interesting thing is that honey doesn't always look the same. Some honey can be very pale, almost white. Some is beautiful golden yellow. And some is much darker, almost brown.
The colour and flavour depend a lot on which flowers the bees collected nectar from. So different plants can give the honey completely different flavours and colours.
And honestly... Polish honey is SO good.
Maybe I'm just nostalgic. Maybe everything tastes better when you know where it came from. But I absolutely love it.
And every time we visit Poland, we bring a few jars back to Taiwan with us. Because apparently, going back to Poland means coming home with half a suitcase full of food. 😂
Little Sum Up
This is one of the things I really enjoy about visiting my family in Poland. It's not necessarily about doing big tourist attractions. Sometimes it's just... going into the forest with your family. Looking for mushrooms. Picking berries. Helping with the honey harvest. Eating something that came from the garden.
And spending a few hours doing things that people in my family have been doing for generations.
Living in Taiwan, I obviously have a very different everyday life now. I can go to a supermarket and buy pretty much anything I need. I don't have to wake up at 5 AM to look for mushrooms.
And I definitely don't need to walk through a forest in 30°C heat wearing long sleeves and long trousers. 😂
But when I go back to Poland, I actually really enjoy doing these simple things. Even when Adrian is complaining that he's hot. Even when we don't find any mushrooms. Even when I have to refill my berry jar because someone decided to steal mine.
These are the kinds of memories that make our trips to Poland special.
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