Mushroom Hunting
Refer to Fungi
A potential story/article describing the relationship between human and nonhuman lifeforms in a particular place and activity.
Background
Энциклопедия грибов «ВикиГриб»
Mushroom Hunting / Сбор грибов / По грибы
Possible essay titles:
Notes of a hunter-gatherer. Well, as we never 'hunted' it should be gatherer only. 'The Notes of a Non-Palaeolithic Gatherer'.
Themes:
- Places
- Time
- Relationships
- Perceptions
- Dwelling
- Companions (dogs, other humans, familiar/unfamiliar humans and how the relationships with them change or become possible for that period only; how this expands once life)
- Exploitation
- Rubbish
- Myth/folk knowledge/local knowledge/books (now the Internet); personal practices: picking certain mushrooms and leaving others, how it is linked to other practices such as cooking and eating
The way I used to dream about the forest for rushing in front of my eyes
The way mushroom hunting as any other action-oriented engagement with the forest (nature, or anything) lead to deeper and very differently structured impressions, memories, understandings and mental landscapes.
A leisure walker would usually go in a forest and follow a given, known path. This path might be aesthetically pleasing, appear safe, useful as an exercise, provide a memorable destination. In most cases, the walker will follow the path and, therefore, the patterns already established by others. They will not go off the path into the scrub. In most cases, the design of parkland and the advice to human visitors discourage this too.
By contrast, a mushroom hunter will see the forest as a system of dwellings. These mushrooms grow here, the other mushrooms grow there. The hunters will engage with time differently too, the best time to go into the forest is a couple of days after rain. The mushroom season will constrain the forest walking season but also extend it into the months that fall beyond those set out for holidays by human cultures. For example, in Russia, this will mean going into the forest in September, when the school starts and the work too. This time can be good for mushrooms but especially for different berries.
Notes about 45th kilometre
Few people ever hunt spring mushrooms even if everyone knows about them.
Baskets for carrying mushrooms.
Bomb and shell bogs.
Gunpowder.
Flattening coins on rails.
History of fighting at Mga.
German helmets and other such items.
Белые грузди.
Синявинские болота.
- Mushroom hunting
- Knowing the place without the maps
- Speed of walking and the focus of attention
- Early departures and tired returns
- Counting systems
- Going with friends, mother dogs, good hunters
- Winning
- Eating mushrooms
- Picking and preparing
- Mosquitos and rain
- Development of habits
- Not as close as animal. Or a native. But reflective. But also exploitative. Still hunting. Same point like in Foster. Hunting makes you know the nature differently and more closely
- Never in winter
Summer Cottages (дача)
Татьяна Нефедова, дачеводство.
Ioffe, Grigoriĭ, and Tatyana Nefedova. The Environs of Russian Cities. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.
Pallot, Judith, and Tatyana Nefedova. Russia’s Unknown Agriculture: Household Production in Post-Communist Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Web sources:
Российские дачи в разном масштабе пространства и времени Elibrary
Mushrooms and forests disappearing for the winter. Or appearing completely different.
Imperceptible transition into the forests. All different types of forest. Forest actually changing quickly. Uniqueness of forest to each human generation.
The need to wake up in the morning, early. Tiredness when walking back after the whole day in the forest. Walking in gumboots. Fresh in the morning but hot in the afternoon when coming back. Dragging feet and scraping the ground with gum heels.
Liska, the dog, sometimes joining to come along but usually abandoning the trip early and returning home on his own.
Mosquitos and biting flies. The use of the eau de cologne "Гвоздика". Generally, the greater tolerance towards the bites of the insects but also to tiredness, being wet, being thirsty and hungry.
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