Mushroom Hunting!

Mushroom hunting!

Grzybobranie!

August 16, 2012

Today we returned from two days in the Kaszubian forest west of Gdańsk. Our primary goal was to go mushroom hunting and experience a bit of the Polish countryside.  Amateur mushrooming is very popular in Poland, Russia, Belarus, and many other European countries. Mushrooming is experiencing a sort of "rebirth" in popularity in the States right now, as every Foodie out there seems to want to grow or gather his or her own food (I am one of them - but you know this already).

I was having rotten luck finding someone here in Gdańsk to take us mushroom hunting, so I asked the owner of Polish Culinary Vacations if she knew of anyone around here.

Malgorzata and her family recommended a place where they have stayed in this area - a lovely restored Polish Manor called Lisewski Dwór.   I had gotten some interest from an Embassy employee to come with us, but that did not pan out. We went by ourselves and had a blast!

We could not have been be happier with our stay there. Not only was the manor itself a gorgeous piece of history, the food, lodging and company were superb.

They welcomed Danger with open arms! (literally)

Lisewski Dwór was built in the 1500s by the Lisewski family, and naturally founded the village it sits in - Lisewo.

Their website has a very cute narrative about the manor's history - from the perspective of two 500+ year old trees in the garden.

They have special offerings for any outdoors-man (or woman). Their English website is still a work in progress, so I will translate from the Polish.  Activities you can pursue during your stay during summer months: wild forest berry-picking outings, mushroom hunting with an expert, sailing on the Baltic (only 15 km away), wildlife photography tour, local lighthouse tours, skeet shooting, etc.

The main house was booked for a wedding, so we stayed in a neighboring "hunting lodge" in the midst of their petting zoo!  They have 30+ chickens, including several examples of rare Polish breeds.  

We had a Golden Polish rooster in the late 80s in Georgia - his name was "Bart". This breed of chicken comes in many colors - but all have the characteristic mop of feathers on their head.  We wanted to name Bart "Tina Turner" but....well, he was a boy chicken!

The "Hunting Lodge"

You smell like....bacon!

Playground - a child's paradise

My childhood rooster, "Bart", looked just like a golden and white version of this young man.

One of the "attack geese"

 There were also geese, ducks, sheep and goats.

  

There were huge fields of rye, wheat and oats behind the manor house as far as the eye could see. 

I love seeing fields of grain - and I always win the game of "guess what cereal is growing over there". In all fairness, I did study agriculture in college.

They began to harvest the rye the day after our arrival. Watching the combines work in the fields really brought the experience together for me, as this manor has been present through a large amount of Poland's history as "The Breadbasket of Europe." This farm was a state-run farm for 50 years under the Communists. 

Between 1945-1989, the Poles, like the Ukrainians in the 1930s, were producing enough food, but they were not allowed to eat directly what they producted. Malnutrition was rampant, but never reached the level of epic starvation and "famine" that the Reds caused in Ukraine in the 1930s. 

And we walked in fields of gold

Danger had a great time running in the fields after they had been harvested and the straw baled.

Oats

Where do you want to go?

The "expert" that took us mushrooming was Erik, one of the gardeners and animal husbandry workers at the Manor.

He spoke zero English, but we had a great time and understood each other well enough.

He drove us to his house at the edge of the forest.  Every forest in Poland is state-owned and managed. I've mentioned before that there are no privately owned forests here.  Anyone can go berry picking or mushrooming any time they like.....but only after you register and get a card from the local Forest Service.

Very meager dwelling, but with a large garden and flock of ducks. They were THRILLED to have us there.

The yellow barrier is the duck's "corral" in the yard.  They were happily eating grass, ignoring us.

At Erik's house, we saw his daughters feeding their flock of ducks, and got to relax for a little while in the garden.  Once the "chores" were finished, the two girls were our ACTUAL experts on this hunting expedition!  Erik stayed at the house with his wife while we headed out into the forest.
Erik has also invited us to come to his home again one Saturday for dinner and more mushrooming.
We are honored by this invitation because when a Pole says "let's do lunch"....he means it!

The real experts!

They could not get enough of Danger love.

It had not rained much in the last week, so I was a little skeptical about how many mushrooms we would find. At first I found NONE, but the girls were very good at showing us what to look for (color, size, favorite locations in the forest floor humus). They checked each mushroom we picked. Thank goodness they did, because we did pick several "false" and poisonous mushrooms.  The chanterelles or kurki mushrooms were easy to find and identify. The pomaranczki (Porcini) mushrooms were harder to get right. Every time I thought I had one....nope!

Danger did great during our 3.5 hours of forest hiking. Most of the terrain was gently sloping and not too difficult. We did get into a blackberry patch though - lucky us!

The blackberries here taste very similar to the ones that grow wild in the States. The bushes are very different though. These brambles "creep", growing very low to the ground, and very unlike the tall, high wild blackberry bushes of North America.

DELICIOUS!  I think the girls fed every berry they picked to Danger!

So....5 kilos of mushrooms later....we are planning on a week of scrambled eggs with chanterelles, beef stroganoff, porcini risotto, chanterelles on pizza for Sunday night....etc, etc, etc.
I feel a bit sorry for our guests who are coming to visit - we hope that you guys like mushrooms!
Over the course of the next two weeks we will be hosting Olmsted Scholars from Turkey, France, Romania, Krakow, Poland and personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw. Let the fun begin!

I have about half of the porcinis drying on newspaper right now. I can't wait to make risotto with them this winter.  I am glad that I brought my favorite risotto rice with me in our express shipment - Carolina Plantation Gold Rice.

Feel free to post your favorite mushroom recipes, or send links!

Some of you readers may not know that Danger has cancer. 

He had surgery 3 weeks ago. 

He is feeling BETTER THAN EVER, and has as much energy as a puppy!

We are thankful for the skilled surgeon here in Gdańsk and her staff.

Danger always has been, and always will be a part of our adventures.

Do muzeum!

August 4, 2012

To the museum!

In these first few weeks we are trying to hit as many museums in Gdansk as possible.  We want to get a better grip on the history of where we live, and we want to be able to give our guests a good idea of what's what when they arrive.

Many of the museums in Gdańsk are managed under the Polish National Museum or the city of Gdańsk. There are a wide variety of offerings to appeal to a variety of interests.

So far, we have visited quite a few.  Westerplatte has a small museum, but the entire historical site is like a giant outdoor museum. Below I include links to each museum's website in case you would like to read more!

In no particular order:

1. Westerplatte. See my previous post about how awesome this place is!

2. Muzeum Bursztynu (Amber Museum), Old Gate and Torture house.  

This museum is housed in the original main gate house (over the moat) into the city of Gdansk. This building was a gate house, jail and torture house in medieval times. They have great examples of torture equipment and other creepy armaments of the age. 

Reference: We're Knights of the Round Table!

The amber museum is my favorite so far...gorgeous examples of fossilized tree sap.  

Raw specimens from all over the world, entrapped ancient insects and reptiles, historical uses, modern art, jewelry, and lamps. The perfect combination of art and science!

Fun facts:  

Amber is a fairly soft fossil - on a scale of 1 to 10 - 1 is talc, 10 is diamond, amber is 2.5.

Amber is flammable! Who knew? 

Anyone of our generation will be sure to have the Jurassic Park theme song running through their head the entire visit as you search for dino-DNA.  

Rosaries, earrings, pipes, flounder figurine

Whelk eggs from North Carolina and.....whelk eggs in amber?

Photo courtesy of Jo O'Keefe www.okeefes.org 

Giant beer stein in amber. This thing was 2 feet tall!

3. Polish Maritime Museum.  This museum is in two locations.  

One part is next to the big Crane, and the other is in the old granary buildings directly across the river.

You must buy individual tickets to each facility. There are lots of old boats and of course, you get to tour the inside of the Crane. You must buy the tickets for the Crane across the river, then take a (free) ferry ride across to it.

The Crane (Zuraw) in 1945

The Crane, 2 weeks ago

The long, steep stairs to the top!

The wheels that make the pulley system go in the Crane

Very large rope and my foot (size 5.5 US) for scale

How they used to make the rope

4. Green Gate Museum (Zielona Brama) and Lech Wałęsa's office

The Green Gate Museum contains a series of rotating small exhibits.

Lech Wałęsa's office does not accept visitors. :(

Photography was not allowed in this exhibit, but it is very cool!

The Art of Travel:  Bartholomaus Schachman. 1559-1614

This is taken directly from the museum guidebook regarding this exhibit:

"Exploring the world with one's own senses, through travel, was incredibly fashionable in 16th century Europe. Travels helped one learn about the world, not only in the geographical sense, but most of all in the broad sense of learning about humankind and human nature. 

Therefore, the art of travel was the art of learning about and describing the world; it inspired depictions of figures and scenes from faraway lands.

Albums, such as the one in this exhibit, were commissioned by the Gdansk Mayor Schachman, were a popular souvenir from travels to the Ottoman Empire. Over 20 almost identical collections of water colors have survived to this day. Conventional representations of people and their customs helped those who did not have the opportunity to see these lands with their own eyes to imagine them and made it easier for the travelers to talk about what they had seen in a more vivid way."

5. Museum of Ancient Art.  This museum was very interesting and had a vast collection of the works of Gdansk and Dutch painters, ceramics and old furniture made in Gdansk.

Below is a part of Hans Memling's The Last Judgement.

You're going to need to click here to see the entire thing. It's huge and stunning!

I don't remember who painted this.

Classic Dog vs. Cat over a huge piece of fish!

6. Dwór Artusa - Artus Court

This is a very cool big house right along the main thoroughfare in Gdańsk (Długi Targ).

It is incredible, check out the website. 

If you are into knights, sharp pointy things and times of yore, this is the place for you to visit. 

This place also sports a giant wall painting by Gdańsk painter, Antony Moeller. He was infamously not paid for this piece by the Gdańsk city council.  Local lore says that after he found out he wasn't going to be paid, he painted the members of the city council into a corner in the "hell" section of the painting.

Antony Moeller's version of the Last Judgement

7. The Main Town Hall

Also on Długi Targ. This is the one with the gorgeous clock tower!

We visited here today while it was raining. They have a very nice exhibit right now on the history of the Olympics! Most of this building was destroyed during World War II, but has been lovingly restored.

One of the many gorgeous ceiling paintings in City Hall. Many of these are originals from the 1600s because they were taken down in 1943 and hidden.

8. Uphagen House

If you like architecture and the study of architecture, then this is the place for you.  We were also pleasantly surprised to see a small photography exhibit with photos by our new friend in Gdańsk, Zbigniew!

9. Gdansk Archaeological Museum.  

I saved the best for last.  Dlaczego?

Is it because of their vast collection of ancient bones complete with tuberculosis and syphilis lesions?

Is it the current exhibit of pottery from Sudan?

Is it because it contains photos and artifacts from the dig site that is under our apartment building?

You decide.

Pathology!  SQUEEEEE!!!!

Extensive moat system of Gdańsk, circa 1687.

Many of these moats are still present today! It's definitely romantic!

Ok, I'm exhausted from all the museums.  Take a break, dear reader. 

Drink a piwo.  Eat some naleśniki. 

Naleśniki....mmmm think huge square crepe with whatever filling and sauce you could ever imagine - this one is red bean, tomato, chicken, peppers with garlic sauce and carrot salad. 

You are going to need it, because we have SIX more museums to visit in Gdańsk!

Please come visit!