Uses of mushrooms by Finns and Karelians.

Finns have adopted two traditions of mushroom use: one, the old Roman tradition, came through France and Sweden to the educated, mostly Swedish speaking people of southwest Finland; the other came from the east via Karelia and was adopted by ordinary country folk. This eastern tradition is still maintained among the Karelinas living in Tver government in Russia. Even the use of Amanita muscaria for killing flies is still utilized there. The western tradition favoured chanterelles and Boletus edulis, the eastern acrid milk caps, the Lactarius species. During the famines in the 1860's and after the World War II the government authorities tried to promote the use of wild mushrooms, but the real impulse to a more versatile mushroom use was initiated after the war when 400,000 evacuees from that part of Karelia conquered by the Soviet Union were resettled among farming families all over Finland. In 1969 the National Board of Forestry began to train mushroom advisors, a programme which still continues. In 1981 Finland passed a statute on edible mushrooms and drew up a list of commercial species. Even today the largest percentage of marketed mushrooms comes from Eastern Finland and the Lactarius tivialis species sells best. Gyromitra esculenta, the false morel is considered a delicacy. Today picking mushrooms is a passionate hobby for many Finns.