Local women win mushroom championship after collecting nearly 50 kilograms

Three local women won the 23rd mushroom-picking championship in the village of Žiūrai in Varėna district after collecting nearly 50 kilograms of mushrooms, LRT reported. A record 43 teams took part, gathering a total of 428 kilograms in two and a half hours.

The winning team, called Slaunos mergos, consisted of residents of Žiūrai who were competing in the championship for the first time. They said they had known the local forests since childhood and knew where mushrooms grew.

“You have to know the places. From spring, you walk through the forests, learn where they grow and go there. We do not walk just anywhere,” Žiūrai resident Zita Katinienė said.

This year, participants were allowed to collect only three types of mushrooms: porcini, chanterelles and bay boletes. Most of the mushrooms collected were chanterelles.

The organisers said warm days and almost daily rain had created ideal conditions for chanterelles. The largest porcini weighed slightly more than half a kilogram, while only a few dozen porcini were found.

The winning team received the main prize, a sculpture called The Young Mushroom Picker by woodcarver Algirdas Juškevičius.