Matsutake enthusiasm grows in north of Finland

Hundreds of kilos of high-priced mushrooms flown to Japan

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By Anna-Riitta Sippola
     
      Mushroom caps with a silky cover protrude from the reindeer moss on the ground of the northern Finnish forest.
      This is more than an ordinary mushroom hunting exhibition: this is pure frenzy. The cause is the matsutake mushroom. Some people say that you can find them by smelling them out.
      The mushrooms have probably grown in stands of pine on sandy ground in Finnish forests for ages, but through a few coincidences, hundreds of people this summer have trained to become expert pickers, and a few hundred kilos of the fungus have been flown to be sold in Japan.
      Matsutake is a cult mushroom in Japan - a great delicacy, for which people are willing to pay huge prices. Matsutake is a part of the Japanese autumn, just like cherry blossoms are a part of the spring.
      Hannele Rinne from Oulu kneels on the moss and carefully digs up the mushroom. Its cap is at least ten centimetres wide and completely opened up. This puts it in the D class, earning the picker two euros a kilo. Mushrooms of the A class, with enclosed caps and firm stems bring in EUR 20 per kilo.
      Is it possible to find a class-A matsutake without crawling on one's hands and knees?
      "I've been looking for them in a frenzy, and in anguish", Hannele Rinne says in the forest, which lies about 20 kilometres from the centre of Oulu.
      She remembers exactly when she found her first matsutake in Kalajoki.
     
The matsutake boom began at the Parkano unit of the Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA), where the mushrooms were found in connection with another study. Researcher Eira-Maija Savonen awoke to the significance of matsutake at an international conference in Spain. METLA launched a two-year study aimed at mapping out where the mushrooms grow best.
      Film director Pirjo Honkasalo, whose company Baabeli Ky had contacts with Japan, read about the study. Some Japanese experts came to Finland to ascertain whether or not the prized mushroom actually grows here. They were able to see that it really does.
      The enthusiasm grew.
     
This year the matsutake was named mushroom of the year by the Arctic Flavours Association.
      But the matsutake is fickle - much more temperamental than the champignon. Experts do not yet know how plentiful they are, and for how long. So far, they have been found as far south as Kouvola, and they appear to be most plentiful in Kainuu and Finnish Lapland.
      Another complicating factor is that they grow in dry forests, but need a rainy summer to prosper.
      Baabeli is currently the only company exporting the mushrooms to Japan. Established mushroom growers are only considering an attempt at matsutake cultivation.
      Each of the mushrooms flown to Asia receives individual treatment and care. They must not be cut with a knife: the mushrooms are picked whole, with gloved hands, lest the surface of the matsutake be contaminated with oil from human skin. Toothbrushes are used to clean the fungi.
Each mushroom is wrapped separately and placed in a refrigerated container.
      "There is a bit of a mystery there", says Hannele Rinne, as she wraps a mushroom as if she were putting a baby to bed.
      Speed is also important. Ideally, the mushroom should reach a Japanese soup pot within three days of being picked in the north of Finland.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 26.8.2007


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Matsutake fever is not the first mushroom fad in Finland, as this article from 2003 shows (9.9.2003)

Links:
  Finnfood: Matsutake mushrooms – a Japanese delicacy – grown in Finnish forests

ANNA-RIITTA SIPPOLA / Helsingin Sanomat
anna-riitta.sippola@hs.fi