The lack of rain is spoiling the fun for mushroom hunters this summer. “To say, ‘There are mushrooms’ would be presumptuous,” said Steffen Schmidt, a mushroom expert and operator of a mushroom school in the Vogtland region. However, the season is far from over. Favorable weather in August, September, and October could still bring mushroom enthusiasts full baskets for a good three months.
Mushrooms don’t like heat
The drought has been a problem across nearly all of Germany this year. Only the Ore Mountains have recently been an enclave in Saxony where mushrooms could still be found, Schmidt reported. The intense heat also takes a toll on the mushrooms. “If a mushroom struggles to emerge from the ground, it’s already dried up by the next day,” said the expert.
It’s particularly unfortunate that this year’s rainfall has often been limited to just a few localized areas. “We used to have steady, widespread rain; today, it’s all small, localized rain showers.” This means that mushroom experts might find mushrooms in one spot, while just a few kilometers away there’s nothing to be found.
