My name is Łukasz Łuczaj (pronounce it: wookash woochuy). I am a forager and a wild food enthusiast. For years I have travelled the world making scientific documentation of the traditions of collecting wild foods. I like doing things – I run a large forest farm, wild food workshops and I am a professor of biology at my university. I live in the Carpathian Mountains in South-Eastern Poland.
The Ethnobiology of Contemporary British Foragers: Foods They Teach, Their Sources of Inspiration and Impact. Ł Łuczaj, M Wilde, L Townsend – Sustainability, 2021
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A Forest is Not a Simple Thing: An Interview with Ethnobotanist Łukasz Łuczaj
‘A natural forest is a multi-layered creation’, says Łukasz Łuczaj, ethnobotanist, populariser of wild cuisine, author of books on edible plants and insects, director of the Botany Department of Rzeszów University, and a resident of Pietrusza Wola in the Dynów Foothills.
MO: Let’s say someone has a lighter, a canteen, and a good knife and he or she wants to live for a week in a Polish forest. Would that be possible?
ŁŁ: It might be possible, but that person would have to have a large part of the forest available to him or her. Sometimes certain plants are protected or rare. The plant population of forests is more varied than that outside of forests. Sometimes very similar fields are located right at the edge of forests and, in fact, they differ quite a lot. A lot of Poland is covered by secondary forests – those are places which were once fields and they are planted with birch or pine trees. Such forests have far poorer flora and in that context they would be ill-suited for survival. But if we’re talking about natural forests where there was always a forest – or at least there was for a thousand years or so – there we’ll have better chances of finding biological variety and that which goes hand in hand with it: the availability of edible plants. Plants of the forest undergrowth grow very slowly, because they grow in the shade. They often require many years to accumulate nutritious substances in their rhizomes and root structures. Of course, when it comes to survival, it’s easiest to use trees, because they’re bigger, so it’s very important to be aware of what we can get out of any given species of tree that grows in Poland.
This is the season for beechnuts and acorns are falling, too. Those are good survival supplies. Really, the worst time of year from this point of view is midsummer, because either plants already have stringy leaves or else their roots and rhizomes no longer contain nutrients because those nutrients have migrated to their leaves. Of course, it’s not good if there is snow or frost. It would be easiest to survive in early spring or autumn. In the spring, there are young leaves and shoots, and the rhizomes and roots still contain starch. And, in the fall, there are forest fruits and mushrooms.
Beads in shades of red, black and gold – autumn treasures growing naturally, abundantly, wild, without a plan: rowan, blackthorn, sea buckthorn. These edible plants, typical for the Polish autumn landscape, can be found both in towns and in the countryside.
MO: You also wrote ‘The Insect-Eater’s Handbook’. Am I to understand that a forest survival diet doesn’t necessarily have to be vegan?
ŁŁ: I would definitely complement such a diet with some sort of animal protein. Let’s not fool ourselves: if I were left in a forest with a rifle and a shovel, my first choice would be to shoot a deer or wild boar.
MO: Most people associate forest food with mushrooms. Are there any that you think are underappreciated or forgotten?
ŁŁ: There are a lot of such species, but some of them are very rare mushrooms which can’t be found in all parts of Poland. I would mention gołąbki (russula), excellent edible mushrooms which seem to be less popular these days. I’d also add that mushrooms really have few calories, but they have some. Most valuable in that sense are borowiki szlachetne or prawdziwki (boletes or porcini). They are simply the most nutritious.
MO: Many people think that mushrooms are just a tasty addition to the menu, but without any particular value for our organism.
ŁŁ: Mushrooms contain mineral salts, vitamins, and antibiotic substances. They ‘train’ our immune systems how to react to different stimuli. Let’s remember, too, that in survival or hunger conditions our metabolism shifts into a mode that burns fewer calories. So every hundred calories that we take in make an exceptionally large contribution towards our survival.
Autumn is so beautiful and delicious, with its colourful foliage, pumpkins, chestnuts… and mushrooms, of course! Poles love to go to the forest to pick mushrooms, and they take it seriously. But when foraging for mushrooms, you need to know which ones are edible and which ones to avoid – and this is no simple feat. Are you ready to pick mushrooms in the Polish forest? Let’s find out!
MO: Getting back to insects… You are an opponent of urban mosquito extermination, but, at the same time, you praise the flavour of ants. That seems inconsistent to me.
ŁŁ: Urban mosquito extermination is a scandal. The chemicals used don’t only affect mosquitoes, but they can kill other insects as well. First of all, we’re denying birds some of their food sources and, secondly, we’re poisoning the environment. And mosquitoes are tasty: it’s just hard to catch them. But I’ve eaten mosquitoes and their larvae. Ants, on the other hand, are easy to catch and they’re very nutritious. I’m not promoting digging up anthills; some species are protected. But it’s worth keeping in mind that they’re a fairly easy source of protein.
MO: There’s a very active discussion these days about getting protein from insects, even within the pragmatic vegan movement. Some think this is an ethical alternative to eating mammals, fish or fowl.
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