The Good Life in Aggtelek National Park Part XXIII

The weeks of heavy spring rains and storms provided a good climate for mushrooms, but the warm nights have been lacking. Even so, Sanyi and I went mushroom hunting one day last week and came up with a varied half-bucket of shrooms including galambgomba, rokagomba, tinorugomba and keseru gomba. I do not think I spotted a single mushroom on my own this time. If it had not been for Sanyi's usual hawk eyes my bucket would have been empty for the almost 4 hour hilly hike. The majority of our find consisted of different varieties of galambgomba (Russula cyanoxantha) or charcoal burner mushrooms known for their fragile gills. The charcoal burner was named "Mushroom of the Year" in 1997 by the German Association of Mycology. Fried with red bell peppers, I added these to a morning omlete. The csirkegomba or rokagomba (Cantharellus cibarius), or chanterelle to us, is well-named (roka = fox) for its slyness and difficulty to spot hidden under leaves. I fried these up in some homemade butter from our neighbours Vincze and Kati, added some cream and garlic, and left it at that. The most sought after tinoru/varganyagomba (Boletus badius) or bay bolete completely evaded us except for one example. These sell for about 6000 huf/kg fresh and over 30000 huf dried. Spread in a net in the sun, the mushrooms shrink and harden, forcing any worms out. The dried mushrooms can then be stored in jars and reconstituted in milk or water for delicious flavouring to a number of dishes and soups. We were also able to gather a few examples of keserugomba (Lactarius piperatus) or peppery milk-cap.

Friday and Saturday had been full of stress brought on by necessary repairs to the house. Over the winter, serious cracks had appeared both throughout the indoor and outside walls. What I first took to be a single crack in the kitchen wall tiles turned out to be systemic. The house is built of valyogtegla, a kind of adobe brick, atop a foundation that did not employ cement. A hundred years ago, foundations were made from layers of large rocks were interspersed with lime. Water was then poured over the rocks, "burning" the lime solid to hold the rocks together. Time, heavy rains and flooding resulted in the foundation moving and the walls settling. Kata's ex-husband Laci was extremely helpful with last minute advice, but this meant we had difficult discussions with the workers the next morning when we changed their plans. We cooked our first bogracs of the season, consisting of a kind of krumpli paprikas with poultry hotdogs and turkey sausage. The tension between the workers themselves and also between them and us was not pleasant, but Kata managed to get them and keep them in line until the job's first phase was finished. Five 80cm deep and 1 m long perpendicular evenly-spaced ditches were dug under the wall and filled with rock, iron rods and concrete. The result looks like five tombs. We are not sure how to decorate these yet. In theory, if the house moves now, it should move as one and not in pieces, but more buttressing may be necessary. Luckily Jeroen and Lennard called and invited us on an excursion the next day.

It is sometimes easy to get bogged down in work and the garden - both of which are worthy pursuits, but neither, even in combination, is completely satisfying. Back when I worked for Friends of the Earth-NL (Milieudefensie) in Amsterdam, my friends Judith Bucher and Peter Linng would occasionally call me up and drag me out into the big world and remind me of what I needed, such as a bike ride along the coast. Jeroen and Lennard did that for us this past weekend by suggesting the first swim of the year in Rakaca Lake.  The lake is also one of the official fishing lakes in Aggtelek National Park. The largest man-made freshwater reservoir in Hungary, we often swim from the dam to the piers and back (2.5km). Kata and I rode our bikes to the piers where Kata sunbathed and the rest of us went for a swim. Lennard and Jeroen then guided us to a hilltop field they had discovered and we had a splendid picnic under the lone tree in the area among wildflowers, butterflies and buzzing bees. Jeroen had made a potato-chickpea salad, a green salad and a cantaloupe-strawberry salad. This was enjoyed with chilled Italian Riesling, sparkling water and a bottle of elderflower drink we had made. We also brought along my first attempt at rugalach. Rugalach is one of my mother's few specialties. Although it was not nearly as good, they came out fine. The view from picnic site they "had just happened to find" across the fields and hills, with the village of Meszes just hidden from view was spectacular. Kata and I decided to stay awhile and admire the view and take advantage of our first truly relaxing day of the year. Kata gave me some shiatsu for my aching back, and I promptly fell asleep in the grass. The way back was hot and dusty. Everything was closed for the Pentecost holiday Monday. We refreshed ourselves in Meszes by a spring completely abuzz with bees, then by Rakaca Lake at the Svartz Spring. We finally found some ice-cream at the Italbolt in Szalonna.