Picky protection rules curb Swiss mushrooming craze

After suffocating Covid restrictions, many em-braced the call of the wild and the joys of foraging, but tightening Swiss biodiversity protection measures are infuriating growing hordes of mushroom-picking enthusiasts.

The pandemic times "made people return to the forest", said Jean-Michel Froidevaux, chair of the Swiss Association of Official Mushroom Control Bodies, which regularly organises training sessions for mushroom hunters and checks whether their foraged mushrooms are safe to eat. "when you walk in the forest, there's not much to do apart from look around - and when you look down, you spot mushrooms."

During training courses and picked mushroom checking sessions, "we saw loads of people who knew nothing about them", he said, during a five-day workshop in Leysin, in the Alps.

Faced with surging interest, the association has opened additional courses.