Posted by BDMHistorian

Chapter 10
There's Mushrooms Today!

Whenever the Jungmaedel walked to the lake to swim, they were amazed by the amount of mushrooms that grew in the woods. And suddenly, there was the thought: "We should have mushrooms with dinner sometime." It wasn't quite clear who'd thought of that. But now, the Jungmaedel wouldn't let it go again: "Kathrin, when are we finally going to have mushrooms?"

Not that the food at camp wasn't good! Quite the opposite! It was "great, great" like Shorty always said, and sometimes she added, "Gustav should see this!" But handpicked mushrooms -- that would be so much better!

But the den mother shook her head about this plan: "And who'll make sure you know your mushrooms and don't bring me any that are poisonous? No, no, you can forget about that!"

Kathrin could understand that. She herself didn't know mushrooms that well, and even Liese, who usually knew her way around the fields and woods so well, said a little embarrassed: "No, I've never had much interest in mushrooms. It's a bit of a shame, but that's what it is."

So the whole great plan had to be let go. How bad. But then the den mother had the saving idea: "If Mother Castorp from the Wiesenhof would help you look -- she knows every mushroom from 10 feet away. That would be entirely different."

At least that was a bit of hope! The Jungmaedel knew Mother Castorp well; she always nodded toward them when they passed the Wiesenhof. Maybe she'd really join them to look for mushrooms. That would be wonderful!

Mother Castorp sat in the warm sun on a bench in front of her house and knitted a long grey stocking when the Jungmaedel, lined up in rows of three, marched up the road and stood in front of her garden gate where they sang the song by way of greeting. They knew that Mother Castorp especially liked this particular song.

She immediately stood up, put her stocking to the side and shook hands with Kathrin: "How nice of you to come visit this old woman. But," she winked at Kathrin, "it's not quite without a reason, is it? What's up? What do you want form me?"

Kathrin blushed a bit. Mother Castorp always saw through everything! But then she told her about the Jungmaedel, the mushrooms, and the den mother … "and now, it would be wonderful if you could go looking for mushrooms with us, Mother Castorp."

Mother Castorp didn't mind at all. She even nodded quite contently. "Good, good", she said, "it's right that you pay attention to such things and that you'll pick what the good Lord puts in front of you. It doesn't always have to be yellow boletus, yellow chanterelles and button mushrooms. The whole forest is full of good ones, too. You just have to bother to learn which ones they are. But city people don't do that anymore."

Kathrin had to laugh a bit, because Mother Castorp never really had anything nice to say about city people and wherever she could find a reason to pick on them, she did. But her Jungmaedel were an exception, even though they were from the city as well. And they were quite proud of that exception, too.

Mother Castorp was ready to take the Jungmaedel out on Saturday afternoon. Kathrin didn't have to spend a lot of time asking. It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny afternoon when they met up with Mother Castorp at the Wiesenhof, carrying six large baskets. On Thursday and Friday it had rained heavily and in the alleyways were still large puddles; everything smelled fresh and like wet leaves.

"The right mushroom weather," said Mother Castorp at the edge of the forest and laughed happily. "Now you just need to make sure not to pick the wrong ones. Listen up…"

The hundred Jungmaedel edged closer expectantly. Mother Castorp already held two mushrooms. Strange, and none of the Jungmaedel had seen even a single one yet. "So," Mother Castorp said and raised her right hand, "This one is a boletus, and this one," the left hand followed, "is an agaric." With this, they showed them how you had to look underneath the mushroom's head to see whether there was an area covered in rounded gills or ones that looked like the leaves on a half-opened books. "All of the boletus kind are edible," she said. "There's only one that's poisonous and it doesn't grow in this area at all. With the agaric mushrooms, you must be careful and only take the ones you truly know; yellow chanterelles, for example, like the one I'm holding in my hand here."

The Jungmaedel nodded eagerly. Looking for mushrooms was pretty simple after all. The den mother would be surprised by what they'd be bringing back. Then they divided into groups of five Jungmaedel each and spread out throughout the forest. After an hour, they'd meet back with Mother Castorp and give her the mushrooms. "I want to check each one, just to make sure there are no bad ones in the mix," she'd said.

Some had secretly found this very unnecessary. After all, they now knew what they were looking for. But it soon turned out that it wasn't quite as easy, and Mother Castorp had to answer a whole bundle of questions when they were all back together.

Inge had a whole handful of reddish-brown mushrooms. "They're so pretty and they're all boletus," she said, "but when you touch them, they turn black. Maybe they're poisonous after all?" -- Mother Castorp said, "You can eat them and the black coloring makes no difference." Happily, Inge put her find into one of the large baskets.

Then Ellie pushed to the foreground embarrassedly. "I haven't found any boletus at all, so I ended up picking these." She unpacked a couple of golden yellow mushrooms that looked like bath sponges, and a lot that looked like little white balls. "Cockscombs and puff-balls," Mother Castorp said. "Well, they're not the best mushrooms but with all these others, they'll taste just fine."

Christel's bag was so full that when she came up, a large amount of mushrooms spilled into the grass no matter how careful she was. "They're really strange, the ones I've found," she said. "They are not boletuses but not agarics, either … rather, they have little thorns. Well, I don't know if they are any good." - Mother Castorp said, "They taste quite nicely, but you have to peel the skin because it's very bitter."

A few very brave girls had dared to agaric mushrooms. "Honey fungus" is what Mother Castorp called the yellow ones with bent bottoms that grew on tree trunks. "Milk mushrooms" she said were the others. You had to throw those away because their juice was very bitter and it would ruin the entire mushroom dish. Then there were scaly Habicht mushrooms, a few brought yellow chanterelles, and Shorty had found some yellow boletus.

"You did really great," Mother Castorp nodded. "Now you need to go help the den mother clean them all, or she won't be done until tomorrow morning!"

Of course! That would be the main fun! In the evening, they all sat around their large mountain of mushrooms, each holding a knife. And again hey went through the names of all the new mushrooms they had gotten to know.

"I now know them all," Irm said pleased to Ellie who sat next to her. "When I go into the forest at home with my mom, we'll go pick mushrooms there, too. -- Cane mushrooms," she added after a pause. "I don't quite trust myself with the others, after all."

"And your mother is going to believe you that you know the mushrooms?" Ellie looked surprised. She had to think for a long time about Irm's quick, "Of course -- why not?" She thought about her own mother and could only too well hear her voice: "You're much too young! One can't go by what the children say!"

Did the other Jungmaedel have mothers like Irm, and was this why they were so different from her, Ellie, so much more self-reliant and self assured? Preoccupied with her own thoughts, she cut one mushroom after the other and put them into the large bowl. A lot had to change, at home too, if she wanted to be a Jungmaedel like the others. She'd have to prove to her mother that she was not "little" anymore, and that what she said could be trusted. But sometimes it was easy to be "little" and to let the grown ups think for and worry about you. But the other thing was much better. Strange that she only realized this now, in Heidersdorf. Ellie sighed a little and Irm looked at her in surprise and wondered why Ellie wasn't saying anything.

But then Irm forgot all about Ellie and Ellie forgot all about her worries. Because Shorty had laid the largest of all mushrooms, the parasol mushroom, across her shoulder like an umbrella and wandered around the circle in a dignified way: "I am the Princess Parasol, and you're all my subjects. You have ten minutes to come before my throne and give me your treasures."

In a long row they then walked to the kitchen where Shorty's throne was the kitchen table, and where she accepted the treasures, which were presented to her on plates and in bowls, with a gracious smile, until the den mother chased the entire group from her kitchen: "Enough now, if you want to eat before midnight!"