Mushroom season in Pyrenees hit by drought 

August and September are usually two of the best months of the year for mushrooms in the Pyrenees. Temperatures start to drop but the real cold and rainy weather is still to come. 

This year, however, has been a disappointing one for fungi fans, with experts blaming the ongoing drought. 

Mushroom production in the Pyrenees this season is now considered a lost cause, with hopes now focused on the lower-lying Pre-Pyrenees and in Central Catalonia. 

Hoping for rain 

The long-term forecast is for a wet autumn, but it remains to be seen exactly how much it will rain and where it will fall. 

"There's no use in 100 liters of rain falling all at once. What we're interested in is light rain for several days," Juan Martínez, an expert on mushrooms at Catalonia's Forest Science and Technology Center (CTFC), tells the Catalan News Agency (ACN). 

"Count them on one hand" 

Mushroom season has yet to kick off in regions such as Berguedà or Ripollès and is already a month late, explains Ramon Minoves, head of a mushroom-picking group called Penya Boletaire de Berga. 

"You can count them on the fingers of one hand," he says. 

Minoves hopes the rain that has fallen in recent days will have an effect, but adds it is not simply a case of watering leading to mushrooms appearing. It needs to keep raining to keep humidity levels high, and it must not drop below freezing at night or get too windy. 

"From here on, you have to be lucky, and go to the good places to find mushrooms," the mushroom hunter says. 

Less rain, fewer mushrooms 

Frosts mark the end of the season. In the Pyrenees, if it rains, you can pick mushrooms until it starts to get cold. 

According to data collected by the CTFC, however, half of the mushroom production in the Pyrenees for the whole year has already been lost. 

Last season, mushroom production was "normal" at 50 kilograms per hectare, slightly below the average of 60 kg per hectare. 

Studies warn that in areas such as the Pyrenees there may be a reduction of up to 20% in the production of mushrooms due to the lack of rain because of climate change. 

"It is clear that we are concerned because the trend is to see that there are fewer and fewer mushrooms and more and more mushroom pickers," Minoves says. 

Podcast 

To learn more about mushroom hunting in Catalonia, listen to the podcast below, recorded in November 2020.