Lithuanian mushroom hunters find new tradition in Iceland

In Iceland, Lithuanian Neringa leads an annual mushroom-hunting tradition with friends, seeking out boletes and chanterelles that many Icelanders leave untouched.

Neringa, the leader of the Lithuanian community in Iceland, began the yearly outings eight years ago, inspired by her father who discovered plentiful mushrooms in the Icelandic landscape. Each summer, a group travels to her husband’s family property, about three hours from Reykjavik, to forage.

Neringa describes the Icelandic forests as thickets, quite different from the tall forests of Lithuania, requiring them to crawl and search carefully. While Icelanders are beginning to show interest in mushroom picking, with guidebooks even being published, they haven't historically shared the same foraging traditions as Lithuanians. Locals often observe the Lithuanian group with curiosity, sometimes cautiously sampling the prepared mushrooms. Neringa learned the language and now works as a translator, helping people communicate in schools, hospitals, and courts.

She feels at home in Iceland, embracing the country’s natural beauty and a uniquely Icelandic approach to problems, a philosophy of acceptance summarized by the phrase “Þetta Reddast” ("it will all work out"). Neringa and her husband share a family farm, a place they are committed to preserving for future generations.