H. Bathó Edit – Kertész Róbert – Tolnay Gábor – Vadász István szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 11. (1999)
The Wild Flora in the Alimentary Culture Among the Hungarians in Gömör
ERZSÉBET BŐDI THE WILD FLORA IN THE ALIMENTARY CULTURE AMONG THE HUNGARIANS IN GÖMÖR Gömör country is situated in the northeastern region of the Hungarian language-territory. The greater part belongs to the Slovakian Republic from 1920 and smaller one is in Hungary. Hungarians and Slovaks live there. Highlands can be found in most places, lowlands for intensive agricultural cultivation are in south. Today the inhabitants still consume the utilisable plants of the natural vegetation. The writer of the essay based on the searches in location mentions those vegetables, plans that people in Gömör collect and use for nutrition. Dishes are made from 18 kinds of mushrooms, 14 types of wild fiuits are collected. Apart from these meals are cooked from leaves, tubers and roots of the wild flora. They also cut brich-trees and maple trees, so the fluxed juice can slake their thirst. Conclusion of the scientific analysis is the following: Farmers mainly use up largely the fundamentals of the nature. Their knowledge of the plants and vegetables is richer than those ones in the highlands or those ones in the valleys, people's knowledge in the lowlands is the poorest. The herdsmen know the most herbs and mushrooms. The economic pressure on people plays an important role in collecting wild plants. Wild fiuits and vegetables can often be found on sale in the markets of the towns in Gömör. It is well known that Slovaks ide ~ tify and use more types of mushrooms than Hungarians do. The gypsies lead in collecting wild fiuit but they do not use it up, sell it. Mushrooms are not grown anywhere. Mushrooms dishes appear more times in menu than in those areas where various mushrooms are cultivated for eating. Soups, sauces, meals seasoned with paprika, steamed, roasted and minced dishes are made from 18 types of mushrooms. The tradition and the new style can be traceable at the same time. The most typical dish is the sour mushroom soup a'la Gömör, which is served on Christmas eve Nine types of stuffs mark the magical significance of the soup. Till the middle of the 20. century mushrooms had been bottled, now it is started to sour. Berries among the fruits still grow in the wild. Their conservation became possible with the appearance of the sugar. Nowadays drinks, jams, wines, and pálinka are made of them. People living in the nortli region go away for 1 - 3 days during time of fiuit ripening to those areas where fiuits grow wildly. The topic is excellently suitable for the analysis of the interethnic relations (Slovak, Hungarian, and Gypsy). The writer has chosen it because it belongs to Professor László Szabó's searching topic. In the latest ethnographical synthesis it was him who summarised the Hungarians' knowledge of nature. 82
