The very secret mushroom spots revealed in interactive maps: progress or sacrilege?
One Sunday, in the Drôme forest, Yvan Morin decides to follow an abandoned path along a stream. Arriving in the undergrowth, he slowed his pace without realizing it. Orchids grow on black, tormented earth, a vague sweet smell floats in the air. “I felt good about this place,” confides the forty-year-old. His flair did not deceive him: a morel showed its graceful alveoli through the grass, then another… “I discovered a new mushroom spot,” he says, with the undiminished joy of a child. who found treasure. But it wasn’t his grandfather who told him where it was, any more than an old peasant at a bend in the road. It’s his phone, or more precisely an interactive map which indicates the areas of the region suitable for the growth of the precious wonder of the woods.
Yes, you read correctly: a map found on the Internet. “I had the idea of creating it in 2020, while I was looking for morels,” says Jordan Monnot, a young 31-year-old engineer. First designed for this single species, the mapping available on the site chassesdechampignons.com now extends to around twenty, as well as to all the departments of France. With the help of mycologists and volunteers, the entrepreneur created it in six months, by cross-referencing data “available in open access on the Internet”, such as soil acidity, tree species, exposure and altitude.
Four years later, success has been achieved: nearly 210,000 people have joined his Facebook group and “between 10,000 and 30,000 people” have purchased one of his cards. 48 euros gives access, in the department of your choice, to corners with morels or chanterelles and porcini mushrooms. The same price increased by a monthly rate and twenty other varieties reveal their hiding places. A quick calculation is enough to measure the success of the young entrepreneur, today a millionaire.
Controversies and threats
But his initiative has not only won him friends, as evidenced by the hacking attempts of which he has been the victim and the slew of virulent messages that he receives by e-mail. They all say in essence: “Stop it! The mushroom corner is sacred. » Historically, picking is practiced by the peasantry, and we keep our corners within the family as a heritage asset. Jordan Monnot is shaking up the rules. “My maps are aimed at newbies, city dwellers, to find mushrooms more quickly. I reveal, I explain, and it irritates, because it’s too easy,” admits the engineer.
For the philosopher Patrick Rödel, author of Cep book (Ed. Confluences), it is the authenticity of the practice that is called into question. “Picking is wandering, surprise, the cry of joy! » he exclaims. Enough to damage the poetry of this tradition as old as time? “For the moment, the tool, far from being perfect, provides favorable locations but does not guarantee finds,” specifies Marc-André Selosse, professor at the National Museum of Natural History specializing in mycology. But until when? Jordan Monnot reassures and says he wants “not to gain too much weight”. Phew! Because all pickers know it: in a corner where porcini mushrooms grow, he is very wise who does not pick them all.