number of local growers. Notably, many mushrooms are still sold loose. The place still looked brand-new, and is very well maintained. The Irish visitors were mainly interested in the indoor packing lines and the tray washing installation.
Shelving The evening was spent in hotel Janusz in Siedlce. A tasty meal, the World Cup football on television and a few drinks to finish. The Irish are renow- ned for their ability to make a ‘home away from home’, and a good time was had by all in Siedlce. Tuesday was a busy day with three planned visits. First up was an excursion to the Krolikowski farm. We saw how the growing rooms with shelving were filled by a Thilot combi- filling machine before a guided tour of the rest of the farm. The farm looked well kept and organised and the various growers quickly star- ted a lively discussion. The language barrier is not so restrictive when talking about a shared passion, and with a sheet of statistics to help everyone seemed to understand each other pretty quickly. A few of the party were very interested in the containers used to collect the stalks. How were they emptied? Krolikowski drummed up a couple of his employees to demonstrate, and after a special attachment was fixed to the forklift it all fell into place. As the visitors then asked for a tape measure and took some photo- graphs, it may not be a surprise to see a similar Irish copy appear quite soon.
Net washer Another ingenious Polish invention was discovered on the next farm on the programme. At Stanczuk, alongside the very first Champion Hercules fil- ling machine ever built, was a simple device used to wash the nets that lie underneath the compost. The relatively new farm has 12 growing rooms, and preparations were being made for an expansion project. Both the farms visited on Tuesday are an
integral part of the last port of call, Rymuza. Under the name FHV Robert, approximately 10% of total Polish production is traded here. In excess of 70% of mushroom production is exported to Russia, and this visit to served to underline just how significant this region in the east of Poland has become in the European production of mushrooms. After an interesting guided tour of the company we tasted some pickled mushrooms – a Polish speciality. The group then returned to Warsaw. After a flying visit to the landmark Palace of Culture and Science in the Polish capital, the growers boarded the plane home. They took back a very good impression of the activities of their Polish colleagues, and plenty of food for thought. ◗
From left to right: David Coulter, John
Peeters, Gary Askin, Declan McKeever,
Eamon Murray, Niall McKenna, David Dallas and Gerard Fegan.
David Coulter takes a closer look at filling.
The seemingly simple attachment used to empty containers attracted a lot of attention.
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