This week, somewhere in Trøndelag, we stumbled on a large number of chantarelles (kantarell). The aim of the trip was to pick winter chantarelles (traktkantarell) for drying. Imagine our surprise to find a huge number of chantarelles. I’ve never found so many so late in the year! There were many winter chantarelles too, but we decided to pick them next week!
Walking up a very steep slope and suddenly this was the view in front of us:
The final haul ready to dry!
Please let me know if you can ID any of the fungi!
The most reliable edible fungi here is winter chantarelle (traktkantarell). Only once in my over 30 years of picking this has it failed. The second part of October is the best time and I can always find large quantities in short time in damp mossy spruce woodlands which there is much of near me. Fortunate then that it’s one of the tastiest and it dries quickly for long term storage.This year is no exception and an oven load is now drying (too warm to have the wood burning stove on for drying).
An article in Norwegian about my first experiences with ostrich fern (strutseving). From the magazine of the Norwegian Useful Plants Society, Våre Nyttevekster (Our Useful Plants). Link to download below:
I was surprised to find so many chantarelle and winter chantarelle in the woods this morning. It’s pretty dry here now in this unusually warm late September weather…so my hunch of going to a north facing wood payed off! I had to force myself to stop picking…these now need to be cleaned before drying!
I like to cook on the wood burning stove in winter…here’s a scene from the preparation of last night’s home grown veggie curry with Basella, Swiss chard, the two leeks I managed to dig up from the frozen ground, onion, garlic, dried chantarelles and winter chantarelles, apple, chili, coriander, golpar (Heracleum persicum spice) served with onion bhaji and rye (svedjerug) “rice”…it doesn’t get much better 
