Back from the UK and the first night I put out the moth trap on 15th / 16th August (they are released again) I was surprised to find that scarce silver Y moths / skogmetallfly (Syngrapha interrogationis) were everywhere and a count yielded 53 moths of this species. My previous highest count was 22 in August 2022, so I wondered how unusual this was. A quick check on our national species reporting database artsobservasjoner.no and it turns out this was the highest number ever recorded in Norway – next highest was 50 in 1997 in southern Norway and then 25 in Namsos, north of here. This is a moorland species and the larvae live on heather, bilberry and bog bilberry (røsslyng, blåbær og blokkebær) although a Swedish page mentions that they can also live on birch; see https://vilkenart.se/Art.aspx?Namn=Syngrapha%20interrogationis This is a regular visitor in my garden in small numbers and both the high counts were made with the moth trap very close to a large Buddleja davidii in full flower. I haven’t yet seen them on the Buddleja, but I found at least one picture of this species on Buddleja, see https://www.lepidoptera.no/omrade/?a_id=1018865, so I guess this is what is attracting them as my garden is a few kilometres away from its moorland habitat, unless they have adopted birch in the garden. At the same time there are less than normal numbers of its cousin silver y (gammafly) and large yellow underwing (hagebåndfly) both of which frequent the Buddleja, sometimes in large numbers! Scarce silver Y is largely a night flyer as is large yellow underwing whereas silver Y flies both night and day!
In the local paper was a report that it was a bad year for bilberries (blåbær) locally. I’m glad we didn’t listen and went anyway as it was pretty good as you can see with several kilos to dry and make bilberry leather with:
A productive afternoon in the woods yesterday on the Malvik side of Solemsvåttan with my Swiss helper Julia Albrecht with a good haul of bilberries and the year’s first chantarelles! Yes, I think I live in paradise :)
The fungal haul!
Bilberries / blåbær
Masses of bilberries everywhere
Franskbrødsopp (Albatrellus confluens )
Found this Sorbus in the woods…but what species?
Amanita regalis (brunfluesopp) and Russula spp
Amanita regalis (brunfluesopp)
Bog asphodel / rome
Julia Albrecht :)
The year’s first sighting of yellow gold in the woods!
On Thursday this week we went for a forage locally as I’d heard reports that chantarelles were appearing after the rain….we didn’t see any edible fungi but there were large quantities of bilberries (blåbær), wild raspberries and even a bog where there were unpicked cloudberries, so we transferred our attentions to picking berries!
We started the walk from Fjølstadtrøa, a restored husmannsplass (croft) (we had met the last husmann and his wife back in the 80s!)
The local historical society has restored the buildings and a local school has made a vegetable garden here!
Nice to see broad beans (bondebønner), here with kale..
Catawissa (walking) onion (etasjeløk)
Beetroot (rødbete)
Herbs
Hops
Admiral
Gul korallsopp? (coral fungus)
Gul korallsopp? (coral fungus)
Creeping twinflower (Linnea)
Cowberry (tyttebær)
Cow-wheat seed (marimjelle)
This hoverfly (blomsterflue) fed on my bilberry stained finger!
I neither use sugar nor do I have a freezer. My favourite way of preserving fruit is drying and the quickest way of drying fruit in an oven is by making fruit leather…simply boil the fruit to sterilise and mashing as you boil, then pour into an oven tray and dry for a few hours at about 40C!
Have just finished a batch of redcurrants (rips) and raspberries (bringebær). The raspberries were both wild red raspberries, an old Norwegian yellow (gulbringebær) and a cultivar “White Russian”
See last year’s blog on raspberry / bilberry leather here: http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=13187
12th August Added pictures of leather made from cloudberries, bilberries and wild raspberries!
My first (of many) loads of apples drying over the wood stove!
I’m 100% self-sufficient in fruit and never buy bananas, oranges etc. and don’t use a freezer. When the apples are properly dried, they can be stored for several years (so if there’s a bad apple year next year I also have fruit next year…it’s a good year this year so I dry as much as possible). When fresh fruit isn’t available (typically from February to June), I use only dried fruit. Dried apples are fantastic to eat as they are and are popular with guests as snacks and also a perfect present for family and friends. I eat a home made muesli for breakfast every morning – large organic oat flakes that I buy in large sacks and I mix with various nuts. I soak a mix of dried fruit (apple, cherry, bilberry, plums, saskatoons etc.) and use them on the muesli.
It was actually bilberries that were the evening’s objective, but when you see several ceps / steinsopp in the woods and hedgehogs/piggsopp and saffron milk caps / matriske (almost all surprisingly in good condition without fly larvae) and chantarelles / kantarell, then there’s a change of plan….and there was still time to pick more than enough bilberries for drying another ovenfull!
Steinsopp / porcini / cep
Steinsopp / porcini / cep (but I can’t see any characteristic net / reticulation on the stipe)?
Amanita rubescens / rødnende fluesopp / the blusher
Amanita rubescens / rødnende fluesopp / the blusher
Pictures from my cycle home from work with a large detour up into the woods to pick bilberries and fungi!
The video that comes first is the magical moment when I discover a large ring of hedgehog fungi in the forest :)
Saksvikkorsen on the pilgrim’s way into Nidarosdommen in Trondheim
Viewpoint at Saksvikkorsen on the pilgrim’s way into Nidarosdommen in Trondheim. Good views into Trondheim after a steep climb from the fjord! I’m about half way up from the fjord to the bilberry woods (my destination) here!
View over Trondheim from Saksvikkorsen with the new Grilstad marina in the foreground and Bymarka behind…
View over Trondheim from Saksvikkorsen
View over Trondheim from Saksvikkorsen with the new Grilstad marina in the foreground
Stephen Barstow 43 mins · The Pilgrim’s bench
112 km to walk on the pilgrim’s way to the historical village Stiklestad..
Masses of bilberries / blåbær!
Masses of bilberries / blåbær!
Masses of bilberries / blåbær!
Good bilberry / blåbær terrain!
A few chantarelles / kantarell on the way up
White gold…ring of hedgehog fungi / piggsopp
Beautiful cirrus clouds (James Yeoman?) on the way home
Beautiful cirrus clouds (James Yeoman?) on the way home
Sunset
The mushroom haul: Birch bolete (rødskrubb), chantarelle, saffran milk caps (matriske) and hedgehog fungus (piggsopp)
Birch bolete (rødskrubb), chantarelle (kantarell) and saffran milk caps (matriske)!
The haul from my cycle ride home (arriving home at 10:30 pm with only bilberrries for dinner!) apart from, bottom left, which are saskatoon berries picked in my garden!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
At the same time there are less than normal numbers of its cousin silver y (gammafly) and large yellow underwing (hagebåndfly) both of which frequent the Buddleja, sometimes in large numbers! Scarce silver Y is largely a night flyer as is large yellow underwing whereas silver Y flies both night and day!
