Earlier in October, we found a place with a large amount of chantarelles (kantarell); see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=23655). We noticed that there were also a lot of winter chantarelles (traktkantarell; Cantherellus tubaeformis) growing in the same place, but we decided to wait a couple of weeks as many were still small and return before the first hard frosts (forecasted in the next few days). Here is the haul:
That special moment each year when you see the first large group of chantarelles in the woods!
Used in a delicious green wholegrain spelt pasta sauce with Malva moschata (musk mallow), Rumex acetosa (sorrel), shallots, garlic, perennial rocket etc. and a strong organic cheese!
(Sopptur = Mushroom picking / fungal foray)
Still masses of winter chantarelle in the woods despite for frosts a week ago…and a few chantarelle and hedgehog fungus….
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 :)
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!
Documentation of yet another amazing day during last week’s Perennialen III in Hardanger!! Pictures taken on a fantastic 6-7 hour round trip from Eirik Lillebøe Wiken and Hege Iren Aasdal Wiken’s house to their shieling (støl or seter in Norwegian). We took our time botanising on the way up, passing through different types of forest on the way up, from alder (or), ash (ask), planted spruce (gran), lime (lind), elm (alm), hazel (hassel), aspen (osp) and birch (bjørk) at the highest levels. Lower down, old apple trees witnessed that these steep slopes had at one time been worked for fruit production, no easy matter….
Eirik and Hege are planning to rejuvenate and replant some of this area and have planted a multispecies forest garden above and below the house, probably one of the most dramatic forest gardens in the world (more later).
Ostrich Fern (strutseving)
Ants on pine tree
Aspen (osp) and the fjord
Young blackcap (munk)
For a change I cycled to the shops at Sveberg rather than cycling to town…this also gave me the opportunity to check out the fungi in the woods…
As I was working from home yesterday and not doing my normal bike ride, I decided to do a longer ride over the hills to the post office to pick up the Japanese seeds (different post)…I arrived home 3 hours later with a haul of, mostly, winter chantarelles / traktkantarell….I just couldn’t not pick them when I saw them :( Guess what I’ll be doing tonight :)
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!
Last night’s dinner: risotto made with rye and barley grain instead of rice with wild and cultivated vegetables and wild fungi:
Parsley, coriander, golpar (Heracleum maximum seed spice), 3 types of pea, baby carrots and broad beans, red mitsuba, 3 types of chicory, common sow thistle (Sonchus), saffron milk caps (matriske), hedgehog fungus (piggsopp), chanterelle (kantarell), Russula spp. , garlic, chili, nettle (variegated), swiss chard (mangold) and Allium nutans…
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