After finding large quantities of winter chantarelles (traktkantarell) the day before within a few hundred metres of our start point, it was very surprising to find only a handful during a 3 hour walk in the Gevingåsen area….the mysteries of the forest! I shouln’t have mentioned yesterday that it was almost guaranteed to find this fungi in suitable habitat in October :(
Nevertheless, there was also an unseasonally large diversity of fungi to be found and here is a selection. Please feel free to add names if you recognise any!
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).
If fungi had been essential for survival, only winter chantarelle (traktkantarell) would be worth picking in the woods. All other fungi, even chantarelle, ceps, hedgehog fungus are too unreliable in my experience…one uses far too much energy finding them to be worthwhile from a survivalist perspective!
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
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
