I’ve already shown that all the windows are full of drying seeds at the moment, now it’s standing room only as the tables and chairs are now full of drying fungi :)
The forest has unlimited supplies of winter chanaterelles (traktkantarell) at the moment, so making the most of it and drying as many as we can! They’re now much larger than last time!
It was a busy weekend picking our winter supplies of winter chantarelles (traktkantarell) in the forest. This abundant species is mycorrhizal, associated in Norway with spruce, usually in mossy woods.
As I wrote earlier, it looks like we may have a glut of runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) this year, the first time for many years. Runner beans are borderline here and last year we only managed to get a few beans before the first frosts. This year, we could have made a first harvest a week ago, but I wanted to keep the first beans for seed for the next couple of years. Yesterday we had bread dough ready and therefore made a pizza with runner beans and a mix of fungi picked in the woods (separate post). The dough was 100% coarse whole grain rye, spelt and emmer (sourdough)! Delicious as always!
Slicing the beans with a runner bean slicer, commonly found in kitchens in the UK where this could well qualify as the national vegetable!
The forest is now full of edible fungi, witness today’s haul of mostly chantarelles, winter chantarelle, hedgehog fungi (two species) and puffballs (Norw: kantarell, traktkantarell, lys- og rødgule-piggsopp og røyksopp)
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:
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:
Friday’s forage (11th October 2019) was combined with a walk to the top of Tripynten (315m).
Please let me know if you can ID any of the fungi!
Malvik’s Pulpit Rock (Prekestolen)! Not advisable to walk out on it though!
Presumably badgers (grevling) have been busy in this anthill.
It was a long time before we found the prey, only one area of winter chantarelles (traktkantarell)
Winter chantarelles (traktkantarell)
View of Fevollberga which is just above the house and the fjord beyond and Frosta. The clearfelled south side of Fevollberga where there used to be a lot of old trees and breeding goshawk (hønsehauk) :(
View of Fevollberga which is just above the house and the fjord beyond and Frosta. The clearfelled south side of Fevollberga where there used to be a lot of old trees and breeding goshawk (hønsehauk) :(
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!
A curious square capped winter chantarelle!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
