I know it’s been awhile and I hope you’ll excuse my absence – I was vacationing in the U.S. for 5 weeks.
(blog post in the works about Swedish related stuff in NYC)
Today I checked off a To-Do on my “become more Swedish” goal – I finally went mushroom picking. Ever since I’ve visited Sweden I’ve heard about how popular it is to scour the forest for mushrooms. Not just any mushrooms – but chanterelles.
“Do you want to go mushroom picking”
“Sure! How hard can it be!”
_____
Step one: Have boots
When I asked my husband what we need he simply said, “boots.”
“But, it hasn’t rained in days! It’s sunny and warm”
“Boots.”
If it weren’t for our newly bought boots we probably would have given up half way through the three hour adventure and went home empty handed.
Step two: Know where and when to go.
Not being from Sweden and having grown up picking mushrooms and berries in the woods, we were a bit blind. Thankfully, in Sweden there is allemansrätten – which means that anyone can roam into nature freely without worries of property boundries as long as you don’t destroy anything. There are definitely good “spots” for finding chanterelles, but finding one is hard, and people want to keep it their secret. Mushroom picking season is in the late summer months, August and September being the best.
So, we headed into the forest with no clue where/how to start.
Step three: Be patient
We didn’t find any chanterelles for the first hour. Instead we found every other imaginable type of mushroom. Naturally we didn’t know which ones are edible, so we stayed clear – but I took tons of photos:
The classic red and white mushroom – flugsvamp:
I’ve never seen so many mushrooms! All different shapes, sizes, colors – but none what we were looking for.
I never knew mushrooms got so large:
Or so ugly:
This one reminded me of a moose antler:
Step four: Look closely
We were close to giving up when we had our very first spotting
“Guys!! I think I found some” followed by us running to see the mythical fungi:
Our second (spotted by me) was strangely out in the open, giving us hope that we might find more:
And our third – by this time all three of us had found some, so we were happy:
But then we started finding more and learning where to look. Apparently chanterelles like mossy, dark, and wet areas, usually growing near the roots of pine trees or under rocks and aren’t too easy to spot even though they are bright yellow.
Sometimes all you see is a sliver:
Sometimes they even took some digging to get to:
Or reaching down into a dark hole in the ground underneath a boulder covered in moss:
Some more tips:
~ Check that your chanterelles are real – there are yellow look-alike mushrooms that can make you sick.
~ Be careful of ticks.
~ Bring drinking water.
~ Have fun!!
Lisa says
September 3, 2014 at 10:05 pmSvampjakt!
Diane Booth Reginald says
September 3, 2014 at 10:18 pmthis looks so fun!
Susan says
September 5, 2014 at 11:36 pmGreat photos! The forest looks so inviting. So what did you make with the mushrooms after gathering them? Swedish recipes with mushrooms for your next blog??
Youma says
September 7, 2014 at 1:11 amIt’s a good year for King Boletes I’ve heard.