Today my family and I went out to pick some wild mushrooms out in the woods, and had a particularly good haul.
This is yet another aspect I love about being outdoors--and that I have written about on this blog before--so I figured why not take some pictures and do a quick video to show off our harvest. For those of you that are into mycology, you might appreciate this; and for those of you that are not into the somewhat strange world of fungus hunting, perhaps this can shed some light on the subject. From my experiences I have found that people that are not in the know tend to think that I am crazy for picking and eating odd looking mushrooms, but so long as you know what you are doing and take some simple precautions, it's really not a big deal.
Don't eat any mushrooms you are not familiar with and/or can't identify, of course! Read books and articles on wild, edible mushrooms, and if you can talk to someone in person that knows what they are doing--better yet, go with them picking and have them teach you a few safe mushrooms to harvest. Some mushrooms are easier to identify than others, and for novices it's a good general rule to stay away from fungus that are all white, have a bright red cap, and little brown mushrooms.
There are some nations that have more of a wild fungus picking/eating culture than others. It's fairly common here in Scandinavia, and plenty of homes and restaurants regularly serve up dishes with mushrooms like chanterelles and porcini when they are in season. Those two mushrooms are the ones I always keep a keen eye out for, as they are two of my absolute favorites, and they also happen to be the ones that we found on our hunt today.
Wikipedia has good entries on both mushrooms if you are unfamiliar with them and want to know more. Here's the page on chanterelles (which are perhaps my all time favorite mushroom), and here's the page on porcini.
Short and sweet today. Below check out a video where I show of the mushrooms in more detail and of course ramble on and on about them. Hope you enjoy looking at these lovely mushrooms half as much as I will enjoy eating them.
