Food & baking, Hobbies, lifestyle

Hello reader!

I think it’s safe to say that autumn is officially here. Although we’ve had a couple of warm and sunny days lately, one can still feel the fresh autumn air. And of course, all the trees are turning beautifully yellow, orange, and red. I couldn’t be happier!
The only downside of autumn is that it’s so short here. My guess is that all the leaves will have fallen off within ~2 weeks, but I’m hoping that I’m wrong.

There is also plenty of delicious food to forage in the forest this time of year. I realize that most of you reading this aren’t in Sweden, so the laws and rules might differ. But here in Sweden, we can go to any forest we want (that isn’t a nature reserve), and forage tasty edibles. And in autumn that means: mushrooms!

Now, I’m no expert in mushrooms. Therefore, we don’t pick nearly as much as we probably could. There are so many different kinds to choose from. But there are also several kinds that aren’t meant to be eaten. Sometimes it’s easy to confuse them, which is why we only go for the ones that we are 100 percent sure of. Most of the time those are yellow chanterelles and funnel chanterelles. In October, the latter is more common.

Yellow chanterelles are very nice to fry in a lot of butter, and then put on toast. Absolutely delicious!
If you want to store them for a longer amount of time, I’d recommend freezing after blanching them. They aren’t ideal for drying.
Funnel chanterelles though. Absolutely perfect for drying! Either in a dehydrator, or just on some newspaper on the countertop. After drying, we usually store them in glass jars, and they last for a really long time.

Funnel chanterelles are great in soups or stews. Either soak the dried mushrooms a little bit before making a soup out of them, or simply crush them with your hands and add to any soup, stew or sauce. They add terrific extra flavor.

We still have so much left from last year (we found insane amounts last autumn), but can’t help but forage some more this year as well. It’s not only a great source of food, but picking them is also a very relaxing and fun thing to do. An hour or two in nature does wonders for the mind and body.

So, if you can: get out there and find yourself some mushrooms! And don’t forget to enjoy the fresh autumn air, the sounds of birds chirping, and that wonderful autumn scent. 🙂

Until next time!