Mushrooming

Evidently Mushrooming is a big deal here. Last Friday we were invited by one of Heidi's colleagues to go Mushrooming... who could refuse an offer like that? As it turns out this summer was particularly dry, so this wet fall with occasionally warm days has produced a sort of late harvest of Mushrooms. In another blog I will show you some pics of where I've been biking on small forest roads... there is not a day that I haven't seen loads of people scouring the ground for them. And I must admit, walking into the forest, you can hardly take a step and not hit on one. See below - perhaps not the best pic, but this kind is orange with speckles... though they are not for eating. BTW, most of the mushrooms encountered are not for eating. I suggest ONLY going with an experienced native. Mirka, Heidi's colleague, showed us one particular mushroom that was so poisionous that to eat it meant one had only mintues left before the end. Another colleague of Heidi's evidently ate a bad mushroom years ago and substained permanent liver damage.

But that doesn't scare us! So here are some of the spoils...

But these were all carefully inspected by Mirka and we have had plenty-0-srooms since. Above, captured in "still life" as all pictures are... are four different types of eatable mushrooms. I also included some of our favorite things or things that we consume daily. Most notably is the "Matoni", the bottles of water. You can get the mineral water plain, with gas or without (carbonated) and in several different flavors such as lemon, orange, apple, and pear to name just a few. I really wish we had these in the US. They are just slightly sweetened... especially in comparison to soda. The "lovecky" salami as well... it tastes so good. But it is salami and mostly made from fat... which is not good. Kind of an evil cycle. Perhaps it can be countered by chocolate. I will have to experiment. You may also note the paper mache pumpkins. They don't really celebrate Halloween here so we are doing our best to decorate.

As you can see I'm busy at work with Mari supervising. Our menu for the last few days has been this. Friday night: fried mushrooms, made at Mirka's house. Saturday: Crepe Mushrooms, made by chef Heidi. Wow, they were great! Sunday: a goulash made by Mirka, made from a special kind of mushroom. It was very good. Monday: Mushroom soup, with lentils, made by chef Heidi. This was also good. I think everyone is getting sick of mushrooms. Not me. I think we'll make pizza tonight... mushrooms on it for sure.