A mushroom week - 3 September 2016

The week started Monday, on the way to the office where I came across these young parasol mushrooms. They usually appear in rings in the pastures called fairy rings in English, but witch rings in French! 

I was not equipped to pick them. Therefore, I came back the day after with a knife and a bag...

By then, they had grown already quite a bit and opened their parasols widely. I picked a few of the smallest one for dinner.

They ended-up in a fry pan, with flour, egg and crumbs, and garlic of course. Delicious!

This Saturday morning, we went to M. (you should never tell where you find your mushrooms) to check. We were already there three weeks ago and could not find any. But this time, we got surprised...

Boletus boletus 

Another boletus

Lots of mushrooms around! Some good, some bad. Below is the fly amanita, one of the most common mushroom, maybe the archetype of mushrooms. Not a good idea to pick them, even though it would take quite many to kill anyone. Fly amanita are hallucinogenic. In the viking sagas, a type of warriors called the berserkers is mentioned, who were fighting in complete fury, wearing animal fur, and being insensitive to pain or heat. Some scholars have concluded that they were reaching this state by ritual eating of fly amanita...

At the end of the days, we get kilos of boletus! 

The catch of the day on two oven plates!

Slices of boletus ready to dry for winter cooking...

After sorting the catch day, 5 boxes make it to the freezer, one full load is sliced for drying, and the best are kept... for the dinner...