after picking a litre of golden raspberries, i stumbled out of the shrubbery into the road that runs by our field, the one that used to go to the fairytale forest but now takes to the new neighbours. there i found two gorgeous ceps and abandoned my plans for jam-making and geared up for mushrooming instead. i imagined the woods full of them, popping up everywhere. it wasn't quite so, though.
now, i don't normally run around barefoot in the forest, there's ants and sticks and needles and whatnot, but today i just could not resist the moss. (the more i look at this photo, the more my feet start looking like some sort of strange hands...)
i found this mushroom fresh out of the sheath. i've been eating these as russulas, but now i kind of wonder whether it isn't something else instead... oops? i have to look into it before i eat any more. they're really nice in soups, though.
[edit this is amanita fulva, or tawny grisette, one of the edible amanitas. i must say, although i am a bit embarrassed about this slip-up since i'm so meticulous with mushrooms, that i did always think "these funny russulas are oddly amanita-like" so that is a bit of a consolation... and i will keep on eating them, because they're tried and tested and very good, even though books recommend against it for fear of confusion with the poisonous ones. i probably won't be offering them to others, though. this public confession is to underline the fact that mushrooms are tricky sometimes and one must always pay attention.]
while i was taking this photo, something with horns was running about near me but i couldn't see what is was. either a deer or a moose, i suppose. i only heard the bone hitting tree branches, quite an unmistakeable sound. i kind of had to re-route myself because i wanted to take a short cut across that hill, but didn't want to confront those horns.
there were all kinds of mushrooms, but not much of any single thing. a few different kinds of russula, some rufous milkcaps and birch boletes, then a little patch of unopened slippery jacks that i skinned for a good while. they are really slimy, but delicious underneath it all. i also found one gypsy mushroom. not bad after such a dry summer.
then, when i was almost home, there it was, the perfect little cep, with only the bun-like cap visible in the deep moss. not far from where i found the other ones...
we have porcinis growing in our yard, but they have the blight, a fungal disease that destroys them. i hope it's a passing thing, because how do you cure a fungus that has a fungus? it's hard enough with fruit trees. apples are rotting on the bough with the mummy disease, it looks really miserable. the dryness also made them start falling off unripe, even though it has been raining all right lately. despite these odds, i have more apples than i know what to do with. i have my juicer out again, and tomorrow is definitely applesauce day. if i had cheese it would also be porcini pizza day, but they will go down nicely just fried in butter...
the adder is back. i saw its tail disappear into the grass when i opened the door this morning and called out: "kyy!" with such delight i surprised myself. kyy [ˈk̟ʷyː] means adder, of course. i also call it all kinds of silly names that start the same, like kyynärä (ell) and kyykky (squat). i think it resents me for this and that's why it's so hissy.
