Mushrooms

I am extremely fond of going out to the woods from the end of June to the beginning of November for a good time out in the fresh air combined with collecting a great 'harvest' to bring home afterwards. In case you should want to do the same, let me show you the poster of a warning that proved very helpful to bear in mind:

The German words on it say something that would roughly translate to: 'All mushrooms are edible; with some species, however, you can only do that once!'

My best serious advice is never ever to eat anything unknown or new to you which you did not cross-check three or four times with experienced collectors and really good books before!

Two very good books for that purpose are:

Bruno Cetto - Encyclopedia of mushrooms in 5 volumes
Giovanni Pacioni - The New BLV-Book on Mushrooms

Let me add a few pictures here to show you some kinds of edible mushrooms which you can see in the woods of my homecountry Austria:

Cèpe

Chantarelle

Shaggy Parasol Mushroom

Cauliflower Fungus

Wood Hedgehog

Horn of Plenty

Blusher

Morel

Shaggy Ink Cap

Ear Fungus

And here you find four poisonous species of my home country:

Death Cap

Panther Cap

Fly Agaric

Of course, there are lots and lots more in both categories, edible or not...
Further pictures of various kinds of fungi can be found in my flickr-space in the Fungi Set.

What can you do if you found 'too many' mushrooms to use them immediately? Well, the best is never to pick more than you'll need in one day. Still, *if* there are more than you can use, three things come to my mind:

Prepare a meal and deep-freeze it. (In this way it will easily keep up to six months...)
For all edible species of boleti, wood hedgehog, horn of plenty, 'rozites caperata' (and possibly a few other species as well): Cut in thin slices, dry in the sun until totally dry; fill in a tight glass. During winter months the dehydrated fungi can be watered and used like fresh ones afterwards (for soups, with rice, in stews,...)
Here comes a recipe for "Italian Oil Mushrooms": Clean mushrooms, put them in good vinegar with a bit of salt and berries of juniper added, make boil for short (approx. 2 to 5 minutes, depending on size and tightness of the species used), take out of fluid, fill mushrooms in small glasses. Shake *very best* olive oil with peppercorns, salt, thyme, rosemary, basil, cover mushrooms with the mixture, add one or two leaves of laurel per glass. Close tightly with lid and keep in the refrigerator for approx. 3 months before opening and using them. It's delicious (and makes a *very personal* Christmas gift as well...)! Enjoy!

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