Not a few of us have despaired over this year’s summer weather, with lukewarm temperatures and constant rain showers. But one person’s sorrow can be another’s joy. – For those of us who are very fond of mushrooms, it is a blessing when the rainfall only flows through July. It’s great, says Jim-André Stene. He calls himself a wild farmer, and runs Trøndelag Sankeri, which supplies wild plants to restaurants. In addition, he is a mushroom expert in Trondheim. He explains that the mushroom year is completely dependent on the climate. – The fungus primarily wants precipitation, a little heat and not too much wind. Then it has a great year. If the conditions are right, you can find a lot of mushrooms in forests and fields – and in other places too. Photo: Per Ingvar Rognes / news Thus, this year’s season has gotten off to a great start after a lot of rainfall over a long period of time, says Stene. Usually he is not able to collect larger quantities until mid-August, but already in July there was an abundance of different mushrooms. – I believe that 2022 will be the best mushroom year for a long time. Crackingly dry year Lene Johansen in the Norwegian Mushroom and Useful Plant Association agrees with Stene’s assessment of the mushroom year 2022. With the exception of some coastal areas in Agder and Vestfold, where it is a little dry, there have been good and moist conditions for the mushroom in most of Norway. – And we see that it has exploded especially in Trøndelag and Nordmøre, she says. This is welcome after what Johansen describes as some deplorable and bone-dry years – especially south of Trøndelag. That is why Johansen and Stene’s call is to get out on a trip in the next few weeks to collect from nature. And they have good tips along the way. There is a high probability that you will fill up the entire basket, and even so if you set out on a mushroom trip this year. Photo: Per Ingvar Rognes / news Where should you start looking? If you keep your eyes open, you can actually find mushrooms everywhere. – In Oslo, where I live, for example, there are a lot of mushrooms to be found inside the city, says Johansen. – And I have picked good edible mushrooms at a roundabout in Stjørdal! But if you want to find larger quantities of mushrooms, it might be a good idea to get out into the forest. Preferably a mixed forest where you find both birch, spruce, heather and moss. – The messier and weirder the forest is, the more likely it is that you will find mushrooms, says Stene. – Root through raspberry bushes and go where it seems that no one else has been before – there you will see that you will find plenty. Mixed forests are the best for finding a lot of mushrooms. Here, Jim-André Stene has found a beast of a scrub. Photo: Per Ingvar Rognes / news What do you pick and what should you stay away from? One of the most important things you do before setting out on a trip is to learn about the mushrooms. Because there are many good edible mushrooms, but also a good number of mushrooms that are poisonous – and it’s important to know the difference, so that you don’t take anything home that makes you sick. – All mushrooms are safe if you know them, and all are unsafe if you don’t know anything about mushrooms, says Stene. He recommends that you learn one mushroom at a time, and the best mushrooms to start with are those that have few confusing species that are dangerous. – Then I recommend that you start with chanterelles. There are not many other mushrooms that resemble chanterelles, at least not dangerous ones. Chanterelle is the best mushroom to go for if you are a beginner. Photo: Dušan Zidar / ScanstockPhoto Johansen also recommends starting with chanterelles, but she also points out that it is important to learn the four most poisonous mushrooms, which can make you seriously ill. These are white fly agaric, green fly agaric, pointed poison ivy and blunt poison ivy. – If you know the four mushrooms there, then you have to work quite hard to get into serious trouble. If people are unsure of what they have found, it is possible to make use of the physical mushroom controls of the Norwegian Mushroom and Useful Plant Association, as well as their digital mushroom control, adds Johansen. The green fly agaric should be kept far away. Photo: Gro Gulden/Botanisk museum How do you identify the fungus? But when you have learned about the chanterelle and the four most poisonous mushrooms, how should you proceed to navigate and manage to identify the many hundreds of types of mushrooms found in Norway? Stene says that he is often sent photos of various mushrooms, with questions as to whether he knows which mushroom they have picked. Often the pictures are taken from above. – Then I usually send back that it’s like taking a picture of a person’s head from above and asking who it is, he says. You have to look under the hat on the mushroom to be able to identify it. Here is Jim-André Stene with a brown mushroom with brown slices, and you should stay away from it. Photo: Per Ingvar Rognes / news Most of the information about the mushroom can be found by turning it over and looking at the underside. The most important thing is to be able to recognize what type of pattern the mushroom has under the hat. If you do that, you will be able to separate the safe mushrooms from the dangerous ones. The five mushroom groups Lene Johansen explains that there are five types of pattern, which then determine which group of mushrooms we are talking about. The first group is disk mushrooms. Here, it looks as if it is packed with razor blades under the mushroom’s hat. It is in this group that you find the most poisonous mushrooms in Norway. – If you don’t know much about mushrooms, the quick rule is that you just pass by all mushrooms with white discs under the hat and all brown mushrooms with brown discs. Then you have eliminated all the fly fungi and all the veil fungi, says Johansen. The second group is pipe mushrooms. Under the hat on these there are many vertical tubes, which make them almost look like sponges on the underside. These mushrooms can be safely picked, even if not all are good to eat. It is recommended that you taste the mushrooms – if the taste is mild, you can take it home, but if it tastes chilli, you can leave it behind. The third group is echinoderms. When you turn them over you will see many spikes sticking out. All with light, soft spikes are edible, while those with brown and hard spikes can be passed over. The fourth group is pore fungi. The underside of this may resemble Styrofoam. Most of these mushrooms are so hard and chewy in the flesh that they are not edible, although only one is poisonous. Only two in this group are considered edible mushrooms: champignon mushrooms and French bread mushrooms. The fifth group is rib fungi. The underside of these is best described as slightly curly. In this group you will find chanterelles and trumpet mushrooms, both of which are good edible mushrooms. Although this group is safe, Johansen points out that people sometimes fail to tell the difference between ribs and slices. – But you can test that by trying to scratch with your fingernail. The slices are very easy to scrape away, while the ribs are part of the mushroom meat, she says. – Then you have to get into the meat to scrape it off, then it’s almost certainly a rib fungus. From emergency food to delicacy Apart from the four most poisonous mushrooms, which can lead to liver or kidney damage, there is no major crisis if you should ingest a poisonous mushroom. It can lead to nausea or diarrhoea, but will pass on its own, says Johansen. But in any case, the point is that you should go for the good mushrooms to get wonderful taste experiences. And the more you learn about the mushrooms, the more exciting it becomes, believes Stene. According to him, there are no limits to how you can use the mushroom – everything from frying it lightly in the pan to drying it and making spices from it. – The funny thing about mushrooms is that they were previously seen as emergency food. It is no longer the case, but rather has become an exclusive matter. Not unlike what has happened with a lot of fish, he says. – What used to be seen as non-fish has become a delicacy, and that’s how it is with mushrooms too. There has been a huge increase in interest from restaurants and people who appreciate the wild taste.
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Expert believes 2022 could be the best mushroom year for a long time, thanks to a humid summer – news Trøndelag
