After an abnormally hot and dry June came an abnormally wet and cold end of July and the beginning of August. The weather was more akin to an average October around here than to the middle of summer. At least one good thing came out of it – the mushrooms are growing. A lot. I went on a hunt today and I picked about 8 kg of mushrooms. If you happen to live in west Bohemia or northern Bavaria, now is the time to go out mushroom hunting.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I found some ceps, pretty big ones. And although they look battered, they were actually pretty healthy, with very little maggot damage.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
The main bulk were bay boletes. Those were not as healthy and we ended up throwing almost half of them away. Still we filled the whole food dehydrator and some.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
There were also some larch boletes. No maggots in those, but they were watery like sponges. There was more than we could immediately eat so we do try to dry them in the oven.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
And there were also enough blushers for a tasty lunch for me.
I have made over 13.000 steps today, many of those accompanied by squats. Then it took about six hours to clean and cut it all (my mom helped with that, otherwise I would still be at it). It was quite a workout. I am glad to note that I was not as tired as from a similar mushroom hunt two years ago. It appears that I was at that time suffering from the long-term effects of the flu I had at the beginning of 2020. This year I am finally feeling again fit-ish, I do appear to be able to work harder and longer than I was the previous two years.
I do plan to go to the forest again in a few days, there should be again enough boletes to fill some jars. I would like to fill the pantry with dried mushrooms as much as I can since they do not grow every year.
If the weather gets warm and some insects start buzzing around, I will try to take my camera with me and make some pretty pictures. I haven’t done that for a loooong time.
Very glad to read you managed the day so well, and what a haul! Our weather has been similar, so I should check the place we know blewits grow. Weirdly our attempt at an asparagus bed, which was a total failure for it’s intended purpose, grew horse mushrooms last year, so we are keeping a close eye on it at the moment in the hope of getting any that come up before the maggots ruin them.
I want!