Been a busy little bee today buzzing around Manchester. First of all to see the lovely folk at Soup Kitchen on Spear St in Manchester’s Northern Quarter who will be serving our mushrooms on their menu from this week, using our creamy winter chanterelle soup recipe. It’s a fantastic live music club with a really good kitchen run by enthusiastic chefs James and Andy who always put on a great spread so we’re really excited! Then it was off to our favourite city centre health food store Eighth Day Vegetarian Cafe and Shop with a delivery, a stop at Back’s Deli in Heaton Moor to meet the new owner & check stock and finally a visit to the award winning Barbakan Deli in Chorlton. We’re really pleased that they’ll be stocking our mushrooms from mid October when we get back from the next picking expedition. What a great day!

This weekend we’re running the cafe at Made in New Mills Art & Craft Fair on Saturday and doing another Fungus Foray on the Sunday, both events as part of the last weekend of the fantastic New Mills Festival. Last Sunday’s walk was a great success and we’re looking forward to meeting a fresh set of wild mushroom enthusiasts for another outing.

Well we would have to wouldn’t we! It’s our busiest time of year, and we’ve got two Fungus Forays coming up in the UK as part of the wonderful New Mills Festival and more picking to do in West Sweden at the beginning of October. We’re looking forward to seeing what’s growing both here and there considering how little rain has fallen in this the driest of summers for a good few years.

On the subject of beautiful West Sweden we are really pleased to be mentioned in the following post: ‘Harvest Time – on the Lookout for Food in the Forests’ in the blog Explore West Sweden which was “conceived by West Sweden Tourism Board and VisitSweden as a way to allow the online community to explore and discover West Sweden as a destination. It is maintained by a group of U.S. and Swedish individuals who have a passion for the magic of the Swedish west coast. Our mission is to attempt to convey what we find to be one of the world’s finest hidden gems to the rest of the world. We hope you enjoy!”

We second that!

Imagine the scene. An idyllically beautiful forest, straight out of a John Bauer painting. Tall pines, the Christmassy scent of fir trees, juniper & lingonberry bushes, the forest floor carpeted with thick mosses of many different colours and species, littered with massive, ancient, lichen covered stones, the silence only broken by the soughing of the wind in the trees, the chirps of the flocks of siskins, the mighty croak of the odd raven or plaintive mew of a passing buzzard. Under a tree you spot a perfect porcini, or Karl Johan – this is Sweden after all – and as you approach you see that it’s not on its own, but surrounded by others of varying ages and sizes. As you crouch, get out your mushroom knife ready to clean off the soil on the base after you’ve picked it, you start counting and realise that there are actually 5, or 10, or even 17 porcini within eyesight. That is svamplycka. Wild mushroom happiness, to give it a direct translation.

This week we have experienced svamplycka many times over. We have hiked through almost indescribably beautiful forests, framing a gentle bucolic farmland landscape dotted with pretty traditional red, white or yellow wooden houses and generously watered by a multitude of lakes, most of which have bathing areas even if they are used as reservoirs for drinking water. Delicious for a quick dip after a hot slog in the woods! There are many good reasons to come to Sweden, which President Obama has seen for himself on his short visit here this week, but for wild mushroom enthusiasts the biggest attraction has to be the great variety of edible funghi to be found in the forests here, and in such profusion. Genuine svamplycka!

Mushroom pickers can be a little conflicted about the benefits of a long, hot, dry summer. We like to laze in the sun or head for the beach like anyone else but the fact is that without a healthy dose of rain now and again the wild mushrooms just don’t start fruiting. Where we are on the West Coast of Sweden there’s barely anything to pick and that’s because the rain that has fallen has just not been sufficient. Luckily there was a real downpour a little further north and inland, so Bengt made a very scientific study of the Swedish meteorological office’s (SMHI) data and reports from other mushroom pickers to see where might be the best place to head to and we headed off on a wild mushroom road trip.

Luckily for us the 400 km we drove there and back paid off. A little forest road in the vicinity of Lake Vättern, Sweden’s second largest lake was our first proper stop and the first thing we spotted under the fir trees was a beautiful group of absolutely perfect porcini, or Karl Johan as they are called here.Altogether we picked around 15 – 20 porcini at that first spot but the next stop was even more successful. We picked around 3 kilos and they were some of the largest and most perfect porcini we have ever seen. Naturally we took photos of ourselves, like proud fishermen, with our prize finds!

After that we wearily headed home and it took us an hour after we got back to slice the mushrooms and get them on the drying racks. A long day, but worth it to finally be able to get our hands on one of the kings of the forest, the delicious porcini.

We’ve been ‘home’ in West Sweden for a week now, and because it’s been a long, hot dry summer there’s a dearth of wild mushrooms. Like all the other fungus fanatics in Sweden we’ve been keeping an eye on the reports ready to leap in the car and head off to the woods somewhere to harvest the first of the Porcini or Chanterelles. A trip further north to Dalsland turned up lovely lingon berries but no mushrooms.  However it’s been an unsettled week and thunderstorms and torrential rain have got everybody’s hopes up. A warm summer, followed by a good long soaking – could this year be THE bumper year when we could be picking tens of kilos of Karl Johan (the Swedish for Penny Bun or Porcini) instead of just kilos? We’ve yet to find out but we’ll keep you posted. In the meantime a little recce in the woods yesterday turned up two lovely Orange Birch Bolete (Leccinum Versipelle) which will go in our Forest Mix, and a picture perfect Chanterelle. Ceps can come up more or less overnight but chanterelles take a little longer to grow, so the plan is to keep checking our favourite picking spots till it all comes together. Not long now….

This Saturday we leave the UK to spend a month on ‘our’ beautiful island of Orust, holidaying, catching up with family and doing lots of mushroom picking. We can’t wait! Not surprisingly, we get asked about Sweden a lot. Which is great, because we love to talk about it, especially West Sweden where Get Funghi is based when we’re over there. It seems a lot of people have preconceptions about Sweden, most of them erroneous, so to set the record a bit straighter here are my top five reasons why I love the area so much:

The sea.

The west coast in particular is a stunningly beautiful archipelago of a myriad of small rocky islands and some larger ones. It might surprise you to know that in a good summer the sea temperature can be a very pleasant 20 degrees and it’s the prefect coast for swimming, kayaking or canoeing, with generally still and peaceful waters. Island hopping is easy because the larger ones are reached by free car ferries and there are boats of all sizes to hire or charter.

The landscape

The Swedes love the outdoor life. There are only 9 million of them in the whole country so you won’t bump into many others if you venture out in the extensive, unspoilt forests full of wild mushrooms. The natural flora is a pretty mixture of birch, fir and pines and bilberry and lingonberry bushes, interspersed with thousands of beautiful lakes and pretty traditional wooden houses set in open, gently rolling farmland. Wild flowers abound and you will be unlucky not to spot wild deer – and lucky if you catch sight of an elk! Idyllic is the word that springs to mind.

The weather

This is one of the subjects that we get asked about most. “Isn’t it cold all year round in Sweden?” is a frequent question. Given that the length of the country is 2000 km from top to bottom it’s clearly not a place to generalise about the weather. But in west Sweden for instance it might surprise you to hear that summers can be very warm, over 30 degrees sometimes. Generally the climate is milder than many other countries lying as far north because it is influenced by the Gulf Stream, so it is very pleasant, with an average of 9 hours of sunlight in July. And as just 86mm of rain falls during an average of 14 days it can be a fantastic place for a summer holiday. Warmer than Scotland and without the midges! We love going all year round. As the Swedes (and the Norwegians, Finns and Danes apparently..) love to say, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.

The food

Sweden is getting a reputation for it’s fine modern cuisine and is starting to promote food tourism. On the west coast you’d be mad not to try the seafood, which is always the first thing we stock up on when we arrive. Cold water prawns, crayfish, local mussels, all kinds of fish – always fresh and absolutely delicious. Of course eating out can be pricey but if you self cater like we do you can eat like kings as the supermarkets are incredibly well stocked with a huge range of very high quality local and international ingredients. Wines and beers in the Systembolag (off licences) are generally no pricier than in the UK although spirits are.

The culture

One of our favourite activities when we’re over there is visiting one of the many art galleries on the islands, mainland or in Gothenburg, the capital of the west coast. Our neighbouring island of Tjörn hosts the internationally renowned Nordic Watercolour Museum and the giant sculpture park of Pilane, and we love the maritime theme and the wonderful exhibitions (and the cafe!) at Bohusläns Museum in Uddevalla (see picture below). In Gothenburg the Konstmuseet has a fantastic collection of work by Nordic artists, and if you like design we can recommend the Röhsska Museum, always right on trend with its exhibitions and galleries.

We’re doing a double tasting this coming Saturday 3rd August, at both the delis we supply in Chorlton. In the morning we’ll be at Hickson and Black’s on Barlow Moor Rd from 11am – 1pm. Jay and Steve are a couple of food lovers who run a small but perfectly formed cafe and deli stocked with “an array of local and continental cheeses, Spanish and Italian cured meats, locally baked bread, organic groceries, fruit and vegetables & outdoor reared bacon, sausages, black pudding and pies!”  Always a delight to go in and come out with some gourmet treat to look forward to.

Later on we’ll move over to Epicerie Ludo on Beech Road and be there from 2- 4pm. Chorlton is really lucky to have so many fantastic delis and this one is run by Ludovic Piot “a francunian (French Mancunian) who fell in love with the UK 10 years ago, he’s a wine connoisseur and true foodie.”  Saucisson, cheese, freshly baked bread, wines and many more delicious products are available there, it’s like a little corner of Paris has relocated to south Manchester!

The week after that we’ll be hosting a mushroom event for a wedding party in Hayfield then heading off ‘home’ to beautiful west Sweden for the start of the mushroom season and some holiday too. Lots of lovely and exciting events to look forward to!

Sigh. I thought I could make a good wild mushroom risotto but on Friday night we sampled head chef Ryan’s take on it using Get Funghi Horn of Plenty at Hare and Hounds Mill Brow and I can honestly say it was the most delicious risotto I have ever eaten. We were truly impressed and actually quite proud to be part of such a great dish. We had it as part of the new grazing menu which is three smaller courses for £13.95, hugely good value. Congrats to Ryan for his                                                                                        excellent (as always) cuisine!

We’re going to be in Hale this Saturday 20th July, at The Little Deli Company on Stamford Park Rd to be precise, where we’ll be making our trademark Winter Chanterelle toasties to give out to shoppers and passers by. Luckily the sun is due to keep on shining because we’ll be outside the shop – there’s not a lot of floor space inside because it’s jam packed with delicious gourmet delights! We’ll be serving between 1 and 3pm so if you’re in the area make sure you come on over and say hi.

Our next tasting after that will be Sat 3rd August when we’ll be in Chorlton all day. We’ll do our first tasting at Hickson & Black’s on Barlow Moor Rd from 11am to 1pm then head to Epicerie Ludo on Beech Rd between 2-4pm. Should be fun. We’re hoping people will do a wild mushroom crawl and come and visit both delis!

It’s been a busy week for Get Funghi, what with two lovely new shops stocking our mushrooms and a tasting at Eighth Day on Friday. The icing on the cake however was a call from the head chef at the Hare & Hounds Mill Brow, in Marple Bridge, who wanted some Winter Chanterelles and Horn of Plenty to use on his new summer menu. This is the first time our products have been used in a professional kitchen so we’re really pleased!

Ryan is a talented chef who has a real flair for coming up with exciting dishes that get your mouth watering just by reading the menu, and we have had many fantastic meals there over the years. It’s a great kitchen in a fine Cheshire country pub, and we’re truly delighted to be featured on the menu there. And here it is!

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