We’re in Sweden during the Gothenburg International Film Festival and managed to find an American film about mushroom pickers in the programme. Naturally we had to go and see it, so yesterday we filed into the Biopalatset with a bunch of other film or funghi enthusiasts and watched Now, Forager: a Film about Love and Funghi. We were impressed by the lovely cinematography – the scenes in the forest were beautiful, with great shots of interesting flora and fauna, especially wild mushrooms of course. Lucien, the lead male character in the film, names and describes the mushrooms he forages as the film progresses, and there’s a poignant moment when he’s city based and the camera picks out concrete and metal urban furniture that get given mushroom names instead of the real thing. It’s a memorable little low budget film, worth watching for the scenery, what you’ll learn about mushrooms, and the recurrent theme of great food, but we felt the love mentioned in the title was lacking a little. Thankfully we have loads more fun picking mushrooms together in the woods than poor Lucien and his wife Regina seemed to have!

The film is showing tomorrow in Gothenburg and at the Glasgow Film Festival in the UK on February 22nd /23rd. For more info have a look at the website: nowforager.com
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Tasting coming up! We’ll be at the lovely Eighth Day Vegetarian Healthfood Shop & Cafe on Oxford Rd in Manchester on Tuesday 5 Feb, from 11-2. If you haven’t tried Winter Chanterelles before, now’s your chance. This little forest floor mushroom packs a taste punch well above its weight! We have a recipe on our website for a delicious Winter Chanterelle soup that knocks the socks off your average bland soup made with button mushrooms, and once you’ve tasted them in a sauce you won’t want any other. The taste is sharper and more earthy than Porcini, which is often described as having a mild, nutty flavour, and so lends itself to other strong tasting ingredients – game for instance, or a good strong tasting cheese. The big advantage of dried mushrooms of course is their long shelf life, making them a really useful kitchen cupboard staple. And if you want the pleasure of picking them in the wild yourselves, then come with us to Sweden on one of Gather & Cook short breaks!

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Out on a walk in the Peak District the weekend before last we came across a lovely bracket of Oyster Mushrooms, another fungi that grows all year round. Very popular in Chinese cookery of course, they have a firm texture and particular taste that lends itself well to all sorts of other dishes. We added them to soups & stir-fries and they were delicious with crispy bacon and the works for Sunday brunch the next day.

There’s a lovely Mediterranean Oyster Mushrooms recipe on our website for you to try, with chilli and garlic, which makes a great dish to add to a selection of tapas. Perfect with a good dry sherry or a crisp white wine.

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We meet a lot of people at our tasting sessions who confess that they wouldn’t have the confidence to pick mushrooms in the wild. They’re really keen to have a go and they’ve often got a book to take with them but we hear the same refrain again and again: “I can’t tell from the photo or description in the book if it’s the right mushroom so I don’t dare pick it.” 

A really good way to get over that fear is to go out with an expert who will show you what you need to look out for to recognise a few varieties of wild mushrooms you will then be able to pick with confidence. The good news is that many of the tastiest and most common funghi can be classed as ‘beginners mushrooms’ – this means they can’t be confused with any unsavoury variety of mushroom. Chanterelles, ceps & hedgehog mushrooms for instance all fall into this category – common, delicious and unmistakeable, once you have learnt the characteristics of that family.

During late summer and early autumn we run a variety of fungus forays: afternoon walks in the High Peak and three day stays on Orust Island in South West Sweden, where you will be able to learn a lot more than just mushroom identification. On last year’s Gather & Cook  breaks our guests sliced porcini for drying, made Winter Chanterelle mushroom sauce, picked and tasted at least ten varieties of edible wild mushrooms and went ‘boat mushrooming’ on a trip to a small uninhabited island in the fjord. It’s not all about funghi – a popular excursion was to the quaint fishing village of Mollösund where we visited the local fishmonger and had a seafood feast when we got home. 

If you want to extend your stay in Sweden to experience more of what this beautiful country has to offer talk to us – our houses are available to rent for longer periods, and we’re more than happy to give you suggestions for activities to do in the area or other parts of the country. The west coast is renowned for its seafood if you are into food tourism and there are of course any number of water based sports like kayaking, fishing  or sailing to do, whilst the terrain in this region really lends itself to cycling, walking & horse riding if you prefer to stay on land.

For more ideas you can visit the official site for tourism in Sweden here. Bohuslän is the region in West Sweden Orust island is located in, and more specific information on our lovely island Orust in the Southern Bohuslän archipelago, can be found here.

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Happy New Year! We’re off to a fine start with a mushroom tasting at Fosters of Chapel on Sat Jan 12th from 10 -1, our first there so really looking forward to it. Jason’s deli is a veritable treasure trove of fine ingredients so come and say hi and grab a wild mushroom toastie to nibble while you mooch!

You’ll find the shop, with it’s fantastic range of fresh flowers, fruit and veg as well as the deli, on the corner of Market St/Hayfield Rd East in Chapel-en-le Frith. For more information, recipes and details of their other services have a look at their website here.

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