mushroom hunting
i've previously posted some info for anyone who wants to get started on mushroom hunting. the info there was more or less all the info one needs to get one's hands on, before stepping into the woods.
i thought it made more sense to post my personal experience in a blog, since there isn't so much info, as much as a recounting of a practical experience. well, here goes:
my mushroom hunting efforts finally came to a head today, when i made my first foray into the woods of Baldegg, Baden. the weather was perfect. the sky over Baden was nice and clear, and the sun was brilliant. mushroom was in the air.
no, really, one can actually catch a shroomy whiff.
anyway, according to the Aargauer Zeitung, Baldegg is allegedly a hotbed of mushrooms, and it was, literally, a stone's throw away. a buddy and i went there to look.
i'll dispense with the technical info. we spent about 3 hours hiking up and about and looking. one slowly develops an eye for mushrooms, expecially since them shrooms occur on soil, dead leaves, dead wood and even on living trees. there's just so much variety, and even if one had a guidebook, it wasn't easy to identify them. the expert advice is to read up and become very familiar with a few types of shrooms and avoid those one can't identify.
unfortunately, as first time beginners, there were many varieties we could not identify, so it was very much an identification exercise. I did take lots of pics as homework
we did, however, run into what we though was Winterpilz, but which turned out to be Stockschwämchen. (see pic 1). fortunately for us, both species were edible.
when we were done, we headed straight to the Baden Pilzkontroll (see pic 2. also, expert advice), open on Sundays from 1700-1800, and got them shrooms identified (see pic 3) by certified experts. then one will be issued a certificate (see pic 5) that says those shrooms were safe. poisnous shrooms were discarded, while magic schrooms would be confiscated. no, i did not have any on me, really. (no pm's please)
what was ever slightly embaressing about the experience had been that, we collected the least shrooms amongst all the other gatherers that turned up hurhur! on another note, i did try to ask some of the other mushroom hunters, but no one wanted to share their hunting spots! 
well, that's about it. i'd like to end the post with a pic of the shrooms after cooking: shrunk to a tenth of its original size!!
i thought it made more sense to post my personal experience in a blog, since there isn't so much info, as much as a recounting of a practical experience. well, here goes:
my mushroom hunting efforts finally came to a head today, when i made my first foray into the woods of Baldegg, Baden. the weather was perfect. the sky over Baden was nice and clear, and the sun was brilliant. mushroom was in the air.
no, really, one can actually catch a shroomy whiff.
anyway, according to the Aargauer Zeitung, Baldegg is allegedly a hotbed of mushrooms, and it was, literally, a stone's throw away. a buddy and i went there to look.
i'll dispense with the technical info. we spent about 3 hours hiking up and about and looking. one slowly develops an eye for mushrooms, expecially since them shrooms occur on soil, dead leaves, dead wood and even on living trees. there's just so much variety, and even if one had a guidebook, it wasn't easy to identify them. the expert advice is to read up and become very familiar with a few types of shrooms and avoid those one can't identify.
unfortunately, as first time beginners, there were many varieties we could not identify, so it was very much an identification exercise. I did take lots of pics as homework
we did, however, run into what we though was Winterpilz, but which turned out to be Stockschwämchen. (see pic 1). fortunately for us, both species were edible.
when we were done, we headed straight to the Baden Pilzkontroll (see pic 2. also, expert advice), open on Sundays from 1700-1800, and got them shrooms identified (see pic 3) by certified experts. then one will be issued a certificate (see pic 5) that says those shrooms were safe. poisnous shrooms were discarded, while magic schrooms would be confiscated. no, i did not have any on me, really. (no pm's please)
what was ever slightly embaressing about the experience had been that, we collected the least shrooms amongst all the other gatherers that turned up hurhur!
on another note, i did try to ask some of the other mushroom hunters, but no one wanted to share their hunting spots! well, that's about it. i'd like to end the post with a pic of the shrooms after cooking: shrunk to a tenth of its original size!!
Total Comments 3
Comments
 |  Congratulations on your first 80g of edible mushrooms!  Good photos, too – I notice that the form is German and Italian. |
Posted 06.10.2008 at 15:54 by Nathu  |
| |  yes, good posting, hsiang |
| Posted 06.10.2008 at 23:02 by swissotter |
| |  Hoi Nathu! thanks!  it was the most tasty 80g of shrooms i've ever had heheh...i'm gonna try another area (würenlos, nussbaum) next weekend, may post if i find something nice, like porcini |
| Posted 07.10.2008 at 00:21 by Hsiang |
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