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For the last 10 days I am pounding my trails looking primarily for chanterelles . There is no doubt that this mushroom is one of the most popular on the whole planet. It is wide spread, relatively common and near the top of list of edibles.  It certainly ranks in the top three of my list. It is considered summer mushroom and fruits in the period when not many other mushrooms are around, before the bolete season starts. Although it is relatively easy to identify there is apparently every year some poisoning due to picking jack-o-lantern mushroom as chanterelle. Despite frequent rains and relatively pleasant weather the chanterelles did not show up in any great numbers. I did not find any big patches yet. Only some small clusters of 3-4 mushrooms. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="58" gal_title="chanterelle2_2017"] According to field guides and other sources chanterelle is supposed to be quite bug resistant. Unfortunately in my experience that is quite the opposite. My fin

The middle of July is here, but despite quite rainy and dump weather my hopes for good chanterelle season did not come true. I find some small groups, far apart and well hidden. That is hardly enough for half decent meal for one person. I am steel hoping that my luck will improve in near future. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="54" gal_title="Chanterelles July 2017"] The very present mushrooms are Amanitas, Xerulas and Tylopilus. As far as numbers go, Amanitas are the most present mushroom in the woods in my area. That goes for both coniferous and deciduous woods. That is nothing really new since the same happens every year. Somewhat unusual is the presence of great numbers of Amanita rubescens and Amanita porphyria. Both have somewhat pink tones over the whole mushroom, but porphyria is usually dark pink, almost brownish and smaller overall. According to many sources (mainly European) Amanita rubescens (known by common name the Blusher due to above mentioned pinkish ton

I am an avid trail-side nibbler on my walks down the trails in search of mushrooms. My favorite snack is probably the black raspberry. The beginning of July is a prime time for this wild fruit. Wild strawberries are just done and red raspberries and blackberries did not start yet. This year, conditions seem to be particularly favorable, and the black raspberry crop is extremely good. The berries are quite small and it is not easy to pick any significant amount. Extremely prickly bushes don't help. One will certainly end up with a number of scratches and thorns on one's hands and arms. I did manage to pick an amount sufficient to try and make one batch of jam. Berry jams are usually made quite sweet for a main simple reason - they need a lot of sugar to be able to set. The berries themselves are very poor in pectin.  Insufficient pectin and sugar will result in runny jam. Recently I discovered a great product:  Pomona's Universal Pectin .  This product does not require sugar