Thursday 21 May 2009

Yeah!

Having been bitten by the mushroom bug, we went and had a look around the area whether we too could find some edible mushies.

We could not believe our eyes! There was a cluster, and there, and then we discovered an even more amazing fact. These mounds on the slope, were not just ordinary mounds - they were mushroom hide-outs. Scrape off a thick layer of pine needles and you unearth a big cluster of the best Saffron Milk Caps imaginable.

These were some of the visible ones.Anyway, we went totally overboard and within 20 minutes our baskets were overflowing. 9.5 kilos of Caps!The cleaning took more than 4 hours! What a chore! If they were cleaned as quickly as they were picked ....

Quite a few of them were vacuum sealed, fresh, either sliced or whole. Ready for the freezer.
Some of them I sliced and sautéed in butter and portioned into containers to stow in the freezer, too.

The rest were either sliced or, the smaller ones, left whole to dry.
What fun! What absolutely incredible fun!

5 comments:

Kelly said...

Oh.My.God. !
What an absoloutely incredible haul..all these years they were just up the way...incredible that more dont get out and do it isnt it!? it looks fantastic. well done Gnomes 9 and yes the clean up is a drag!)

Mickle in NZ said...

Now you're taunting me -all I get here are nasty toadstools!

Unknown said...

That's fabulous! As a kid my family often went mushy-ing anywhere in the countryside but now I mostly just see those yukky ones that go yellow. I think it must be all the chemicals on the paddocks or something. Great idea to vacuum seal them and freeze.

Pip said...

Right that does it, there are a heap of pine trees not far from me, so tomorrow I shall go and have a look and see what I can find. The hidden ones look just like leaves. Wish me luck!!
Pip

Jacqueline said...

We have lots growing under the pines out the front of our house...now I'm a bit nervous about them not being the ones you mention but I'm going to have a closer look...love this blog.