The start of the fall is always a promising time for picking mushrooms in the forests of Sweden.  Chanterelle mushrooms are plentiful, if you can find a good spot to find them.  Every Swedish family has its own secret patch of the forest that they go to every year to find mushrooms.  Apparently, 2012 has been an extremely good year. Since it’s been such a wet summer, the mushrooms grew quickly and were available quite early in the year.

Like a good Swede, I went to Ljusterö this past weekend to pick mushrooms. My friends Caroline and Tobias have some family that live out there almost year-round, so we thought we’d start there.  Let’s just say that after a few hours of wandering around in the forest, we found barely one (small) basket full of mushrooms.  We did find plenty of the mushrooms you didn’t want to eat, and even more spiders.  Needless to say, I was very disappointed.

Not all was lost.  Life has a way of giving you good things in little bits and pieces so you don’t get too spoiled.  The day was saved by the wonderful American blueberries (read: sweet!), apples, and plums that we found instead. In addition, Caroline’s mom cooked this fantastic 3 course meal that we enjoyed outside in the sunshine.  It was a perfect Saturday – probably the last “summery” day this year.

Thanks Tobias and Caroline for a lovely day.  And to all you Swedes who have a secret patch of forest where mushrooms are aplenty… mail me.  #TrulySwedish