You are certainly in for a big surprise -- and it is NOT a bunch of bears having a picnic, though there were enough goodies for a picnic. I speak of blueberries and chanterelles.
We drove about a half hour north of Gavle where one of Richard's fellow teachers lives. Their house backs onto a section of woods where Jennie had an amazing picking experience last weekend, and she was game to share that with me.
First there were blueberries. I think we are close to the end of the season as it was obvious that many of the bushes had already been harvested. However, there were still enough for us to get two one-litre containers using our handy berry picking devices. I have seen them in Canada, but never used one before. They made gleaning the tasty little blue gems quite easy. With fingers to caress the berries and a design that catches most of the leaves, it is quite efficient.
The second treasure we for which we searched were chanterelle mushrooms. I have NEVER gone mushroom hunting before. Make no mistake, there were many different kinds of fungi in the woods -- most larger and more spectacular looking (and no doubt more poisonous) than the little yellow stemmed ones for which we combed the undergrowth. There were pockets of them growing in the thick moss which covers the whole of the forest floor. Little miss had a lovely 2 hour nap in the woods!
Back home we cleaned the berries with the handy dandy berry sieve which keeps the berries on top and drops the leaves through the slots. (Hurray for the right tools) The mushrooms got their stems trimmed and gills checked. Great treats for tomorrow's cereal and omelettes for dinner.
nice
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