The nature´s pantry

During autumn there are a lot of berries, mushrooms, plants and herbs that is accessible for most. Of course, if you manage to find your own hideaway that you can always come back to it makes it a whole lot easier since the competition can be large. Today its also more common that we grow our own vegetables, buy locally produced food in store, brew our own beer and bake our own bread. To complement all this whit your own preserves, lemonade and dried mushrooms is the best. Then you really have taken a large step to live healthy, climate-smart and sustainable .

“Fry som fresh mushrooms in a lot of butter over an open fire and enjoy a sandwich that would beat any master chefs!”

An activity in your own paste

Of course you don´t have to all of the above to contribute to a sustainable community. But to talk about berry- and mushroom picking as something climate-smart and healthy may lure more people who have not yet found the enjoyable in it. To get out in the forest and look for something eatable is not just soothing. To spend time in the forest can lower your stress levels, it exercises your body and the berries that you can find contains a lot of healthy vitamins and anti-oxidants. And at the same time you get food on your own, for free and without any major environmental impact. For you who might be a beginner there is a lot of tips. But the most important thing is to do it in your own paste. Bring your favorite picnic, stop for a while to read a book or just enjoy the nature. If you are out for picking mushrooms you should bring a small frying pan, bread and butter. Fry som fresh mushrooms in a lot of butter over an open fire and enjoy a sandwich that would beat any master chefs!

Cloud berries, blue berries and lingon berries

Cloud berries are very sensitive to weather. The flower is sensitive to cold and if the flowering season is to windy, cold and rainy the pollination won’t succeed. Before the berries have mutured they are sensitive to frost and therefore, the harvest can vary considerably from year to year. In the fells and northern Sweden the first berries are mature in the end of July/beginning of august depending on how warm it has been. They mature in very different paste and can therefore be picked for a couple of weeks if it doesn’t get to cold. Picking blue berries is not hard; at most places where there is forests there are also blue berries. A tip is to invest in a blue berry-picker, that makes it much more fun and you get much more berries in shorter time. The blue berry-picker works just as well for lingon berries. Blue berries mature in  the end of July and about a month forward, lingon berries mature from september.

Dry and freeze mushrooms for autumn stews

In Vemdalen there are several sorts of mushrooms that can be picked during the whole autumn, if its a good mushroom-year that is.

Porcini, chanterelles and golden chanterelles is some of the most common mushrooms in the area around Vemdalen and Klövsjö. These mushrooms are mature during late summer and autumn, and can be picked from July to September depending on how the weather in during the season. A really good mushroom-book is a must if the feel a bit uncertain about which mushrooms you can eat and not. Some mushrooms you need to parboil and if you should freeze or dry them also depends on which sort it is. A good mushroom-book should, despite knowledge for species, contain information on how the preservation of specific mushrooms is best suited.

Cloud berry pie