Picture of the Day No. 294 "Mushroom Soup"

Now that I’ve officially started culinary school, it feels important to head out into the woods and harvest what nature has to offer. It’s quite fashionable these days—known in English as "foraging."

It’s always amusing when things get rebranded and become trendy. Picking mushrooms, berries, and the occasional herb is hardly a new concept in this country. On the other hand, we have the right of public access—something not every country enjoys, as we know. In my opinion, that is one of the best things about Sweden. Naturally, that right can influence one’s attitude toward the surrounding nature. 

But the phenomenon is a bit like when "gravel" suddenly comes into vogue and people feel compelled to buy special bikes designed for gravel roads. After all, you simply can't use an old nineties mountain bike—or a road bike with chunkier tires—for that. Oh no, it has to be something new and specialized. And yet, when I was growing up, there was only one paved road, which branched off twice. You could take it from Åby—where it split toward Berg on the way to Växjö—and make a detour to Rottne along the route. Everything else in the area where I grew up was gravel. Consequently, apart from the streets within the small village of Åby, every ride I took was a "gravel ride." Without even realizing it, I was incredibly trendy back then.

But back to foraging in the woods. It’s something anyone can do, though ideally, you’d be a "herbalist"—I didn't even know there was a specific word for a herb specialist. But there is, and according to one, there isn't all that much left to gather at this time of autumn. Still, you can pick rosehips and—well, not a hell of a lot else, aside from a massive amount of mushrooms, of course.

After a brief mushroom hunt, I found these. They were colorful and really stood out to me, so I ended up with a whole bagful* that I now need to clean and put to various uses. I’ll dry some to use in sauces over the winter, but the bulk of them will be transformed—along with butter, thyme, and a good stock—into a delicious mushroom soup.

"Mushroom soup" – Lionsteel Q4ttro out in the mushroom woods.

The knife posing so jauntily in the mushroom woods is, of course, the excellent Q4ttro folding knife from the Italian maker Lionsteel—a knife I am currently in the process of reviewing. Like its predecessor, the TRE, it was designed by Molletta and boasts a host of technical features and other details well worth examining.

On top of that, it features a blade made of MagnaCut—a steel that is incredibly hot right now, much like foraging itself. It is worth adding that the other materials are quite impressive, too. 

But more on that in the upcoming review. Right now, I’m off to make soup—not from a nail, but from a mushroom.

/ J - the Mushroomhunter

#knivesandbikes #knivigtvarre

* To see if anyone actually reads footnotes, it should be noted that NO, I haven’t picked or eaten this or any other *Amanita* mushroom. However, I did find some much more poisonous specimens a short distance away—specifically, the death cap (*Amanita phalloides*). The effects of that one are no laughing matter. In any case, none of them should be consumed.