Tasty in any Language

Anne points out she only knows how to pick mushrooms in Swedish and French. But that's okay... They are delicious in any language!

Fred and Anne canoed along the shoreline this week, exploring and searching for mushrooms. They came back with a bag of Chanterelles. Not only are these beautiful, with their strong orange colour, but they smell like apricots and taste divine fried up with some butter and cream, served on crackers with a slice of avocado.

Chanterelle mushrooms, sometimes called Queen of the Forest, is the mushroom many of the world's great chefs prize above all others. in Italian, they are known as Girolle. In German, Pfifferling. Wherever you harvest them, and however you pronounce it, they are prized for their superb flavor.

Chanterelles are only found in the wild. So far, efforts to cultivate Chanterelles have never proved successful. Fred has done fairly well at encouraging them to grow near his cottage here at Bondi by carefully putting the scrapings from the kitchen in appropriate places.

Tough and mild, Chanterelles have that slight spicy edge which is characteristic of things that grow on their own in the forests and fields - something that comes from competing in a natural environment.

Our 600 acres of surrounding wilderness is a great place to go harvesting mushrooms. If, like Anne and Fred, you know what to look for. If you don't, you should be sure to take along someone who knows their mushrooms...

Nature's Pantry now Open

Chanterelle mushrooms are among the most highly prized of all the mushrooms. Known to the Italians as Girolle, and in German as Pfifferling, they are known to Fred as his Favourite Mushroom, and he knows how to recognize them... has the patience to track them down... and jealously guards his knowledge.

I had to be sworn to secrecy after taking this photo of them growing in the wild. They only grow in the wild. All efforts to cultivate them have been less than successful.

It is imperative that anyone collecting wild mushrooms educate themselves, and be sure that the mushroom you have is indeed the mushroom you think it is.



Chanterelles have thick stalks, with flutes on the underside, and a delightfully apricot scent to them.

Fred also harvested some Bolette -- both King Bolete and Birch Bolete. These are also popular with mushroom hunters. The Italians call them Porcini mushrooms, because you have to get to them before the pigs find them. The pigs like them even more than you do.

Boletes are different from other mushrooms, with pores rather than gills on the underside of the cap. Spores are released by the thousands from the inner walls of hundreds of tiny round tubes, making up the lower cap surface. This spore-bearing area resembles and acts like a sponge. They look like small hamburger buns, to be unromantic about the whole thing. Avoid any that have red spores on the underside, however. And be sure you've got someone along who -- like Fred our resident Hunter/Gatherer KNOWS mushrooms.