Picking stuff in the forest and eating it

Chanterelle

Last weekend we took two hikes into the forest looking for chanterelles.  We found one (pictured above).  Notwithstanding our lack of success in mushroom hunting, we do, in fact, enjoy the foraging that many Norwegians look forward to each late summer/early fall.  These days, walks in the forest include seeing folks walking with little buckets for mushrooms or berries.  We are among 'em. 




Berry Geeks?


Picking berries and mushrooms is a popular pastime here.  You can buy berry rakes to help with picking blueberries, especially, but Tove and I have only picked by hand.  The local authorities provide free testing of mushrooms to ensure that your 'shrooms are safe.  The university sponsors mushroom hunts with experts to help with picking only safe fungi.  Brilliant sun and clear skies add to the enjoyment.



Last Saturday  Forest view toward town.




Searching for Chaterelles (they like to grow under fir trees)




Last Sunday.  We picked lingonberries while looking for chanterelles.  Bright afternoon sun washed out Tove's face.




See the blueberries?





Wild strawberries





Lingonberries

 While looking for chanterelles we came across other fungi that looked a little scary:



blue mushrooms?

  In addition to wild berries, we picked cultivated red currants ("rips" in Norwegian) and black currants ("solbær") at Tove's cousin Paula's home in Malvik.  Red currants are beautiful little berries.  They are delicious fresh with vanilla sauce.  Black currants have a wonderful tart, woodsy flavor and make very good jam, but also delicious fresh.  We picked large amounts of both.  We froze some and made jams, too.



Black currants.




Ready for the freezer.

 If you come visit us during this time of year, you WILL be picking stuff in the forest and eating it.

Meråker, Fish and Chanterelles: Part Three

Chanterelles  

Sunday morning we awoke to blustery winds, dark clouds and the threat of an early autumnal rain.  Asle had to check the nets for fish.  We saw whitecaps on the lake, so I volunteered to photograph the collection of the nets from the shore while Asle and Johan did the hard work.

Johan hauls in a net (there were two nets).

We might have taken on water had I been in the boat!

Both nets in, 9 trout captured, the men head for "port"

Some Rainbow Trout, some Browns   

Although the skies looked as if we would soon be drenched, no rain came during the "net hauling."

Later in the day, we decided to go on a hike on a trail made by a retired man that goes up, up, up into the mountains to a pretty little lake.  The guy apparently personally laid shale stones, one after the other, to create a trail. 



The old guy has laid a lot of stones



The bench provided a nice resting place

Solfrid and Frank.  The lake in the background is the one by the cabin. 

 Even though it looks dry, it isn't.  Kind of wet, actually.  It rained when we started out, but after about 10 minutes of rain, it cleared enough to be perfect hiking weather.  Not clear enough for great pictures, though.

Sheep!



See the little mushroom?

 Tove and I went a little higher up the mountain before turning around.  Solfrid took a different route back down to the cabin.  On her way, she came across wild chanterelles.  She unzipped the hood on her jacket and used it as a bag to hold all of the "mushrooms".  She kindly gave Tove and I a bunch.  We sauteed them in butter and cream on Monday night.  They were delicious.

Meråker, Fish and Chanterelles: Part Two

Fresh Trout, Director's Cut 

After our hike, we soaked up the afternoon sun, drank beer and just relaxed.

Frank, Elin, Solfrid, Asle and Johan

That evening, the subject of setting gill nets arose.  The last time that I set nets to catch fish was in July/August, 1973 in Mandal, Norway.  I was a student among 22 other Californians from the University of California in Norway undergoing intensive Norwegian language training.  The first few weeks were spent at the University of Oslo, but then we were split into two groups.  One group went to a farm in the Gudbrands valley.  The other group (mine) went to a campground on the Southern coast.  After two weeks the groups exchanged locations.

While at the campground, the campground owner, "Uncle Hjalmar", taught Trent Taylor and me how to set gill nets in the estuarial fjord to catch fish.  He lent us his rowboat.  We caught trout and flounder.  It was, for us, an interesting experience.

So, when Asle asked Johan to help set the nets Saturday evening, I asked if I could tag along.  Asle said "sure" but I could tell that he was a bit concerned about 3 adult men in his little boat.  Photos of Sunday morning's net-hauling would confirm his concern (you will see!).  But Saturday evening the weather was idyllic.

First, get the life jackets from the boathouse.

Johan manned the oars to get us into deep enough water to use the small outboard engine.

It was beautifully still!

Asle at the helm, motoring into the setting sun, I am in Johan's shadow.



Asle getting ready to "set" the nets.



Johan rows the boat while Asle drops the net into the lake

We admire the Nordic Autumn

 

After setting the nets we returned to shore. 

The ladies' after-dinner conversation.

  Everyone was fairly exhausted from the hiking and fresh air.  I think we went to bed about 11 p.m.!  Johan would later write in the "hytte bok" (guestbook) that he had never gone to bed so early on a Saturday night, nor arisen so early on a Sunday morning.  Old people.

Next: The weather changes, we catch fish, and we go on another hike.



Meråker, Fish and Chanterelles: Part One

Fresh Trout

We went to Meråker last weekend.  Meråker is about two hours Northeast of Trondheim, in the mountains, near Norway's border with Sweden.  Our friends, Asle and Solfrid invited us and our friends (their friends, too) Johan and Elin to spend the weekend at their "hytte" (cabin) up there.  We left Trondheim late Saturday morning, picked up Johan and Elin and headed toward the mountains.  It was a very pleasant drive.  We stopped at one of the beautiful rest stops along the way and enjoyed some coffee and an apple cake I had baked two days before. 

Solfrid greeted us upon arrival.



Solfrid walks down the path to greet us!




Asle and Solfrid built the cabin about 4 years ago.



Interior view.  Beautiful wood paneling.

I really liked the staircase leading to the sleeping loft where we slept.

View from the loft.  The design allows for safe use of stairs in a very compact space.

As I've mentioned before, I like the small simple cabins the Norwegians build.  I wonder if this type of cabin exists in the States anymore.

A luncheon of fresh pan-fried trout and "Apple Betty" for dessert awaited us.  Norwegian apples are in season now and they are tart and delicious. I made baked apples the week before and they were excellent.  Write me for recipes.

After lunch we went for a leisurely two-hour walk down to the lake, then up into the hills where the Sami people raise their reindeer.  Autumn arrives early in the mountains of Norway.  There was a freshness in the air, the fall colors were starting to emerge and the forest had a wet, autumnal odour like an unraked lawn after a heavy rain.  The photos to a Southern Californian look dry and brittle, but I assure you that the opposite is true.  The grassy hills were dank and almost "marshy"; the golden orange grasses were supple and fresh.  Lingonberries were everywhere as were mushrooms of different shapes, sizes and levels of toxicity.  The lake was clean and pretty.  Calmness and the pervasive sense of summer's end added to the sublimity.



The Lake



Some of the many varieties of mushrooms.

Lingonberries

At the lakeshore

Tove picking berries

The fence in the distance is to fence in the reindeer

Autumn is coming

Solfrid, Johan and Asle.

Reindeer skull

reindeer spine

forest floor

fossil rock

BIG fossil rock

Nature's Bouquet



Autumnal Brook

End of Part One Next, the boat trip to set the nets for the trout catch!