Spiselig Sopp

Rain in late summer is good. The mushrooms love it. Taking regular walks outdoors in the forests and keeping our eyes on the ground ensure a constant supply of mushrooms. Yes, we pick those edible kinds. Obviously I wouldn't even attempt to identify which sort of mushrooms are edible. I go with someone who knows mushrooms. When in doubt, leave them alone. Most mushrooms are toxic and poisonous to humans, especially the pretty ones.

Mushroom-picking is done on a regular basis on weekends when no one stays in the city and everyone heads out of town and hits the countryside in just 45 minutes. That's the beauty of Oslo. It's surrounded by so much natural beauty that it's impossible not to grow a love for the outdoors be it in summer or winter. There's plenty of huge steinsopp to be picked as well. I know it as 'porcini'. MY FAV. Fantastic.

On a random jaunt halfway up the mountains, the friends spotted a species that they knew is edible. It's a type of butter mushroom (smørsopp), specifically the ringløs smørsopp or commonly known as 'Weeping Bolete'. It's pretty close to 'Slippery Jack' but not quite. The smooth undersides are a cheerful butter-yellow. Sometimes we're prepared to pick edibles by taking along ziplocks. Often we carry them to put phones and credit cards in case of rain. When we don't, we improvise. In this case, with pieces of paper till we got back to the car where there were little baskets in the boot to hold the smørsopp.

The amount of smørsopp we picked that afternoon was sufficient to feed eight people at dinner that evening. It was made into chunky mushroom sauce to go with the meats. Lightly salted, all the woody flavors were kept. Delicious.