A mushrooms appreciation post with lots of autumn vibes.

Did you know that there are over 10.000 species of mushrooms out there? Personally, I’ve always loved mushrooms, because fungi are crazy interesting organisms and their above ground manifestations taste great in just about anything. Although only a fraction of them are edible, that doesn’t discourage people like me from searching for them, and that is exactly what we did today.

Autumn is in full colourful swing here in Slovenia, and so is Covid-19, unfortunately. The country is practically back on lockdown (you can check out my 1st lockdown lunch ideas here if you’re in the same boat, because I won’t be cooking as much this time), which makes mushroom picking a safe and approved entertainment + the forests are beautiful this time of year. We actually found some edible mushrooms, but we also found lots of gorgeous, definitely inedible ones. The photos were too good not to share, so enjoy the autumn vibes. 🙂

By the way, the act of eating mushrooms is called mycophagy. Besides the usual soup, scrambled eggs with mushrooms or other popular dishes, there’s also mushroom tea and mushroom ketchup. The tea is usually made with mushrooms that grow on trees, like the chaga mushroom, which is packed with antioxidants and hailed as a miracle cure in certain circles. As for ketchup, did you know that the original ketchup from the 18th century was made of mushrooms, looked rather gross and had a distinctive umami flavour? And of course, there are also magic psilocybin mushrooms, but that’s a topic for another day.

How do you feel about mushrooms? Don’t ever pick and eat any you don’t know and aren’t sure of, because you’ll give yourself some serious food poisoning.