I Went Mushroom Picking in the Forest by Lake Bodom

When I first started learning about Finland, one of the factoids that enchanted me the most was how berry-picking and mushroom-picking in the forest were something of a national pastime.  There was just something so innocent and natural and simple and sweet about that.  It's something I have really really really wanted to do.  Sinttu and I went mushroom hunting over the summer, but it was too hot and dry and we didn't find anything.

But it's cooled off and has been raining quite a bit, which means the forests are nice and marshy and prime for a mushroom harvest!  There is a law here called "every man's right" which basically means that you're free to roam wherever you like and pick whatever wild berries or mushrooms you find. So Sinttu, Sami, and I geared up in our rubber boots last Saturday, and headed out to the Oittaa forest near Lake Bodom. 

 
We weren't drunk or on shrooms, I swear, although our route might suggest otherwise. 

Now, I don't know much about mushrooms.  Previously all I knew was that they come in big cans or little cans, either sliced or button style.  I have learned a lot about them since moving here, and even bought the official Finnish mushroom guidebook (not that I can read it).  Mushrooms are categorized in the following ways:

             * Edible
            ** Edible, tastes pretty good
           *** Edible, delicious
             ° Worthless
             † Kinda poisonous
          † † Really poisonous
       † † † You're going to die
† † † * * * Confusingly, they are delicious AND you'll die.  Prioritize. 

(FYI, all the poisonous ones are usually the bright, exciting-looking ones.  The Super Mario mushrooms with the polka-dotted red caps?  Two daggers.)

We trekked through the forest with our mushroom knives and buckets, and the plan was to focus on one specific three star mushroom that is very popular and in season: the trumpet chantarelle.  But of course, I got distracted by the six million other weird mushrooms we saw, and spent more of the afternoon taking photos than picking the chantarelles...




This is going to sound crazy, but picking mushrooms feels a lot like playing slot machines.  When you find the ones you're looking for, you get a little rush like you do when you hit a jackpot.  And when you're done picking that batch, you immediately start jonesing to find the next batch.  You keep thinking that you're on the verge of a major progressive free spin jackpot, and you just don't want to leave the forest casino!  If my legs hadn't been screaming at me from all the hiking and squatting, I could have stayed out there all day.  It was a wonderful way to calm your mind, being out in nature, singularly focused on one very specific and basic task: finding these guys!  The famous trumpet chantarelles!

 

After almost 4 hours and two full buckets, we finally called it a day and went back to Sinttu and Sami's where we took a sauna to loosen up our tired legs.  Then Sinttu made these mushrooms into a very edible and very delicious creamy forest mushroom soup. 

An absolutely perfect Finnish autumn day.