Friday, 13th of January 2023 [27]
It’s #FungiFriday guys! Who’s excited to see some mushrooms in 
I am! I lied. I’m actually very little excited about anything this week, but let’s just settle for… posting and reading about mushrooms makes me feel slightly less numb and detached from this world today.
No, it’s not because it’s Friday the 13th. Some 100’s years ago Friday 13th was celebrated at a Goddess day. There are 13 full moons each year and those lucky women who have regular cycles also have 13 of those in a year. There is nothing scary or unlucky about number 13. Patriarchy made it so. Don’t let me digress though!
I kinda wanted to take the big guns out and plaster this post with the picture of the most perfect porcini mushrooms in my gallery, but then I changed my mind. I’ll make you read or at least scroll ALL the way down this post to see it. It will be worth it, I promise 😁
Those above are equally interesting though, don’t you think? This season started in a ‘twins’ theme. This cute couple above 👆 was the first one I found this year. Even though I chose this path to walk, as I remembered that I found some nice size bolete mushrooms there the year before, I was still surprised and extremely happy to find this couple in the same place.
The theme continued as I walked around the forest. I found more and more twins. All edible, various types of boletes. And then there were also triplets! This one below I captured twice with different zooms, as I wanted to make the tiny one more visible. Can you see it? How about how dreamy the caps are connected, blending one into another. I literally love everything about this cute bunch.
As I zoom out, you can see they are actually quadruplets 😁 I remember posting this on my social media, asking how many mushrooms can people see here. There were many funny answers to it. I love posting tricky questions like this to make people think. It wakes up some of those creative minds out there.
I found some singles too. This one below 👇 I recon is a parasol mushroom, but I didn’t pick it on this occasion. Why? Well, that’s what I do when I’m not sure. I was around 90% sure and that day I didn’t want to die. I only learned how to recognise an adult one couple years ago and when it comes to babies, I’m still a little unsure. The cap was still closed, so I couldn’t check all the features and I didn’t want to disturb it if it wasn’t a parasol one. It posed perfectly for my picture, so I thanked it and carried on my walk/hunt.
Next was another one which I didn’t deem safe for picking. I have no idea what it is, but again - it was happy to pose for pictures 😁
Next up is another mystery. Definitely a bolete family, but is it edible or not? I was really unsure. Many edibles turn blue when you touch them, but this one turned almost black and it stayed this way.
I picked it up, cause the cap looked edible, but then I started to look at it all around and I lost my confidence.
I took pictures from all angles to sent them to my auntie, but she was also unsure and advised not to eat it 😅 The underneath of it was reddish and my uncle said it could be Oak Boletus, but when I looked it up it looked nothing like what was in my hand. I remember one day I took one of them home and fried it separately from other to see if it was edible, but like I mentioned earlier, that day I didn’t have a death wish, so eventually I left it in the forest.
Oh well, never mind. Not like I was hungry that day. Or the next day for that matter!
I found many edible mushrooms that I was sure were edible and once I got home, I might have removed some nice parts of them, as they were eaten by worms, but in the end I still had plenty to eat.
Many people prepare them in many different ways and into elaborate dishes, but my favourite way of preparing them is just frying them in butter. Sometimes I put them on a slice of bread, other times I eat them with nothing at all. Especially Porcinis. To fully enjoy their amazing taste.
Speaking of Porcinis… here they are. The most perfect Porcini twins I have found this season and maybe even in my life. In fact I was so happy when I saw this perfect pear shape leg, that I looked around to see if anyone was watching me being so incredibly excited for no apparent reason 😅 Not to worry though, I was all by myself and I didn’t have to convince anyone that I am actually a sane person.
And also to check the latest AI trend I visited this website and asked to generate ‘huge twin porcini mushrooms’. Well, I was not at all impressed with what AI came up:
It's cute, but it doesn't even look like porcini. Good all momma nature is still the best artist I ever known 😍
Happy #FungiFriday everyone! Even if, like me, you’re not in the best ever mood, go read some mushroom posts. They’ll cheer you up a little or at least make you feel #ALIVE
Until next time 💙
| Camera: | iPhone7 |
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| Photographer: |  |
| Editing apps: | NONE |