Shrooming
Just after the first big rain of Autumn, Portugal becomes a haven for wild mushroom growth. Our pine forest is the perfect breeding ground in the mulch of fallen pine needles and leaves. It’s so much fun to walk around and see what is popping up and discover new mushroom growth. One of the first discoveries was a bright red toadstool which is even the mushroom emoji 🍄😂 but one I remember from primary school being the fly agaric which is poisonous (magic?). I was super nervous to eat any but we had a kind offer from Joseph whom I’ve been following on insta to come and pick some of the mushrooms growing in their fields. He showed introduced us to the parasol mushroom which is widely found in Portugal and very easy to identify. We have picked a lot of them and made soup, mushroom sauce and mushrooms on toast. It’s my fave as it has a really beefy flavour and strong smell when you are walking in the forest. I’m really into identifying mushrooms and want to do a foraging course next year for sure! We have had some random people walking on the farm just causally picking mushrooms but I guess they have been coming here for years?
