Winter is coming, Part 3

The woodburner in our sitting room is a ravenous beast, gobbling two huge buckets of logs every twenty-four hours. The good news, I suppose, is that the ash is meant to be very good fertilizer for the garden. We have heavy clay soil, so lots of ash should make things a bit easier next Spring.

Was it really a sign that Winter is on its way? Or was it really a last hurrah for Autumn? Well, a few days ago, Irena roped me into another mushroom-hunting expedition, so we set off with our bags and little knives. We collected about 4 kilos of mushrooms and I was delighted with one huge specimen, about the size of a loaf of bread. When I first saw it growing in the field, I thought that it must be a big stone. Most of the mushrooms we collected will be marinated, but some were boiled and then fried for lunch.

The secret is to be very careful when collecting your wild mushrooms. Irena always tells me that each year, whole families in Russia are poisoned after eating the wrong species of mushrooms. It is also a good idea to check for worms, as little black specks appear in the stems when the mushrooms are old and full of worms.