I love the autumnal colors of these!
Ceps (porcini), the undisputed king of edible fungi (to me, anyway) – the Swedes even call it after one of their kings, karljohanssvamp, some of its relatives, and of course the gorgeous gold of the forest – chanterelles.
Ramaria flava (aka changle or gul fingersvamp in Swedish) is both, edible and absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful.
Tomorrow, all or most of these will become a wild mushroom ragout to celebrate the visit of my friend Sophie from England for the weekend. In meantime, they make a beautiful still life in my kitchen. It is said for a good reason that people eat with their eyes!
Some other mushrooms were ‘picked’ only in photos.
Amanita are extremely poisonous, so no, unlike Super Mario, you should really not, not at all touch any of the cutely spotted mushrooms. Nor – gods and little apples forbid! – try to eat them! Really!
Now, a word of general mushroomy warning – if you are unsure of identification, do not eat a wild-picked mushroom. Or invest in a good mushroom-identification book. Some mushrooms can be incredibly toxic, and while some mushroom species are both, safe and delicious, I would by no means wish my readers to mis-identify something, eat it and do themselves harm.
Eat The Roses 