Well, it’s that time of year again. You’re wanting to get something that no one else has thought of for the special person in your life, and at the back of your mind you’re looking forward to January when you can legitimately start thinking of booking next year’s holidays. Or is that just the way I think? Anyway here’s a suggestion. Booking a Gather & Cook trip to stay with us on the stunningly beautiful West Coast of Sweden will kill two birds with one stone. Not only will you get the chance to go out mushroom foraging with a qualified enthusiast with lots of local knowledge, you’ll get to do it in an a gorgeous part of the world, and with a gourmet spin. Good food and Swedish cuisine is an integral part of the experience. Spend four nights with us next Autumn learning more about identifying mushrooms and pick enough to take a good supply of your own home with you for the winter larder. Ideal!

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The nicest thing about the festive season is the food we share together. Memorable dishes and dinner parties that we talk about in years to come. Love of food certainly brings us together in very positive ways! In that spirit I’ve been trying some new wild mushroom recipes and have started with two different pates: Chicken liver with Wild Mushroom Pate, and Winter Chanterelle and Blue Cheese Pate which are on the recipe page now. We’d love to hear your comments if you try them yourselves. You can always contact us by email (info@getfunghi.co.uk), on Facebook, or on Twitter. Get in touch!

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For many people, their first experience of wild mushrooms are the dried porcini most supermarkets sell, in varying qualities. If you’ve tried ours, or the Forest Mix, you’ll know that the smell and taste should be sweet and almost nutty, and the mushroom should be firm and free from obvious signs of insect infestation. Winter Chanterelles, however, or Yellow Legs as they are called in the states, are very rarely sold fresh or dried here in the UK so most people who come to our tasting sessions have never eaten them before. It’s one of our favourite mushrooms, with a real earthy, forest floor aroma and tang quite different to the milder porcini, and the strong  flavour complements other strong tastes like a good mature cheddar or steak. In Sweden it’s often served as an accompaniment to wild meats like venison or reindeer.

The good news is that there are a couple more opportunities coming up to try one (or several!) of our wild mushroom toasties for yourself and see if it becomes your new favourite mushroom. This Saturday, November 24th, we’ll be running a cafe with a Swedish theme at Made in New Mills annual Christmas Art & Crafts Show in Providence Church Hall, Mellor Rd, SK22 4DP between 10am and 3pm, so come and do your Christmas shopping and stay for toastie and a glass of mulled wine as well!

After Christmas we’re really looking forward to doing our first tasting at Fosters Fine Foods and Flowers in Chapel, run by the super enthusiastic chef and food fanatic, Jason. We’ll be there on Saturday January 12th 2013, more information on precise timings to follow soon.
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We’re looking forward to doing a mushroom tasting on home ground tomorrow, Sat 10th November at Doc Greens, Union Rd, New Mills. If you haven’t tried our delicious Winter Chanterelle mushroom toasties before get yourself over to try one – you’re welcome too if you have tried them already!

Have a look at the fantastic range of fresh and dried produce they have here.

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Wild mushroom toasties! Praze! What a combination. Don’t forget to come and see us, Tracy & Sarah in their delightful deli on Glossop’s main shopping street, between 11 and 2 tomorrow. Toastielicious!

Have a look at their Facebook page here!

Had a trip down (up?) to Chorlton today to deliver some new stock to Jay & Steve at Hickson & Blacks on Barlow Moor Rd. What a great shop, with a fantastic selection of cheeses, meats, pastas and other nice things to eat. Mmm! Have a look at their lovely website….http://hicksonandblacks.co.uk/

We’re going to be serving our popular wild mushroom toasties  and selling a fresh batch of this season’s mushrooms hot off the drying racks on:

Saturday 3rd November from 11-2, Praze, HighSt West, Glossop

Monday 5th November from 11-2, On the Eighth Day, Oxford Rd, Manchester 

Saturday 10th November from 10 – 1, Doc Greens, New Mills 

It’s always lovely to meet friends old and new and share mushroom stories with enthusiasts so we’re really looking forward to the events. Hope to see some of you there!

We’ve had a great autumn this year. Some local fungus forays, a couple of Gather and Cook breaks and a plentiful harvest of Winter Chanterelles, porcini and ceps to sell over the next year. There’s a new gallery of photos of our weekends here in Sweden on the website, and the dates of next year’s courses too. If you have a group of at least six you plan to travel with and those dates aren’t suitable, do get in touch with us in case we can work something out. Don’t forget that you can always send us some photos of a specimen (hat and stem) with some information about where it was growing if you need help identifying it. Happy mushroom hunting!

Our home town of New Mills is fairly buzzing at the moment while the Festival is on. Two weeks of fantastic arts, music and other events really put the place on the cultural map. This weekend is especially busy for us as we always do the catering for the popular Arts and Crafts Fair ‘Made in New Mills’ which takes place this Saturday 22nd September from 10am – 3pm. Wild Mushroom toasties anyone?

Then on Sunday afternoon it’s the first of our Fungus Forays, through the fields and woods of New Mills, ending at the White Hart Pub where we’ll examine our harvest and have a taste of Winter Chanterelle mushroom soup. It’s going to be exciting seeing what’s growing around here this year – last year we found a nice selection of porcini and ceps, waxcaps, and russulas for instance. Both dates are fully booked now and we’re always really pleased that so many are interested in learning more about beginners edible mushrooms – apologies to all those we had to turn down, hopefully we will see you next year!

For more information about New Mills Festival click here.