Boletus edulis/ Karl Johan rørhat.

 

Boletus edulis, English names: penny bun, porcino or cep, is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere across Europe, Asia and North America; it does not occur naturally in the Southern Hemisphere although it has been introduced to various countries there. It is a very popular mushroom in Scandinavia, where it grows in big numbers. It is known as the Karl Johan mushroom all over Scandinavia,  named after the Swedish king Karl XIV Johan, who liked this mushroom very much.

Karl Johan, stig bachmann nielsen, Naturplan Foto.

In Italy it is described as the wild mushroom par excellence. The Italian name is porcini, meaning "little pigs", but it is often called the king which underlines its status as the most outstanding of all mushrooms. In Toscana it is often cooked with thyme. In a simple dish like an omelet, this well-tasting mushroom shows to its best advantage. In Russia it is known as White Mushroom, meaning noble. In North America are found a number of species closely related to Boletus edulis. (see link below)

The English name porcino seems to derive from the Roman time in Britain, since the Italian name is porcini. I'll call it porcino in this small article. It is one of the most sought after mushrooms of Europe. Many boletus are edible, some with a good taste, others tasteless and others unpleasantly bitter. Boletus edulis is the best - edulis means eatable or edible. Porcino is considered one of the safest wild mushrooms to pick for the table as there are no poisonous species that closely resemble it. The mushroom has to be plucked while young, old porcinos get soft and swampy. Specimens should not be collected from potentially polluted or contaminated sites. Boletus edulis is known to be able to tolerate and even thrive on soil that is contaminated with toxic heavy metals.


  

 

The cap is greasy (especially after rain), brown to greybrown, it is often a little nubbly, it is about 10-15 cm diameter, but some porcinos might be 25 cm in diameter. On occassions it can reach 35 cm in diameter and 3 kilo in weight. Like other boletes it has tubes extending downward from the underside of the cap, rather than gills. The pore surface of the porcino's fruit body is whitish when young, but ages to greenish yellow. The stout stem is white or yellowish in colour,  about 5-10 cm tall and 2-4 cm thick, equipped with a fine white network, the brownish stem species have often only a clear white net at the top near the cap - the stem has usually a big bump lowest, which can reach high up on the stem, and this is a good indicator that it is a porcino, but other informations should be used for safety's sake. 

photo:GB

Boletus edulis lives in forest, but it is not choosy, it is found in both softwood and hardwood forests, often in boundaries between those two forest types. It is a common fungi in the Danish forests and can be harvested in large numbers. It is a rather big mushroom, only a few specimens are necessary for a meal. This mushroom is held in high regard in many cuisines. The flavour has been described as nutty and slightly meaty with a smooth creamy texture and a distinctive aroma, which reminds about the leaves in the forest, where it grows.The stem is good as raw snacks, and the cap can be cooked in many ways - sautéed with butter, ground into pasta, in soups and in many other dishes. The delicate nut-taste and the creamy meat its good for risotto and pasta-dishes and sauces and as a accompaniment to venison or a big steak. Porcini risotto is a traditional Italian autumn dish. All boletus give off much liquid during making, which has to be removed or used for a fond or soup.

Boletus edulis has not been successfully grown in cultivation, but is available fresh in autumn. It is sold fresh in markets in summer and autumn and dried or canned at other times of the year. It keeps its flavour after drying. Distributed worldwide to countries where they are not otherwise found.  It is low in fat and high in protein, vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre.

Løvenholm forest, stig bachmann nielsen Naturplan Foto

Confusion: Tylopilus félleus, fel meaning bile because of its bitterness, (DK: Galde Rørhat)  and Bolétus réticulatus, called Summer cep, (DK: Sommer Rørhat). Boletus edulis is often confused with this very bitter Tylopilus felleus, but can be distinguished by the reticulation on the stalk; in porcino it is a whitish net-like pattern on a brownish stalk, whereas it is a dark pattern on white in Tylopilus. The porcino has white pores, while the other has pink. If in doubt, tasting a tiny bit of flesh will yield a bitter taste.The Summer cep's flesh is less firm than other boletes. The most similar mushroom  may be the Devil's bolete (Boletus santana), which has a similar shape, but has a red stem and stains blue on bruising.

"I confess, that nothing frightens me more than the appearance of mushrooms on the table, especially in a small provincial town."
Alexandre Dumas, early 19th century.

5 good edible mushrooms:
Boletus edulis: Porcino, Cep, Penny Bun ; (DK: Karl Johan)   
Agarius campestri: Field champignon, in North America Meadow champignon, (DK: Mark champignon);
Cantharellus cibarius: Chanterelle, (DK: Almindelig kantarel);
Craterellus tubaeformis: Yellowfoot, Winter mushroom, Funnel chanterelle, ( DK: Tragtkantarel);
Craterellus cornucopioides: Trumpet of death, Black chanterel, Black trumpet, Horn of plenty,  (DK: Stor Trompetsvamp).




Source: Politikens Svampebog, Svampe i Skandinavien, Danmarks Fugle og Natur, Felthåndbogen,Wikipedia.  

I'll have to add this:
Whether or not Boletus edulis occurs in North America is up for debate, says this website from: Mushroom Experts Com.

Wild Apples/ Vilde æbler

Malus species.

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The ancient Egyptians planted apple trees by the Nile, the ancient Greeks cultivated apples - and the Etruscians and Romans cultivated apples. Wild apples have grown in Denmark since the beginning of time, but the cultivating of apples started not until the Middle Ages. The monasteries were significant for the spreading of apples in Europe. The earliest identification origins from a monastery in England in the year 1204.

The autumn is a treasure chest of wild raw materials . There are lots to be found- mushrooms, hazelnuts or wild apples, sloe, rowanberry, juniper berry, blackberry, cowberry, elderberry - probably a rich season this year.

The wild apples are sour and best mixed with cultivated apples in jelly, marmelade, stewed fruit apple wine and so on.

But if you have gathered some wild apples, then they are also fine in a Russian Apple Pie. (Sharlotka) First use dark, dry bread crums, and fry them in butter . Remove from heat and add red wine , lemon juice, sugar (a little more than usual) and orange peel. Mix well. Add vanilla sugar. Butter a tin well and sprinkle it lightly with dark bread crumbs . Put a layer of the bread crumb mix at the bottom of the tin, then a layer of thin apple slices and cinnamon. Eventually more layers. Finish with the bread crumb mix. Put the tin in the oven for moderate or low heat = 150 degrees and let it bake for a little hour. Serve it hot - eventually with whipped cream.

photo Hærvejen Mid Jutland: grethe bachmann

Cowberry/ Tyttebær

Cowberry/Tyttebær
Vaccinium vitis-idaea

An evergreen 5-20 cm high shrub with shining darkgreen leaves and pink or white flowers in clusters . The scarlet berries ripen in September. It is common in the heather-moors and woods of Jutland and East Zealand, but else rare in Denmark.

The berries were ab. 1800 a large commodity in Jutland, women and children from humble homes made a good profit. People gathered the berries in baskets, in linen-bags and boxes. The the beginners did not pluck clean; they run all over and were disliked by the skilled pluckers. The best berry-places were kept a secret. Cowberries were considered healthy, they were sold to the merchants of the district and sent in large portions to Copenhagen and other large cities, it was a welcome extra earning for the smallholder families. The owner of the heath got a certain quantity of berries or the family worked for him harvesting or lifting potatoes.


Plucking cowberries in Dollerup Bakker

The women usually respected each other's domains, but if unfamiliar women suddenly emerged, tempered discussions happened about ownership and sometimes rough and tumble, while the chilren laughed and yelled. Every Friday the berries were sent to the market, the smallholder's wives sent their own load, it was sometimes so high that they had to go beside the wagon.
Upon a 2200 hectare large heath in Kongenhus mindepark was the plucking organized since 1942, and the income was for the maintenance of the park. The best cowberry-year in 1947 gave ab. 30.000 kilo. In the old days a wife could gather 25 kilo daily, in 1947 a woman at Sønder Omme plucked a record of 49 kilo. The harvest was sold to private, hospitals, hotels and to the gardener-auction in Copenhagen. In Ulfborg Skovdistrikt in West Jutland between Ringkøbing and Holstebro people might pluck as many cowberries they wanted, but only for their own use, not for sale, and the Mid Jutland State-Forests and private forest owners announced that people might pluck cowberry for 2-3 days, but they had to fetch an allowance card.

Food and Tea
The juice of riped berries were cooked and kept in glass- or stone-jars, eaten for steak etc. The boiled juice was used like lemon juice for a punch, and giving taste on wine soups and alikes. The juice could preserve raw meat like vinegar. Boiled down juice gives a very fine jelly. Cowberry jam is popular for panncakes and apple cakes, it is a traditional accompaniment for a roast beef ( and venison). The berries need only half the sugar than what is neccessary for other berries when making jam. In some districts in Jutland, i.e. in Vendsyssel the cowberries were preserved togther with pears and apples. Poor people used fresh or dried cowberry in sweet soup, buttermilk-gruel or as raisins in cakes. From very riped berries were made wine and snaps. In the Egtvedgirl's coffin from Bronze Age were found rests of cowberry-wine. The leaves can give a good tea, and the spring leaves gives a tasty daily drink.


Folk-Medicine
Cowberry was stated in the pharmacopoiea in 1772. The juice mixed with water and sugar gave a cooling and stimulating drink for fever-patients. A tea of fresh cowberry was used against soar throat, crushed berries were placed upon skin diseases, i.e. when children had German measles. The Jutland heath-farmers eat dried cowberries for stomach ulcer. In Greenland the berries were eaten against scurvy.

Dyeing
The leaves dye black , the berries give a red but not fast colour; silver cooked in cowberry-juice turns white.

Proverb.
When the rye is ripe the cowberry is ripe.

Source: Folk og Flora, Dansk Etnobotanik 3, V.J. Brøndegaard, 1979.


photo ⓒ Dollerup Bakker,  grethe bachmann

Bilberry/ Blueberry/ Blaabær

Bilberry/Blåbær
Vaccinium myrtillus

A very branched 15-40 cm high dwarf-shrub with green, edgy branches, egg-shaped and serrated leaves, round red-green flowers and black blue-dewy berries. Common in thicket, high forests and on heather hills in Jutland, North Zealand and Bornholm.

The berries were from old times plucked in large numbers and eaten on the finding spot or brought home to the household or for sale. At Horsens market places were in ab. 1800 sold several hundred pots of dried bilberries each year. In the dune north of Agger (Northwest Jutland) a planter estimated in 1860 that about 50 barrels bilberry were gathered each year. Poor people from the dune districts plucked barrels full of bilberry and cranberry, old poor women got themselves a little extra earning, and the owners of the area turned usually a blind eye to the plucking. Or else it was mostly the children who were sent out to pluck, sometimes followed by the farm wife or the servant girls; they seldom asked for permission and gave no money to the owner, but it might happen that he or his foreman came up, told them off and took the berries from them. No one could get out of it by telling a lie, their coloured fingers, mouth and lips were betraying them - and when the children came home they were blue-black in the face.


A household with very diligent pluckers could earn 50 kroner daily, that was much at that time; a family in a parish in West Jutland sold in ab. 1900 in one summer bilberries for 1000 kroner, and that was a fortune. A young girl gathered bilberry from first August till late October 1929 and earned money for her bridalwear. In the year 1967 was in a Copenhagen market place sold 5.600 kilo bilberry.

Food and Wine
Berries were eaten fresh with milk and sugar like strawberries, berries were dried in the oven and kept in bags on the loft planks. They were used for a soup eaten with rusks or as currants in cakes. Bilberry jam for panncakes or steak. Bilberry/Blueberry-pie and -cake. Wine can be made of the berries and crushed berries on snaps give a good and healthy liqueur. The dried leaves give a fine tea.


Bilberry thicket in May

Folk medicine.
The medieval physician Henrik Smid (1546) said that wine-decoct from the branches or flowers could be used against diarrhoea. The berry-juice held in the mouth, or chewing ripe berries or leaves healed mouth sores; the crushed leaves could be used as a compress on a swollen head and as a pain-relieving compress on the stomach. Another physician (from the 1600s) Simon Paulli did not quite agree, he said that bilberries could give diarrhoea. But the juice or soup from the oven-dried berries "cool the hot temper of the stomac and the liver".

People who could not endure feather duvets, could instead use matresses and pillows filled with bilberry leaves, this was also recommended for rheumatic pain. The unsweetened juice or tea from the leaves were drunk against scurvy and diabetes. The juice was also drunk against cold and bronchitis, and the berries cooked into a thick puree put on facial eczema.

On the Faroe Islands the leaves were used as a blood-purifying tea. In Greenland the fresh cut leaves were mixed with food against constipation.

Others.
The berries cooked with alum mordant wool dye purple, with iron vitriol olive; painters mix the juice with copper chalk and ammonium chloride and gets a red colour, the branches dye brown. Easter Eggs were dyed with the bilberry juice. (ab. 1800). It was once a common thing to colour white wines red with the bilberry juice, it was also used for colouring ( and forgering) red wine. From the berries were made bilberry-snaps and wine. The shrub except the root can be used for tanning.

Proverb.
Many bilberries are a sign of a good barley harvest.


Blueberry is one of the most healthy things you can eat. 
Please read on the net for much more new information.

Source: Folk og Flora, Dansk Etnobotanik, V.J.Brøndegaard, 1979