Golden Chanterelles with Ramsons’ Berries and Herb Salad

TIP: If you find any berries late in the summer, such as cloudberries, raspberries or wild blueberries, they are a great addition to the salad.

About the ingredients

• Chanterelles (Kantareller)

Chanterelles grow in the southern part of Sweden. They are
hard to find, but can be located in coniferous forests or a mixed forest (broadleaf trees and coniferous trees). They often grow underneath moss. The mushroom is convex in shape with a wavy cap connecting to a dense stem. The cap is smooth, delicate, and gold-orange with irregular, uneven edges that are thick, blunt, and taper down. Underneath the cap, the gills have forked ridges with blunt edges and these ridges run down the matching gold-orange, firm, thick, and solid stem.

• Ramsons’ berries or flowers (Ramslöksbär eller blommor)

Ramsons mainly grow in the most southern regions of Sweden but can be found up until the region of Uppland. They are rare and found in shady, moist deciduous forests on nutritious moor- land, often on slight slopes at the foot of a height. The narrow bulbs are formed from a single leaf base and produce bright green entire, elliptical leaves up to 25 cm long and 7 cm wide with a petiole up to 20 cm long. The flowers are star-like with six white tepals. Make sure to reach out to a local guide before picking ramsons, since the leaves can be confused with the ap- pearance of the poisonous lily of the valley. The noticeable bulb makes it pretty easy to distinguish the ramsons.

• Garlic mustard/Alliaria petiolata (Löktrav)

Garlic mustard grows in the south of Sweden, from Skåne to Up- pland. It is usually found in cultural landscapes such as groves, hedges, parks and flowerbeds. The plant is recognised on its large heart-like leaves, as well as the weak garlic dough.

• Ground elder (Kirskål)

Ground elder grows in the southern parts of Sweden. It’s usually found in flowerbeds or on slopes inside the forest. Ground elder is distinguished by its three-fingered, paired appearance and toothed leaves – not to be confused with the poisonous cow- bane, fool’s parsley and hemlock from the same family.

• Heath pea (Gökärt)

Heath pea is a pea that has dark-coloured tubers attached to the roots. It is approximately 20 cm long and the leaves are alternate with short winged stalks and large stipules. It usually grows in grassy places or forest margins.

• Sorrel, wood sorrel and red sorrel (Ängssyra, harsyra och bergsyra)

Sorrels grow all over Sweden. They can be found in many places, some of which are meadows and pastures, fields and roadsides. The stem and leaves are soft. A common type of sorrel is wood sorrel. It grows five to ten centimeters high and grows with nar- row, creeping, scaly and branchy strains. Its leaves and flowers go straight from the strain. The leaves are sparsely hairy and often have a reddish underside. Another common sorrel is red sorrel. The stems are branchy and can be up to three decimeters high but are usually significantly lower. The leaves are bare and have a spicy base with narrow, usually bent bends.

• Sweet cicely (Spansk Körvel)

Sweet cicely grows in the southern parts of Sweden and can
be found from the region of Skåne to the region of Stockholm
– mainly along the east coast. It is usually located in rural settlements, roadsides and parks. The leaves of sweet cicely are large, triangular and repeatedly fluffy. Make sure to reach out
to a local guide before picking Sweet cicely since it belongs to the flock-flowered family with the following poisonous plants; cowbane, fool’s parsley and hemlock.

Photo credit: Jonas Ingman/Vastsverige.com

Photo credit: August Dellert/imagebank.sweden.se