Early arrivals, late encounters

Some early-flowering crocuses

Despite the current drop in the temperature (it was even snowing yesterday!), plant life is waking up. Snowdrops and aconites are out in huge numbers, and now later-flowering plants are joining them. Crocuses are now out, as well as a few butterburs, which I thought were summer flowers, but it looks like this year they were impatient to get out.

Impatient butterbur

Despite the relative abundance of flowers, there are still no pollinating insects in evidence, so I don't know what those early starts are hoping for. Must be invisible pink unicorns. They do exist, right?

Isn't it bedtime for your guys?

So, flowering plants are thinking that it's spring already, but fungi seem to be rooted in conviction that it's still late autumn. As evidenced by this fresh growth of sulfur tufts by the roadside.

Nature, you are not making any sense this year. Can you get your act together please?

Stash in the freezer

The ingredients

With all the recent frost and wind and fog, it seemed like spring was far far away, and mushroom season even further, so I was reluctant to open up my freezer. After all, what if it wasn't just a normal winter but the coming of a new ice age?..

However, with the arrival of snowdrops and aconites it became clear that we were safe from that catastrophe for now, and it was time to start eating into the stashes so that they are fully emptied before the new growth of ceps arrives.

I was really pleased that I was able to supplement my own ceps with an addition of wild mushrooms from a supermarket shelf, consisting of hedgehog fungus (bottom left) and grey chanterelle (bottom right). The three mushroom species, combined with some shallots and single cream, produced a great sauce for goose-fat roast potatoes we were having that evening. They all worked really hard: ceps provided flavour, grey chanterelles added colour, and hedgehog mushrooms were responsible for the firm, almost crunchy texture. White wine and cream took care of the rest!

And here they are, all together in a frying pan, just beginning to soften -

Ahh,, Beautiful!