Ah, so that's what Bitter Bolete tastes like!

I made myself a late brunch today -- we're off to the allotment soon as the weather is lovely and I feel like moving about a bit -- so it had to have some oomph to sustain us. Made an omelette with homegrown parsley and chives and also threw in a handful of dried boletes from our mushroom walk in the autumn. The dried slices amounted to barely a single mushroom I'd say.

The omelette was delicious (pic to follow once processed)

Here:

 and the burst of concentrated mushroominess that you get from dried boletes (Maronenroehrlinge) is something else. After a few seconds from the last mushroomy bite though I got a kick of peppery hotness. There was some pepper on there but not a lot -- it was a bit like biting on a whole peppercorn, not unpleasant but very... definite.

Ah, I thought, I must have caught a bitter bolete then. Bitter boletes are edible like most other boletes but can be so spicy that they can ruin any dish. This one didn't because I'd not rehydrated all the slices fully so nothing much from that one dried piece had seeped out, but I'll have to be aware now with the rest of that batch. Interestingly, I read, people in Central Europe in times when pepper wasn't available, dried and used the ground mushroom as seasoning.

Off to get prepped for the allotment -- it's cold out there so must boil the kettle to fill the thermos!

Jobs to do today:

* OH: prune the grape vines
* me: dig out the old, worn-out patches of raspberries and clear a bed
* us: transport more raised bed wood to the plot.

Am thinking of perhaps taking some insulated sheeting we've got parked at the back of the summerhouse and make a mini greenhouse over the raised beds -- and sow some lettuce, peas and radishes for early harvests.