Surrey Homes | SH105 | October 2023 | Interiors & Bathrooms Supplement inside

Just over half of Sweden
(63%) is covered with forest
and the right of public access
known as ‘allemansrätten’
gives everyone the right
to collect berries and
mushrooms on public land
Clockwise from top left: There’s fungi
aplenty in autumn: freshly picked
chanterelle mushrooms; therapeutic
meadowsweet; the majestic osprey
istockphoto.com/ JohnatAPW / Wirestock
We thought that it must be one of ‘our’ hares but
he’d been found during a chanterelle hunt in the nearby
woods. Nothing wasted here as he ended up in a casserole
in somebody’s else’s household the following day. Then
there were the ‘sounds off’ coming from the forest. I
thought at first it might be wild boar having seen signs
of their excavations in the meadow down the lane but
it was more likely to be some sort of deer as it sounded
rather like a dog with a particularly sore throat.
The meadow that I found such interesting plants in
last year had already been cut to be used for silage. But in
the ditch dissecting the field there were still a few wisps
of meadowsweet and later on that day my hostess gave
me a tisane of dried meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
to try. I’d read that it was not only used as a herbal
medicine but due to its high concentration of salicylic
acid was used to make aspirin. What a wonderful plant.
It certainly seemed to help both with the irritating and
numerous mosquito bites and one of those throats that
seems to go with flying. Can’t wait for next summer and
to collecting some from the ditch right outside the house
here. Heaven knows why we haven’t done it before.
Just over half of Sweden (63%) is covered with forest and
the right of public access known as ‘allemansrätten’ gives
everyone the right to collect berries and mushrooms on public
land as long as you do it responsibly and don’t take too much.
An hour’s exploration of the woods near the house (in full
improvised mozzie protection clothing!) revealed the most
fantastic collection of fungi of all sorts and some wonderful
lichen too. The forests here are ancient and dotted with huge
granite boulders that were formed after the last Ice Age. Each
one of these has its covering of mosses, ferns and lichens
creating mini worlds perfect for a child’s imagination to run
riot (let alone mine). I didn’t find many chanterelle, the
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