Adventures » Mushroom Dana

Adventures / October 29, 2021

A Journey to Self on the River Tagliamento, Italy

It’s so beautiful how life takes you to unforgettable places, especially locations where it doesn’t even cross your mind that you could discover peaceful and beautiful spots.

In August, we were mainly on the road, travelling across three different countries. I went with Arun to Romania and Christian went to Italy with his parents. At the end of the month, we reunited in Italy, but our energies were a bit off. This brought a lot of tension and we needed a few days to recalibrate ourselves.

We are travellers and we love to travel and discover new and hidden places, so we often listen to our inner voices when we are on the road. We stop the car when we feel like it and simply go and explore the surroundings. So many times, the Universe surprised us with incredible landscapes, people and situations. On this particular day, it was also the case.

The path in the forest

We saw a path through the forest, stopped the car, and went to see where it led us. We walked in the woods for about 10 minutes before we found some stairs. The steps descended quite steeply into the bank of a river. We followed the steps — Christian, with Arun in his arms, me with my camera in one hand and the other trying to hold my dress, so I didn’t miss a step and fall. Below us were huge and white rocks that looked like lime.

After descending the stairs, we turned to face the river, took a few steps forward, and we were in awe. The landscape was divine.

It was a huge open space with the most beautiful and crystalline river water I have ever seen in my life, which flowed unrestrained into the riverbed. The sun was shining bright, so we could clearly see the stones from the bottom of the river. The big rocks were not covered in water, so we used them to get even closer to the river. Practically, we were in the river.

The sky was blue with a few clouds, and in the background, beautiful medium-sized mountains, covered in forests made the view unforgettable. What made it more memorable was the fact that we were alone, no one around us, no human, no house, no animals, just us and the birds in the sky. We felt so free, happy and peaceful. What a blessing!

Read also our adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom with Arun and Luna

Cold as ice

Suddenly, Christian decided to take a bath in the river. I agreed with him and got rid of my shoes so I could try the water and who knows, maybe follow him. So I set my shoes aside, put my feet in the water; 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 4 seconds, brain freeze.

Brain freeze happens when blood flow increases and resistance in the brain blood vessels. So when we experience a brain freeze, we might actually be feeling our brain’s blood vessels reacting to the cold.

This didn’t seem to stop Christian. No, he got rid of all his clothes and entered bravely into the coldest water I have ever felt on my body. This happened not once but three times in a row. I knew he was a Viking in his soul, but now he has also proven it. I have to say, I was impressed by his determination and power of controlling his breath.

Meanwhile, Arun was throwing stones in the water, singing and playing serenely near the water. At one point, he wanted to follow his dad into the water, but in the end, he was content with having only his feet in the water.

We spent a few hours on that lake and we laughed, explored every stone, meditated, sang, enjoyed the view and just be. We didn’t feel the time, Arun didn’t get bored, not even a second, and everything felt right. Playing outside can improve motor skills, lower the body mass index, enhance muscle strength and overall health. Children who play outside develop a sense of independence and have a greater appreciation for the environment.

Life can take us to incredible places if we trust her and let her guide our footsteps. I still have moments when I interrupt the flow of life and try to control myself, situations or people. But more and more, I trust that God, the Universe, is always conspiring for our greater good. We just need to allow ourselves to see and feel his presence.

More and more, I’m exploring the beauty of letting go and trusting the Universe that it has my back, that it’s holding me in its embrace and the only thing I need to do is just be.

How is your life? Do you often or rarely let yourself be carried away by the trust in the Universe? I am curious to know how you recognise these kinds of moments.

journey to self, journey to self, journey to self, journey to self

Remember to love yourself

Adventures / September 30, 2021

Mushroom Picking with Arun & Luna

It’s not a secret. I love mushrooms — eating them, growing them, drawing them, taking pictures of them, and especially mushroom picking. I have always been attracted to them.

Fungi sustain life on our planet. Did you know that fungi contribute to the nutrients in the soil as they recycle carbon, minerals and nutrients, making the soil richer and sharing the nutrients with other plants? Or that mushrooms help our bodies to take in more nutrients and vitamins from the other foods we eat?

Yes, there are so many ways in which the fungi influence our lives that we don’t know or talk about.

Anyway, putting aside my love and admiration for the Fungi Kingdom and coming back to the topic, we held our family tradition of going into the forest and searching for mushrooms every year in September. This is our third year of this tradition and Arun has started to have a more active part in searching for mushrooms.

We believe that the best way to discover and understand the world is by experimenting with what the world has to offer. This is an essential pillar in Arun’s development for Christian and me, and we do our best to create as many opportunities to nourish this aspect.

Benefits of Outdoor Play

Being in nature lets children have open access to fresh air and lots of space to run around. It promotes a connection to nature and a love for the environment. Arun is definitely an outside kid. He is much happier and more cooperative when he is outdoors than indoors.

Physical Development & Health. Playing outside improves motor skills, lowers the body mass index, enhances muscle strength, provides sensory stimuli, increases vitamin D levels, improves eyesight, reduces the risk of bone disease and strengthens the immune system.

Social Development Benefits. Greater self-awareness, increased openness with parents and caregivers, improved peer-to-peer relationships, and appreciation for the environment.

Emotional Development Benefits. Children who play outside develop a sense of independence, and they use all of the five senses to learn and explore. Creates opportunities for awe and wonder, builds imagination, teaches responsibility, provides regulation sensory input for the nervous system and improves short term memory.

Intellectual Development. In this aspect, it can be seen as an improvement in cognitive skills. There are many opportunities to take risks, make choices and initiate learning for themselves.

Mushroom picking with a toddler

When I was little, around 3 – 5 years old, I was going with my father to the park near our block to find mushrooms. I remember the grass being tall and wet, the soil was muddy and the smell was so intense. It smelled of forest. To this day, that is one of my favourite smells. Then, every time I found a mushroom, I felt so much joy. Now, at 35, I feel the same. I feel so blessed to be able to still experience these kinds of moments.

Once you open the door to mushrooms in your life, it’s impossible not to love them. Christian went once on a mushroom picking with me when we got together and that was it. He loved it so much that now, he organises our adventures and also cooks the mushrooms we harvest. I could never wish for a better partner in life than him.

This year, Arun began to understand what we were doing in the forest and involved himself in the search. Where last year, he slept most of the time in the baby carrier.

We showed him what a Pay Boletus looked like and after this, he went on his own search. Soon, he was pointing to us at every mushroom he saw. Even the poisonous ones. He didn’t seem to care about this aspect. He was just thrilled about his discoveries and happy that he was helping us.

Yet, this was good for the pictures because he found a few beautiful mushrooms that I managed to photograph. Thus, we made an excellent team. I feel that we will have a lot of fun in the following years.

What you need for mushroom picking is:

a knife to harvest the mushrooms
a straw basket
a brush for cleaning
a pocket guide to wild mushrooms
a little bag or basket for your little one so he can carry his mushrooms
an identification app. It’s best to find one that is local so it can be more specific. I use Shroomi – Danske Svampe.

mushroom picking

Important Note

Mushrooms are the beautiful, delicate, bumpy ‘fruiting body’ we see growing out of the ground or wood. They are the reproductive structures of fungi. Fungi is the entire organism. Therefore, all mushrooms are also fungi, but not all fungi produce mushrooms.
Please, use a knife to cut off the fruit bodies (mushrooms) where they join the ground (or whatever they are growing from) so you don’t damage the delicate mycelium below.
Allow the mushroom to mature to a point where it has distributed most of its spores.
If possible, in the beginning, go with someone who you know has experience with wild mushrooms. If you are not sure about a mushroom you have found, don’t force your luck. Instead, take a picture or pick it and do your research about it.

Discover, photograph and collect mushrooms

The pictures are from several expeditions we made. Unfortunately, we didn’t synchronise too well with the weather this year, so we went several times to find mushrooms.

On one occasion, we brought Luna with us, our cat. In the beginning, she was a little confused because it was her first time in the forest. But she quickly adjusted and began to explore.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and that they will inspire you to go with your little one on a mushroom adventure. Be sure to download the free file I have attached to this blog post. You can print it and let your kido find the mushrooms based on the pictures. It will involve him more in the process.

mushroom picking

Final words

We enjoyed every part of our adventure. Yes, we had some little moments when Arun lost his patience, but we managed to bring his focus back when we switched the search from mushrooms to slugs. Not a cute switch, but hey, it worked. So, why not keep the count of the white and brown slugs in search of delicious mushrooms?

I was a little upset because everywhere I looked, beautiful mushrooms had been eaten just enough to ruin a good picture. Well, the challenges of life. Mushroom photography can be challenging sometimes. mushroom picking

Overall, Arun had a great time searching and finding mushrooms. Luna explored new territories, I got some beautiful pictures, and Christian collected enough mushrooms to cook us several dishes. We experienced great moments.

Have you ever been with your child on a mushroom picking? What kind of outdoor activities do you do with your children? Please share your thoughts with us so your adventures can inspire us.

Remember to love yourself

Adventures / January 27, 2021

Locally sourced food and having fun at the pumpkin farm

Locally sourced food started to become crucial for our health, the wellbeing of everyone around us and thus the planet.

I’m a huge fan of supporting local businesses as much as possible. In this circle, everyone wins, the customer has access to fresh and often much healthier products, the seller is usually a family business that puts all their sweat and heart into the products they make, all the people on the planet because of the reduced carbon footprint and last but undoubtedly not least our beautiful Home, the planet on which we live all.

Another essential fact of locally sourced food is that we can also eat seasonally. This is extremely important for our health. Building a lifestyle around seasonal food supports the natural healing process of our bodies.

I believe it is also vital to support the local economy. It doesn’t matter if we are local or from another city or even countries. The town or village in which we live it’s our home. We are part of that community, and if it’s thriving, we thrive with it. If you want to go even further you can seek producers who pay their workers’ fair earnings and get involved in social justice. It is a complex process but I believe in this way we can make a change even if we are simple citizens.

I know it is not easy, especially if you live in a big city but just give it a shot. Do an experiment and see what you can find, how you feel when you buy from a local producer and how those fruits or vegetables taste. Try to find out more about what you eat, how it grows, or how the harvest was. Be curious and connect with that farmer, I bet he will be more than thrilled to speak about his work and his products. After we started asking questions to the local producers we visit frequently we discovered so many new things we didn’t know about them and about what we were eating. The amount of work needed, the story or the quality of the products were things we knew only on the surface.

Plukselv Græskar, Gaardens Grønt
Location – Åstruplund, Denmark

A few months ago we discovered with the help of a friend a local pumpkin farm, Plukselv Græskar, Gardens Grønt – Åstruplund of which we fell in love instantly.

For all three, it was the first time when we saw that many pumpkins on a field. Even though it was quite cold outside, we managed to have some good fun exploring these beautiful vegetables. They had different kinds of pumpkins and popcorn all grown locally. We bought a new type of pumpkin we had never tried before, and we made a delicious pie. I put the recipe below in case you want to try it.

Arun was thrilled. He tried lifting the pumpkins, climbing or rolling them on the field, he jumped and ran all over the place. He also explored the wheelbarrow in every possible way he could. I managed to take some nice shots. You can see them below and maybe have a little fun.

For kids, exploring such places is incredibly inspiring and fun. Their creativity and freedom of exploration take off and we as parents can only be impressed and happy. I was watching Arun being so joyful that my heart was melting despite my hands who were cold as ice on the camera.

Things You May Not Know About Pumpkins

Pumpkins together with squash, cucumbers, honeydew melons and gourds are part of the gourd family. Pumpkins originate from Central America and Mexico but now grow on six continents, all except Antarctica. Indigenous from North America cultivated pumpkins long before cultivating corn or beans. They started thousands of years ago.

Every part of the pumpkin is edible – skin, leaves, flowers, pulp, seeds, and even the stem. The pumpkin also has numerous benefits. I will share just a few of them:

rich in Vitamin C, E that can boost immunity
highly nutritious and particularly rich in vitamin A
lutein and zeaxanthin contained in pumpkin protect eyesight
weight loss resulted from nutrient density and low-calorie count
high antioxidant content that may reduce the risk of chronic diseases and lower the risk of cancer.

The best time for planting pumpkin seeds is between the last week of May and the middle of June. In October, after 90 – 120 days of growth, the pumpkins can be picked. When their colour is bright orange. We saved some pumpkin seed from the ones we both had and we intend to plant them in our little garden. I’m so curious to seeds how this experiment will go. I will share the process on my Instagram account.

The heaviest pumpkin in the world was grown in Belgium, and they presented to the public in October 2016, he weighed 1,190.49 kg.

Pumpkin Tart Recipe

Pie Crust

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
4 tablespoons

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Then add the butter cut into cubes and gently mix everything with your fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir in the water, one tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. It has to be slightly sticky. If the dough is dry, add one teaspoon of cold water and a second one if needed. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

On a floured surface, roll the dough out to fit a 9-inch pie plate. Place the crust in a pie plate and press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Make some little holes in the crust, with a fork from place to place.

Filing

1 Striped Spaghetti pumpkin
2 tablespoons of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 teaspoon of rum essence
250 gr mascarpone
1 egg
walnuts and raisins as much as you like

Cut the pumpkin in half and put it in the oven to cook for 50 minutes facing down at 230 °C. After it is cooked, peel the pulp with a fork, so you get thin strips like spaghetti. If they are too watery, squeeze the water out of them. In a pan, put the butter and the pulp and cook for 5 minutes while steering regularly, until browned.

Let the composition cool down for 15 minutes and after mix with mascarpone, egg, vanilla, rum, walnuts and raisins until all combine. Pour the composition on top of the crust and insert in the oven for 50 minutes, at 220 °C until the crust is brownish. Let the pie cool down for 1 hour. Enjoy.

If you want to try new recipes check out these two delicious and healthy recipes: no-bake Matcha Cake or our favourite Chia seeds recipes for kids and adults.

Bottom Line

For us, locally sourced food improved the quality of our lives in many ways. We have better health, new friendships, more fun. We offered Arun new learning and exploration opportunities, we have a feeling of connection with the community and much more.

Another beautiful aspect that I forget to mention above is that you can start developing new and beautiful relationships by making a habit of buying from local businesses. It is possible to build even friendships over time, making you feel more connected with the community, kinder and happier.

Christian and I discovered a local cafe almost three years ago, La Vie, which has delicious coffee and beautiful jazz music. Since then, we went regularly and developed such an incredible bond with the owner. This made us feel more connected with the city and the culture, we supported the local business, and on top of it we also made new friends.

I hope I gave you plenty of reasons to start looking in your community for new producers, use more sustainable products and support the local economy. Locally sourced food can be your first step. Nowadays, almost everyone has a website or a page on social media so you can start looking for them there.

Love yourself,

Adventures / October 7, 2020

Wild mushrooms, forest & love captured in photos

Wild mushrooms are one of my biggest passions. Ever since I can remember, I had an affinity for mushrooms. My first memories are with my father and me searching for mushrooms in the park near our house. I remember perfectly my feet getting wet from walking through the high grass, the smell of damp earth, the coolness and freshness of the air and the immense joy I felt every time I found a mushroom.

Some things can be so profound when you are little that it is impossible ever to forget them. Over the years, I have often come across wild mushrooms, and the contexts were as diverse as they are magical. I will write in a future blog post some of my magic moments and discoveries.

I and these little beings have a long history together. So I can say that until now, mushrooms are my friends, my healers, my guides and my biggest teachers. Besides learning so much from them, I discovered in my researches how powerful and vital are for us, thus the planet (see my blog post “Mushrooms can save our planet”).

Year after year, I get more and more mesmerised by the powers and properties I discover in these little creatures. Their beauty, fragility and delicacy inspired me in so many ways over the years that I can’t even describe. Our latest interaction was a few days ago when I went with Christian and Arun to the forest to take a walk, and we ended up with a basket with wild mushrooms and lots of pictures.

Words can never describe precisely all that a picture captures, so I will better let you see and enjoy.