Jerez de los Caballeros

I went wild mushroom picking in Extremadura this weekend (the western part of Spain, 4 hours from Malaga by car, 6-7 by bus)!!!

I was there visiting one of my best friends in the world and we drove to the wilderness with cute little baskets and looked for wild mushrooms to take home and eat (I don't like them, but it was fun picking them). I NEVER in my life would think that I would spend hours in a forest looking for and collecting mushrooms, but that I did and it was amazing! I mean, it's not something I'd like to do everyday, I'm not much of a nature person, BUT it was a great experience!

You need to have some special skills to know which ones are edible and which ones aren't OR grow up in the country of course. A city girl like me, coming from one of the biggest cities in the world, New York, I was like, what the heck, they all look the same!!???????? I didn't have any idea what's good and what wasn't. BUT I learned quite a lot along the journey.

Here's some documentation:

This one isn't edible, you can tell by the shape and the color:
This one is edible, the color is duller, but beautiful!:
So as we were wandering around looking for mushrooms (and asparagus) we found the most perfect tree in the world, that's only in fairy tales, and we decided to CLIMB THE TREE! We are young at heart, and there's no better place to get it all out than in the middle of the forest with no one watching!

Here's more pictures of beautiful Jerez de los Caballeros and my weekend there...

Beautiful and delicious home cooked meal SOME PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO WORK IT!:
Low lying clouds on the fields of Jerez on a lazy Sunday morning:
a magnificent night with my BFF keeping warm by the fire:
Whatcha think, I can't keep the fire going? I AM A SAGITTARIUS I GOT TONS OF FIRE TO KEEP BURNING, haha:
The city wall:
I made a friend with a dog (as always) I think I need one in my life!:
Extremadura, Jerez de los Caballeros November, 2009. More to come baby! Happy and safe Mushroom hunting everyone!