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Another common activity in the autumn is to scour the woods around Girona for mushrooms. Everyone has their favourite, and normally secret, places where they go back every year. The old country types say it takes about two weeks after rain for mushrooms to start appearing, so with that in mind and since the weather is perfect during the day, I set off with a friend to explore.
We found lots of different varieties, big and small, edible and poisonous but not really the ones we were looking for. The "rovellons" and "pinyatells" as well as "ceps" and "trompetes de la mort" are the most desirable but also hardest to find when half the population is out looking for the same ones.
When we had walked for a couple hours and were getting hungry we called it a day and made an omlette with a mixture of the best ones with olive oil, garlic and rosemary, a hunk of bread and all washed down with a good rustic wine. Now that's what I call a good mornings work!

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This years harvest has been delayed several weeks here in Vilamaniscle in the foothills of the Albera natural park because of rain or cloud which has meant the grapes could not ripen completely. The garnatxa grapes were harvested last week and now is the turn of the syrah with the cabernet coming last. The quantities collected have generally been less than last year but the quality is still excellent and it should be a great vintage, at least in the Alt Emporda. Having said that a few weeks ago most of the soft fruit (apples and pears) and a few vines were completely wiped out by a freak hail storm slightly further south around Mollet and Sant Climent so those that survived are very happy to be producing anything at all this year!