We normally allocate most of Jan & Feb going hiking, trying out new restaurants, visiting old friends and sitting in the Lodge cafe by the fire updating this website with all the new & exciting secret Green Places we found in the previous year.. and we have plenty of new ones from 2023 to do!

But autumn is so pretty currently in Green Slovenia, that we just had to give you a couple of bonus blogs right NOW to celebrate this beauty and this little story is all about the mushrooms and toadstools we found on a walk in the forest.

back at the Lodge the autumn colours are coming thru..

If you didn't know already, Green Slovenia is the third most forested country in Europe behind only Sweden and Finland.. (both with mainly Scandinavian forest trees), so Slovenia's Mediterranean, Alpine, Continental and Pannonian Plain forests pretty much cover most trees Europe can offer the dedicated tree hugger.

view from the forest to Nanos mountain..

There are really a lot of different types of trees around here and where you get a lot forest you get a lot of mushrooms too.. a lot!

Indeed, one of our most popular tips for guests going out to eat here at the local restaurants is to go for the mushroom soup if it is an option..

It stands to reason that the ingredients for mushroom soup will be freshly plucked by local experts from the local forests and we can honestly say we never seem to have the same type or taste of mushroom soup wherever we have eaten around here!

mushroom village..

You will often see the common sight around here on the numerous forest tracks that surround the Lodge of happy smiling local people, carrying a basket, but still looking a bit secretive, not wanting to reveal exactly where they have been today..

But with so much forest here, there must be plenty of mushrooms for everyone!

really pretty, but red is a warning!

Of course, you need to know exactly what you are picking and this is another reason for us to show you photos of all the types we found on our little walk.. Local people, foresters and hunters seem to be born with this knowledge!

A Slovenian October would normally be dry and even hot, but this year we got a week of warm wet weather.. On our daily hike from the Lodge into the local Green Karst forest we spotted that so many different types of Funghi had suddenly popped up, pretty much wherever we looked!

this mushroom was living in a tree in the penthouse!

So we decided to spend the last 30 mins of the walk taking a photo of every mushroom or toadstool we spotted.. none of them far from the forest path at all, to show you the variety!

We were shocked how many different types we saw and we were not sure at all which ones were toadstools, which ones safe, which ones not.. So if you do go mushroom picking instead of mushroom spotting, please consult carefully with a local expert!

this one was pretty big, a bit like a space antena dish..

Another common ingredient added to local Karst dishes is TRUFFLES and there are a lot of those here too!

We are very excited to soon go visit two Truffle Hunters in different locations, one in the Vipava valley and one in the nearby Coastal Hinterland, so we can check out 2 different Green Slovenian Truffle hunting experiences for guests! So watch out for that blog too!

this bee was collecting the last goodies of 2023..

In the meantime, here are the rest of the photos we took in JUST that 30 min window on our way back to the Lodge, hardly venturing off the paths at all!

Maybe you can name some or all of these?!

maybe chanterelles, maybe not..

And a final little joke should explain the title of this blog, (if you didn't get it before).. "which vegetable do you need to go chat with at a party.. a mushroom of course, cos he will be the FUN GUY at the party!!