The tale of the Bolete Edulis, or as it's affectionately known in Scandinavia, Karl Johan, is a curious one that intertwines history, culture, and a smattering of folklore.

This "king of mushrooms" used to commonly known as a lowly “rock shroom” before its French namesake, King Karl XIV Johan, took to the Swedish throne - and apparently spread the knowledge from the court to the peasants that edulis was edible. Quite a feat, considering that the Nordic people were once ‘mycophobic’—or put plainly, they were wary of mushrooms. In contrast, neighboring Baltic states had a rich tradition of mushroom foraging, making them ‘mycophilic’. One of the ways researchers determine if a culture of people are ‘mycophilic’ is how old their words for edible mushrooms are, and if they have a multitude of words for them. And in the case of the nordic boletes, we apparently have very few words. Mostly from latin, like the chantarellus. Which meant that when Karl Johan popularized the rock-shroom, even the danes he would defeat on the battlefield, ended up calling their edible boletes Karl Johan.

So, why did Scandinavians lose their foraging ways, requiring a French monarch to revive the mushroom scene? The answer may be hidden in pre-Christian beliefs and folklore that surround mushrooms in the Nordic culture.

For instance, traditional folklore viewed mushrooms as dangerous and devilish—likely due to their potential toxicity, or perhaps due to their connection to old norse religious practise. Tere are the eerie circles that certain mushroom mycelium create in grassy areas. Once thought to be the result of supernatural beings dancing in the night, these circles are often referred to as "heksering" or witch rings. In olden times, it was advised to steer clear of these circles, as crossing one would supposedly expose you to the wrath of witches and devils.

Speaking of witches, folklore suggests they used mushrooms to create "troldsmør," or troll's butter, to enact revenge on people by smearing it on door frames. Those would be what we now know as slime molds. This bewitched butter was believed to harm livestock and prevent the churning of butter from cream.
Even the seemingly harmless puffball had its dark side; its spores were thought to cause blindness if they entered the eyes. However, puffballs were also used as pincushions, as their nature prevented the rusting of needles.

In a landscape steeped in such rich and conflicting lore, it's no wonder the humble rock mushroom had to navigate a labyrinth of history and superstition to find its place in Nordic culture. But find it, it did—and today, it stands as a beloved staple in Scandinavian kitchens, a testimony to how cultures and tastes can evolve, even against the backdrop of deep-rooted traditions and beliefs.

The boletes in our woods are mostly edulis (the king of mushrooms, the porcini) which we know as a Karl Johan. And then there is the variant with the chestnut brown stem, badia (bay bolete) that blues slightly - Most scandinavians will call that one a Karl Johan as well- or simply call it a brown mushroom.

These mushroom thrives particularly well in mossy forest floors without too many fallen leaves. It can form a mycorrhizal relationship with various trees such as beech, oak, spruce, and other deciduous and coniferous trees. This makes it a versatile forest dweller that can appear in a wide variety of woodland areas. When we're out foraging for Karl Johan, we always keep an eye out for these conditions. It's almost like having a little treasure map in the back of our minds; follow the moss, avoid the leaf piles, and you might just strike gold—or in this case, a delicious, meaty mushroom.

And then there is the bolete that tastes like earwax, the tylopilus felleus, or the gall bolete, that often confuse novice Karl Johan hunters, and can be found left on the public benches near forests, after having been sorted from the novices basket by a more knowledgeable mushroom hunter. A very bitter mushroom, best left in the forest. And we don’t carry a picture of that one, since its not really edible due to its bitterness - so as to not confuse our readers stumbling in from google images. Unless it snuck into our picture collection of mushrooms stashes by accident, and then you can be sure that it at least didnt sneak into our dishes!

Lastly, we love the Dotted stem bolete, the psychedelic looking luridiformis that also pops up in our forests - but thats such a strange or rather interesting bolete it deserve its own page.