Kitchen Garden Forum

Does anyone else forage for fungi? After spending the last couple of weeks or so foraging, freezing and drying (and eating, of course!), just wondered what others do with their mushrooms.

My dad was a degree qualified botanist and used to take me mushrooming as a child.

Sadly I never managed to pick up enough knowledge to be confident of not poisoning myself nowadays.

Remember blewits, wood parasol, puffball.

I am no expert but of what I have learnt you won't kill yourself as long as you can recognise and avoid the death cap . Others may upset you but are not lethal. The varieties of field mushroom are easily recognised by a combination of sight especially dark 'gills', an almost pure white outer, the characteristic smell and peel readily. Puffballs are reputed to be totally safe but only usable for a very short time.If in doubt, leave it.
Allan

Hi Angi,
I am lucky that I have a friend who is exceedingly knowledgable about Mushrooms and yesterday I noticed some growing under one of the Yew trees. I picked a sample and hot footed over to his place. He gave me the OK and said I would enjoy them.
They were the tastiest Mushrooms that I have ever had.
They were very dark and I had M on toast for lunch and made a couple of batches of soup for the freezer
leaving enough for soup for my supper tonight.
Made soup with Chicken stock plus a small onion and
quite a lot of Celery. The soup looks very uninviting but the taste out of this world.
I eat quite a few different mushrooms throughout the year and this year has been a bumper year.
Every now and then my friend brings me a "Forest Selection" with anything up to 10 different types and cooked together they are super.
JB.

We don't have to go far for mushrooms at this time of the year - just into our neighbours fields, armed with a book for identifying them.

The taste is so good it always makes me wonder whether it's worth growing some in logs, but everything I read or hear about that suggests it's a waste of investment. Can anybody persuade me otherwise?

Well i count myself as a bit of a country boy, but i'm still not very good at knowing many of the different fungi you can eat.
I normally try them out on the other half first, thats probably why i'm on my seventh wife.
Only joking.

I was told as a child that edible mushrooms have dark gills and when cut the flesh turns pinkish when wet. Any fungi with white gills should always be avoided.

I've picked masses over the years, followed the rule and never been ill. Oh, puffball is an obvious exception to this rule, but the shape is a giveaway.

Am I right; or just very lucky?

Although I have a book and have confirmed that the bracket fungus growing in my garden is edible, I've not yet eaten any; I think the acid yellow colour is putting me off.

Hi Chantal,
If your Bracket Fungus is anything like the one that hit my favourite Plum Tree a while back it was so hard it would take a month to cook it. But it eventually killed the tree. I grafted some onto a Damson sapling until I could get the right rootstock.
I now have several on the right rootstock but the Plum/Damson now produces wonderful Plums so I don't know why I bothered.
Last year my friend, who is a Master Forester, and gets about all over the country on forestry matters brought home from Scotland the largest Puff Ball he had ever seen and I had half and he the same. It was so large the slice through the middle was too large to go into the pan and it had to be cooked in sections the customary Bacon had to be grilled as no room available. It tasted wonderful.
JB.

Blimey! It takes me forever to post something, and then I go away and don't reply. We have a very knowledgable friend who used to take us out mushrooming years ago and we learnt most of what we know from him. We've been picking loads of ceps (porcini when you buy them at the supermarket), which are delicious in a risotto and dry very well at home. Another favourite at the moment is Horn of Plenty. They look like dingy old leaves but taste wonderful. The rule about gill colour is not strictly true, as quite a few poisonous mushrooms may have dark gills and quite a few edibles have very pale coloured gills. The Death Cap is not the only deadly fungus, although the dangers are, perhaps wisely, overrated. I read recently that a good rule for beginners is to only pick mushrooms without gills as the worst you'll do is give yourself an upset stomach.

I saw loads of wild mushrooms whilst on holiday in Scotland last month but didn't pick any for fear of certain death! We took some photo's but are PC less at the mo so haven't been able to compare them either

I have a couple of books on the subject and would LOVE to go on a mushroom forage with an expert - does anybody know how I would go about doing this please?

I buy dried porcini at the mo for risotto's and soups and have a mushroom fanatic in Frank the cat so a basket of wild ones would definitely go down a storm in our house!
Thank you!

If you search for fungus foray you should come up with something in your area, failing that try the British Mycological Society and that will have a list of them.

Thanks Angi I will have a surf on t'net later!