Mushrooms!

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661-Pete
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by 661-Pete »

Time to 'bump' the thread for another year, methinks: the season is well upon us. Here is this morning's catch, from the woodlands south of Crawley.
Mushrooms 2-9-15.jpg

This amounted to just over 1 Kg after cleaning and trimming. We had some for lunch, and the rest will go in an au gratin tomorrow. Yummy!
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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al_yrpal
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by al_yrpal »

Yup… mushroom rissoto this evening and fried lemon chicken breasts with capers.

Good old Waitrose. :D

Al
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TrekMad
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by TrekMad »

The mushroom season is fervently kicking off around here , ad well as brambles, apples and free plums ;)
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simonineaston
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by simonineaston »

al_yrpal wrote:I have seen loads recently but am frightened to pick them in case they are poisonous.

A doctor chum told me of an early experience, while still at med. school, dealing with a chap who ate poisonous fungi, which has put me off eating any 'mushroom' of unknown origin... :shock: except a couple of years ago when a French neighbour, an experienced woodsman, brought round a basket of freshly picked mushrooms, about this time of year, which we cooked for breakfast in an omlette - NomNomNom, as they say, these days - it was scrummy!
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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661-Pete
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by 661-Pete »

Let's divert the Tea Shop debate from these dreary political subjects, just for a moment, and may I be forgiven for 'bumping' my thread, to proudly announce the pickings of yesterday's foray into the local woods:
mushrooms 23-11-15.jpg

There's about 2½ kilos here, mostly 'hedgehog' fungi (Hydnum repandum - charmingly called in French pied-de-mouton) which are excellent cooking. We could have had lots more but my basket was getting heavy to carry! Anyway, the amount is about as much the voluntary limit for mushroom foraging which one ought to observe (e.g. 1½ kilos per person as prescribed in the New Forest by-laws, and similar).

We were pleased! We weren't expecting much when we set out. These fungi look scruffy and irregular, and covered with bits of leaf-mould, but once cleaned up, trimmed and sliced, fried in butter and then stewed in their own juice for 15-20 minutes, they are excellent in an omelette or seasoned and served up with, say, scrambled egg. :P

Anyway, we had about a third of these for lunch yesterday, another third are going in tonight's dinner, and the remainder went in the freezer (note: when freezing this kind of mushroom, cook them in butter before freezing).
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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Heltor Chasca
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by Heltor Chasca »

Brown birch bolete from an afternoon dog walk today. Great Friday night pizza topping

Image

Also seen: cuteness in the extreme: Butter Waxcaps

Image
MikeF
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by MikeF »

661-Pete wrote:Picked these in Ashdown Forest this morning...
Er In? Ashdown Forest. You mean On Ashdown Forest. :wink: At least you weren't in The Ashdown Forest :x
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MikeF
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by MikeF »

Excellent photo. Waxcaps are found in old grassland, and both are becoming increasingly rare. Hope you didn't pick any.
Last edited by Graham on 6 Nov 2015, 1:30pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: QUote bloat
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
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Heltor Chasca
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by Heltor Chasca »

MikeF wrote:
Heltor Chasca wrote:Brown birch bolete from an afternoon dog walk today. Great Friday night pizza topping

Also seen: cuteness in the extreme: Butter Waxcaps

Image


Excellent photo. Waxcaps are found in old grassland, and both are becoming increasingly rare. Hope you didn't pick any.


Thank you. Taken with an old phone. This isn't old grassland, it's just unimproved. (An old slag heap or colloquially a 'batch') It hosts some spectacular species of flora and fauna. I'm pretty keen and active as far as conservation goes and besides these little beauties are only just big enough to feed a colony of fairy folk.
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kylecycler
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by kylecycler »

Heltor Chasca wrote:Brown birch bolete from an afternoon dog walk today. Great Friday night pizza topping

Image

Birch boletes are the most common mushrooms in the woods up here in South Ayrshire, at least around where I live. Kind of subtle flavour, nothing like as strong as Boletus Edulis (aka Penny Bun / Cep / Porcini), but you miss it in a meal if it's not there. A couple years ago I was putting it in everything but I've only found one this year, a big one growing under a young birch - it's been the worst year for mushrooms ever.

It has hardly rained at all this autumn, though - we had the first rain in ages just this week, so that might explain it, and they might just be late. Ink caps are common too, but again I've only found one, early this week. Sometimes also shaggy ink caps, although I know not to eat these with alcohol!

There was a fir tree at the local agricultural college which had about twenty dinner plate size shaggy parasol mushrooms growing under it, right up to Christmas a few years ago, but I've never been able to find it again. The tree is probably still there, just not the mushrooms - it's a fascinating if somewhat frustrating subject.
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Heltor Chasca
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Mushrooms!

Post by Heltor Chasca »

The shaggy ink cap and alcohol mix only affects some people. I'm not one of them. [emoji12] The younger fruiting bodies are just more visually palatable without the oozing black spores (if there's such a thing - Green eggs & Ham syndrome) I also like the stems of this 'shroom. That said, the usual sense and sensibility counts for a lot. I have a client who ate a basket full of Orange Bolete and the bottom fell out of her world...No wait...Did I get that the right way round?
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kylecycler
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by kylecycler »

Heltor Chasca wrote:I have a client who ate a basket full of Orange Bolete and the bottom fell out of her world...No wait...Did I get that the right way round?

Never had that problem myself - yet! :lol:

Plenty of Fly Agaric up here too, most years, but again not this year. I've always been tempted, so one of these days... Well, maybe. :wink:
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Heltor Chasca
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Mushrooms!

Post by Heltor Chasca »

kylecycler wrote:
Heltor Chasca wrote:I have a client who ate a basket full of Orange Bolete and the bottom fell out of her world...No wait...Did I get that the right way round?

Never had that problem myself - yet! :lol:

Plenty of Fly Agaric up here too, most years, but again not this year. I've always been tempted, so one of these days... Well, maybe. :wink:


Soaked in a saucer of milk and left on the ground, fly agaric makes a decent fly poison/trap. Personally I don't think it's safe. Stoned hedgehogs are a genuine health and safety nightmare.

(Seriously though: If you are going to do this, do it so wild and domestic fauna can't get to the milk) What you do is up to you. I would like to read the poetry and see the paintings afterwards though...b
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661-Pete
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by 661-Pete »

Just a minor point of information. It is not the Shaggy Ink Cap (Coprinus comatus) which goes badly with alcohol, but the smaller and less common C. atramentarius - rather inaptly named 'Common Ink Cap', which is also edible (without alcohol) but not really recommended: it is far less palatable. Since I very rarely drink I haven't put it to the test! But the former is safe with alcohol (provided you don't drink too much :wink: )!

C. comatus should only be eaten when it is white throughout, before the gills have started to turn black.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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kylecycler
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Re: Mushrooms!

Post by kylecycler »

661-Pete wrote:Just a minor point of information. It is not the Shaggy Ink Cap (Coprinus comatus) which goes badly with alcohol, but the smaller and less common C. atramentarius - rather inaptly named 'Common Ink Cap', which is also edible (without alcohol) but not really recommended: it is far less palatable. Since I very rarely drink I haven't put it to the test! But the former is safe with alcohol (provided you don't drink too much :wink: )!

C. comatus should only be eaten when it is white throughout, before the gills have started to turn black.

Sorry, Pete, I got mixed up (and I wasn't drunk!). I meant the common ink cap - they're smaller, and brown. There's a beautiful gatehouse by a stately home close to where I live where common ink caps grow on the grass outside, but they were only there one year and haven't reappeared since - that's one of the 'fascinating but frustrating' things about mushrooms. Shaggy ink caps are much more common up here, but like I said I've only seen one this year so far and they're usually everywhere.

Heltor Chasca wrote:Soaked in a saucer of milk and left on the ground, fly agaric makes a decent fly poison/trap. Personally I don't think it's safe. Stoned hedgehogs are a genuine health and safety nightmare.

(Seriously though: If you are going to do this, do it so wild and domestic fauna can't get to the milk) What you do is up to you. I would like to read the poetry and see the paintings afterwards though...b

If I appear to be persistently addressing fellow forum members as "man" (whether they are or not) and inquiring after their welfare, as in "Y'awright, man?" you'll know why... :D

Actually, seriously, it probably frustrates you and me and the rest of the folk who've posted on this thread that when you enthuse about mushrooms to people, all you ever get is either remarks about magic/hallucinatory mushrooms or *sucks in through teeth* "I wouldn't take a chance on that..."

Or even, worse still, "Why pick something in the wild when you can buy it in a supermarket?" Which is like, why ride a bicycle when you can drive a car? :roll:
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