Mushrooms!

[rjb]

Just got back from a walk and discovered the village cricket pitch (only 100 yards from home) is covered in mushrooms. They look like field mushrooms so picked a plateful for my tea.
If I don't post again on this forum you will know to avoid them in the future.

village cricket pitch haul

[Mick F]

Yum!

They need some eggs with them and perhaps some cheese.
Cheese and mushroom omelette!

[simonineaston]

You be careful, now...

[661-Pete]

It's OK, they look like Field Mushrooms to me....
(*hurriedly goes off to check rogersmushrooms.com site*)
errrmmmm.... rjb .... you have made a will haven't you....

[simonineaston]

a French acquaintance (a keen forager of all things wild, be they furry, scaly or as in this case, fungal) has presented me and chums with baskets of mushrooms on occasion. One of the chums trained as a doctor. His muttered descriptions of death-by-not-mushroom have often put the fear of God into me, but, so far, the French gifts have proved non-lethal...
I so wouldn't trust my own judgement, though. As far as Death Caps go, one nibble and you're nobbled, to steal a phrase!
Avenging Angel - there's another fungus with a Great Name!

[661-Pete]

Avenging Angel - there's another fungus with a Great Name!

It's usually called 'Destroying Angel' but I know the one you mean. Not very common in UK but here's one I snapped in France a few years ago.

Do not touch!!

Actually, I find mushroom-hunting in France is a bit of a non-runner. The locals are a bit too canny for us, they know all the best spots and clear them out long before we get to them! We have some very generous neighbours in France, they present us with lots of stuff, but we have yet to receive any champignons from them. Ah well, maybe one day...

And all too often, in our part of France, if you come to an inviting-looking bit of woodland, there'll be a sign nailed to a tree saying "CUILLETTE DE CHAMPIGNONS INTERDITE" ("mushroom picking prohibited"). I don't know how rigidly such signs are enforced (possibly they're there mainly to safeguard the truffle harvest), but I don't fancy confronting an angry French farmer with a shotgun!

In a good year there do seem to be plenty of mushrooms where no-one can get at them - on the verge beside the autoroute. Frustrating!

And the supermarkets are full of fresh cèpes and girolles - collected from the wild .

So the only edible mushrooms we've actually picked in France, have been a few from our own garden.

At least in the UK you can usually get a run for your money. Although interest in wild mushrooms has - well - mushroomed over the years, and there are fewer to go round. A few years ago, I wouldn't have started a thread like this, I've long been rather coy and wished to keep this bit of knowledge to myself. It's different from cycling, where the mantra is, the more of us doing it, the better! But as the years pass and I get older, I feel more in the mood to share...

[rjb]

Phew! well I am still here. Mrs rjb doing a chicken curry for tea so I have just picked another handful to add a bit of flavour. Still plenty there, every white dot is a mushroom and there must be thousands there, but now the crows are taking a keen interest in them. You still have time to pick them so here's the details, North Curry cricket pitch, approx. 7 miles from Taunton, Somerset - and BTW there is an excellent small community tea shop come café in the village open every day except Mondays. Not seen anyone else pick them, I suppose they might not be willing to take the risk especially after this local incident
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-22470470

This is how it looked 10 mins ago

North Curry, Somerset, Cricket Pitch and pavilion.

[Audax67]

We used to pick mushrooms regularly, years ago, mostly the boletus family, but with parasols the real favourite. Parasols (Lepiota procera if I remember rightly) are wonderful sautéed in cream and served up with good chips and an entrecôte.

[fatty]

does any one now what these are and are they edible ???


Fatty

[iviehoff]

We used to pick mushrooms regularly, years ago, mostly the boletus family, but with parasols the real favourite. Parasols (Lepiota procera if I remember rightly) are wonderful sautéed in cream and served up with good chips and an entrecôte.

Parasols are very good but can be wormy, so require careful examination. My Czech relatives egg and breadcrumb them. We usually find quite a lot while on holiday in August in Czechland, but didn't find any this year. They also eat a lot of blushers (Amanita rubescens), which aren't quite as good, and I wouldn't be quite confident about distinguishing from the deadly poisonous cousins.

Giant puffball is excellent, and slices in egg and breadcrumbs is the classic way of doing those. Such a shame when you find one and previous passers-by have treated it like a football.

We haven't had much rain recently in our area, so not much out. But I think there are too many people who know what they are looking for in our area being fairly close to London with lots of Poles in the area. I was in Nottinghamshire at the weekend, and Sussex the previous weekend, and in each case the few fungus we saw were all well past their best, so it looks like there was some production earlier in the season and further rain is needed for the next flush.

[661-Pete]

Well, just got back from a couple of weeks in France (sans internet) and no doubt they're in the middle of a mushroom bonanza - but we didn't get to sample much of it! Either you fork out lots of Euros in the supermarché (anything from 15 to 24 Euros per kilo for fresh cèpes - which may be wormy) - or you get up at some unearthly hour and trespass crazily, the only way to beat the Frenchman at his own game! On our rambles we bagged a total of four partially slug-eaten cèpes and a few pieds-de-mouton - about a couple of spoonsful each. Plenty of 'do not touch' specimens around, though, including the much-feared and rare Boletus satanas.

Anyway, hope there are still a few left for us back here in Blighty - at least the uninitiated Brits are not quite so canny....

[661-Pete]

They also eat a lot of blushers (Amanita rubescens), which aren't quite as good, and I wouldn't be quite confident about distinguishing from the deadly poisonous cousins.

Braver than me! I wouldn't dare touch the Blusher, despite the fact that it is undoubtedly one of the commonest toadstools: Amanitas are most definitely off the menu and anyway the Blusher is poisonous until properly cooked.

Another extremely common fungus, known as Paxillus, was long regarded as edible if cooked but is now listed as dangerously poisonous. Perhaps the fact that an eminent mycologist of bygone years actually poisoned himself (fatally) by eating these mushrooms, may have something to do with it! All goes to show, the world of mushroom-eating is full of nasty surprises. But as long as you stick to the really well-known species, and are absolutely sure of their ID, you can be 100% safe.....

(*famous last words*)

[ferrit worrier]

Now these are Mushrooms.

yummy, sliced up, in the pan with Chicken, onions and peppers. fajita sauce, and tortilla wraps.

[rjb]

Just picked a few early ones from the cricket pitch again - (during the tea interval), they are very early this year - it was the end of September last year when i picked them

[skicat]

Now these are Mushrooms.

IMG_0369.JPG

yummy, sliced up, in the pan with Chicken, onions and peppers. fajita sauce, and tortilla wraps.

Reminds me of when I stayed in a B&B in Devon a few years ago. At breakfast the owner was taking the order and asked if I'd like a mushroom with the cooked option. I said yes, thinking "A" mushroom was a bit mean. It was about 7" across when it arrived