Monday 22 October 2007

Countdown to Hugh's Mushroom Foraging

Cowie and I practiced our mushroom foraging technique a couple of weeks ago in Somerset in preaparation for our trip to see John Wright at River Cottage HQ tomorrow!
Next to Cowie's stable (for her horses not her) was a beautiful patch of what I think are Shaggy Ink Caps. Cowie's Mum says they pop up every year. What a sight. I wish I was brave enough to pick a few and see what they taste like.







Inspired by finding a whole family of mushrooms on Cowie's doorstep we trekked off to Alfred's Tower to search through the woods. We had done the same thing the previous year and had come back with a carrier bag stuffed full of different types of funghi - far too many to even contemplate identifying. There seemed to be more mushrooms than grass! This time, however, we only just managed to cover the bottom of our Morrison's carrier bag! A few armour plated puffballs and woody fughi clinging to logs were all that we could find. I guess it has been pretty dry recently and harly conducive to mushroom blooms. Let's hope that tomorrow we will be overwhelmed by mushroom fever and find tonnes!













If anyone can help to identify any of the above please add your thoughts in the comments section... Thanks!

2 comments:

sara said...

the last one looks like a puffball...

Farmer de Ville said...

First bunch looks like something in the Shaggy Mane or Inky Cap vein. I think the genus is Coprinus...

Some are edible and delicious, others not so good.

My advice is to find a good local guidebook, some like minded souls who are into such things, and get some edible wild mushrooms onto your dinner plate...

Farmer
Silverton, Oregon

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