A fine selection of mushrooms

First off - DO NOT USE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS TO IDENTIFY MUSHROOMS THAT YOU FIND - ask someone who knows, however we thought the following tale of poverty food might amuse.

This year the finances have been a bit up and down (change of government purdah in the UK among my clients, swingeing social charges for John in this country), so we have tried to make the most of the natural food around us and the bounty in the areas that we look after.  It was a good year for plums so we are distilling (a story for another day when I know how legal that is).  It was a good year for quince so we jellied a load, we made juice with a load, we sold a load, and we gave away loads as well.  Round here, sharing surplus produce is an accepted thing and when you give away one load of things, you sometimes find you get given other things (we are almost back to the plums here - but for another day).

We have one couple we are friends with who are not afraid of hard work and know the best ways to make quince juice and quince paste, so when we had a spare 20 kilos starting to turn in the house, we thought of them.  We waited until we thought they were out then dropped off the vast bags of quince at their back door and ran away.  Somehow they knew it was us - the quantity of fruit may have been a give away - so next time Reynald went mushrooming (he is a formidable forager), he had us in mind.

He turned up with a big basket with four types of mushroom.  I didn't photograph one variety - partly because I forgot and partly because when you just look at them, they are similar to toxic varieties, but they were very tasty fried in butter and served on toast.  The other three varieties were coutrolle or parasol mushrooms, morille de sapin or cauliflower mushroom (rare in the UK, don't pick) and a big bag of field mushrooms.  See below:

 

 

 

Our neighbour, feckless Joel, was not to be outdone, and turned up later that day with a bag containing a dozen more parasol mushrooms and a pound of baby puffballs, which were very common this year.  The puffballs and the melange are shown below:

 

 

It took four days of intensive mushroom eating to deal with all of that, and we felt that a week or two off mushrooms might be the thing, however just 10 days later, Reynald was back as he was in the doghouse with his good lady wife.  He had been to his secret place and had hit a motherload of cepes (Pennybuns), and picked 57 before he remembered he had to collect the wife from work.  He was a bit disappointed when he proudly showed off his booty, only to be smacked round the head as it wasn't him who was going to have to prepare all of this, and Yvette had had a hard day at work already.  It worked to my advantage as he was sent round with a big bag, and I had time to eat a load, freeze a load, make soup, and still have enough to take a couple to my Mum's as well.  Aren't they lovely?

 

But what about the One Acre Wood?  About four years ago, we got raided by a bunch of travellers who cleaned out all the edible mushrooms from our wood to sell them at the local market, and did so in such an irresponsible manner that they killed the mycelium that used to produce fine cepes and pied de mouton.  The pied de mouton are starting to come back and there were a few puffballs and a parasol mushroom this year, but nothing more.  So, remember, if you do go mushrooming, there are a few rules:

• make sure you are not on private property - not all private property is clearly marked
• only take what you can eat - it is not legal to pick to sell unless you are licenced
• do not damage the mycelium
• if in doubt, leave alone, as Nature is having a tough enough time at the moment
• if in doubt, don't eat - ask someone who really knows, and ideally share with them to make sure they are really confident about what they are saying

Comments

[Anne Donald]

We often see mushrooms when we are out for walks in the autumn, but as I'm just not sure what is edible, I would rather do without than risk being ill (or worse!!) I envy you all those quince ..... we only have an ornamental quince, which only produced a handful last year!

[Jane]

I have a limited repertoire of mushrooms that I know I can identify, and one or two chums that I totally trust, but there are some mushrooms that even though people tell me they are fine, I cannot bring myself to consider!! Pictures alone are not enough for identification - habitat, timing, weather, smell, texture all play a part as well. However some of them are totally yummy so worth knowing about (parasol mushrooms and cepes in particular). Happy New Year Anne, by the way!