No luck with Mushrooms down here!. What about you?.

[mrs potato head]

I've normally got jars of drield one by now, and a reliable source when i want to go gathering.
All i've seen this year is one lonely looking Shaggy Ink Cap.
I'm in South Devon like everywhere its been a mixed bag weatherwise - but surley we going to get some lovley s'rooms to pick before it's to late.
How are you doing?

[Rosemary]

I have never picked wild mushrooms. I would be frightened of poisoning everyone! Where do you normally find them growing Mrs Potato Head?

[mrs potato head]

Hello Rosemary,

You shouldn't be scared to try, Their are some excellent books around to use for Id purposes. Good ones even show you how to use Spore prints has well as photos.
S'romms can be found virtually everywhere Grazing pastures are good for Puffball, Chestnuts, field parasols etc.
Woodland for waxier types like Blewitts and ceps.

If you do ever gather always leave about half the amount you fins - spores will then drop to encourage more growth.
Its worth giving a go cause most the s'rooms on the supermarket/grocers shelf are tastless in comparison.
Go on give it a go!!!
Where abouts are you anyway. I'm in S Devon and the Wildlife Trust down here do lots of guided walk this time of year. Your area might be the same.

Carry on enjoying the wild harvest
Leisa

[Autumn]

I used to go looking for mushrooms many years ago. I still have a good mushroom book. If I see a field mushroom (the common one you get in supermarket) in the field, I do take it home for eating but these days I don't specifically set out to find them partly because I've forgotten when mushroom growing season is. Is it about now?

I've tried other wild mushrooms but I didn't find them as tasty as the common mushroom except for chanterelle which is very tasty. Last year there were loads and loads of puffball where the horses are kept in a farm we know of. They looked like white footballs scattered on the field. Tastewise, I didn't like it enough to want to eat it, I think it was the texture that felt strange.

[Lesley Jay]

I have just discovered this site which will help with identification but be certain about the mushroom's ID before you eat them!

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/

[honda boy]

Originally Posted by Rosemary

I have never picked wild mushrooms. I would be frightened of poisoning everyone! Where do you normally find them growing Mrs Potato Head?

one rule of thumb is if you can peel it you can eat it

[cajary]

NO! NO! There is no "rule of thumb" guide here. Some Fungi can kill. Get the book "Mushrooms" by Roger Phillips. When you think you know what you're looking at, go on an Autumn tour with someone who knows what they're looking for. I regularly pick wild Fungi and eat them but identification ( in the open) can be difficult. Quite interesting, really. If you're in France. You can go to any Chemist and find out if a Fungi is poisonous. Over here, they haven't got the faintest idea. Please be careful of what you eat.

[uglygourd]

My dad used to take me mushrooming from when I was a toddler so I learnt at his knee!!! but years later when I was walking with my kids I went to a field dad never took me and we found hundreds we took our coats of and used them to carry our bounty home . When we got home I showed my dad he quizzed where I found them it turn out he never took me to that field because when he was a kid some man pick some and they killed him because they were poisonious yet they looked just like field mushrooms but a slight yellow tinge around the very edge so please be careful

[cajary]

Hi ug. Sounds like a "Yellow Stainer". I almost made the same mistake.

[runnerbean]

Grow your own, better safe than sorry!

[cajary]

Hi, rb. Absolutely correct, of course. But you can't grow the varieties that grow in the wild. They all have a different flavour. I've never seen "Chicken in the woods", Bluewit etc on sale as spores.

[mrs potato head]

A good book for ID purposes is printed by Collins and is called 'how to identify ediible mushrooms' compiled by Patrick Harding, Tony Lyon and Gill Tomblin.

A few more have started popping up down here at last, a couple of good frosts have helped.

What do you all think of the spore pegs advertised in all the catalouges?

[Lesley Jay]

When you say 'spore pegs' Mrs PH, do you mean those pegs that you put into tree logs? If you do, then having read what type of wood you can and can't use, how old it must be etc. and hearing that other people have had no luck, it puts me off buying them, but I love mushrooms!

[cajary]

Back to the original question. No. There's nothing about. Absolute rubbish!!
Not even a "Fly Agaric". If Global Warming is stopping me collecting Mushrooms, then I'm against it

[mrs potato head]

Originally Posted by Lesley Jay

When you say 'spore pegs' Mrs PH, do you mean those pegs that you put into tree logs? If you do, then having read what type of wood you can and can't use, how old it must be etc. and hearing that other people have had no luck, it puts me off buying them, but I love mushrooms!

Yes thats what i mean.
They are fairly pricey to even think about a decent size crop.

[HomeWork]

Last year was the first that I seriously started mushroom hunting. Joined a local fungus(!) group and they were a great help in identifying whats good and bad.

I think it was an exceptional year and I found lots of edible types. However, this year has been very poor. Returning to the same sites as last year I found nothing
Must be some combination of the weather. I did find Chicken in the Wood but when I cooked it the taste was very tangy and woody - not good at all. Either it was too old or was tainted in some way.

[cajary]

Hi, HW. You have to soak "Chicken in the Wood for 24hrs. before you eat it. Having said that, the name implies the texture, not the Flavour!!

[Nicos]

I've just come back from northern France and the locals said this has been a poor year for wild mushrooms due to lack of rain this Autumn.
For the past few years we have spent a week in northern Italy munching our way through bucket loads of cepes/porcini mushrooms.
I'm beginning to get withdrawal symptoms now

[Lesley Jay]

Porcini's are the ones that get maggots in them - aren't they Nicos??

[Nicos]

Wouldn't know LJ- they were scoffed too quickly!!!!!

Actually we have only found 2 and they were fine.
The rest were shop bought ( better to be able to sue someone if one of us eats a poisonous one in error!!!)