Mushroom foraging

I repeat: All mushrooms are edible, but some only once.

Took the dog for a walk last night picked some small field mushrooms, but someone had got there before me and kicked all of the big ones, including one that looked like is was a lovely 6- 7"er . Twats.

Bastards.
Field mushroom, fried in butter in a bacon sandwich.

Utter, utter heaven.

Does anyone grow their own, by the way?

I grew magic mushrooms while at uni, easy.

My parents tried this mushroom kit (not magic ones) that involved drilling holes into logs, putting spores in logs, sealing holes with hot wax and the leaving for 6 months. No results.

out in epping forest yesterday had a butchers for all manner of mushies
a few fly agarics and few that looked very close to maggies but nothing worth bagging and taking home ?
did get a bag full of sweet chestnuts though loads around for the professional forrager currently

We get chestnuts only sparingly up here in the dark North, and they come a bit later.
Can't wait.

last find of the year?inkcap heaven

Nice! I never bother with them if other musrooms are about as they dissolve too fast for my liking. I haven't seen any mushrooms for ages now.

Colleague at work brought in some nice parasols from near where he lives in Kent yesterday. Mild weather's encouraged them to appear I think, must be the last.

I found a lone parasol yesterday too.

Some lovely Blewits on Saturday on Hampstead Heath. Tonnes of them about but a few were a bit maggoty.

I was down in sussex towards the start of the reason and picked 20 kilos of beautiful ceps!

I was down in sussex towards the start of the reason and picked 20 kilos of beautiful ceps!

Nice! Where abouts like? And which varieties?

they were all the proper boletus edulis. We found them all around petworth.

surely you're not supposed to take 20kg for yourself? I'm all for foraging, but y'know, animals like 'shrooms too...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/24/wild-mushroom-foraging-hurts-forests

Ahh but they were picked from private land with the land owners permission!

An early start to the season!
Found a lone morel outside a students house and then a day later, 100m down the road picked up a whole load(In the dark, trying to tell the difference between morels and dog shit!

happy days in Poland! gonna be a long wait before we get any mycological action here

Was just in Poland. Didn't see any mushies down south.

Did eat some pickled 'King of the Forest' mushrooms picked last year at gf's grandpa's place. Noice.

There should be some mushrooms about - morels, st georges.
I never think it is worth foraging for them though, unless you know where to look as there are not many other mushrooms about in the spring. I just lucked out that I found these.

Quite a classic location for morels too - wood chip border lined with stones and gravel. The stones act as the non nutritious boundary that triggers the mycelium to produce sclerotica, which then in turn produce mushrooms.

I'm guessing that the king of the forest is the penny bun(Everyone seems to have different names for it!), I really have to learn the polish method of pickling them as they come out really nicely.

Are you in the UK Nicky? Enjoy those buggers - they had them in the market in Brussels last week for something crazy like 150 euro/kg. Whatcha gonna cook?

Poland ^

Haven't decided yet. I was going to use them to top off some pork tenderloins but my other half has other plans for dinner today and claims that morels don't trump her preparation, no matter how much I whine!
I'll probably dry them to use in a couple of weeks - I'll get the chance to go back to see if any more grow.

Never seen morels in the wild. Nice photos, Nicky.

An early start to the season!

Wut? 19/6?

Magpie fungus, season, according to the book, "late summer to autumn".

Not edible, but better keep our eyes peeled.