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I've always been interested in mushroom picking, but never been brave enough to start. Loads of them out at the moment makes it very tempting, Would link up very well with my cycling too 😉
Whats the best way to start learning about this?
Take along someone who you dislike and tell them to taste first.
Trial and error. Or get a book or look online: http://www.nifg.org.uk/edible_fungi.htm
I'm sure there are people about who if you ask nicely and look in the right places will take you out and you pick it up bit by bit
or buy a book
I just bought a little pocket sized book recently on 'wild food' - not used it yet though. There are courses you can go on as well.
In this book it has several criteria for identifying each mushroom, and if it doesn't fit ALL of them exactly then you don't eat them.
Stayed in a hostel in the cairngorms recently and there was some austrians staying there too - they came back one day with loads of delicious looking wild mushrooms they had picked in the woods.
trying to teach yourself which ones are safe to eat by using a book is not the greatest idea IMO. you're much better off trying to find out if there are any local 'experts' that run courses; i went on one a couple of years ago here in south manchester ran by a fella called jesper launder, and he runs courses regularly around the area. check em out here: http://www.jesperlaunder.com/
It's been an incredible year for fungi so a good time to start. My advice would be to focus on just one or two types of mushroom (for me that's the edible varieties of cep and chanterelle) because there are so many types out there you can't become an expert on them all. Get good at recognising one or two types and you can eat them with confidence (or dry them as per my post last night!).
Some things you can learn about the fungi you're after: types of tree and soil they prefer, other fungi that grow around them, time of year they come out etc.
There are some good books and websites about it (wildaboutbritain.co.uk I think). Pick the whole mushroom because even subtle details (like whether the gills extend down the stalk) are important and use all your senses, including smell. And be careful: look up what happened to the Horse Whisperer author Nicholas Evans for a cautionary tale!
find a mushroom, take a photo, eat a little bit - raw.
even the most deadly ones will only cause a little bit of liver/kidney failure...
and if you do end up freaking out in a bloody puddle of your own liquidised internal organs, you'll have a photo you can show the doctor.
Yep, a local Mycology group should be much better method to learn about fungi and shrooms.
Books are ok for a vague identity, some fungi are very distinguishable yet others are less so and could easily be mistaken.
Learn and enjoy.
corroded talks sense
This book is acknowledged as one of the best
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I've also started using this one
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Sticking to one or 2 types is a good way to get your eye in. I had a close shave with some field mushrooms a couple of weeks ago, when I thought I'd poisoned the whole family with [url= http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5503~gid~~source~gallerydefault.asp ]Yellow Stainers[/url] 😯
I'm sticking to chanterelles and the occasional cep for the rest of this
season.
Oh and a word of caution here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/02/2
If you're anywhere near the Peak District there are usually lots of organised trips at this time of year. Check out the National Park and National Trust websites. I think they are generally free but you might have to book. One of the local restaurants also did days last year where you went shroom collecting with an expert during the day and then had them cooked into a meal for you in the evening.
Another option is to move to France. Pick everything you see and then get them sorted at the local Pharmacy for free 8)
You can't go wrong with Ceps (as pictured above in Cottage Handbook): None are poisonous, they grow under conifers and instead of gills, they have tubular pores like a sponge. Problem is they are often slimey after wet weather and flies love laying their eggs in them; don't pick the huge old ones!
Chanterelles are the king of mushrooms: Fry in a little butter and eat seperate, don't chuck them in Risottos, you won't taste them. If you've ever looked at an orange mushroom and wondered "is that a Chanterelle" then it isn't. The real ones are distinctive by growing in Birch woodland; mature specimens are very irregular in shape; the gills are very, err, labial and extend down the stems and they smell of apricots.
Perthshire and Speyside have carpets of the blighters at this time of year!
Have eaten Wood Blewitts which are purple all over, but as with anything that looks like a field mushroom, not worth the risk: Destroying Angels and Death Caps will kill you horribly!!
I'm guessing this one's NOT edible 😀
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carriegold - Member
I'm guessing this one's NOT edible
If it's a Fly Agaric, then it is edible, but you'll have to leech out the toxins for a good few months by soaking it in milk (changing the milk every day), then drying the slices thoroughly. Or by getting a reindeer to eat it, then drink its p1ss (or is that one an urban / rural myth?!).
Had some many years ago - not sure if it did much or not as we had already consumed a fair bit of other stuff....
Ooo thanks for all the advice. Yes was definitely thinking of finding some kind of course, or day trip. Is anybody kows of somethings in the Surrey / Sussex area let me know!
The thing I find is that they look so different in the wild to how they do in the books, I would really want some guidance just to give me confidence!.Or at least get me started.
i have that roger phillips book above; it's very good as a supplement to/continuation of the knowledge i gained from the course i did first.
things I miss about the UK...
A couple of finds today, no idea what they are yet... no plans to eat them either, until I do know 😉
They smell good though...
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Take care! I was very glad geoffj mentioned yellow stainers earlier as I found a tasty looking patch of what looked exactly like field mushrooms at the weekend - only they bruised bright yellow. They even smelled mushroomy (which is unusual for the variety apparently). So, thankfully, I didn't poison anybody.
Had a small haul of boletes and chanterelles yesterday which made for a very tasty lunch.
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Zukemonster - I would urge you not to pick unless you already know pretty well what they are. A quarter of a single death cap can give you a long and painful death.
To the right in your pic looks like a cep, and is a very good choice for a more casual picker. I pick these nearly exclusivley. This year is massive and I have quite a few too many in the fridge right now. Ceps are good for several reasons - they can be quite numerous and weigh a fair bit on their own, they are also quite robust and will survive transportation by bag (or even pocket), they are easily identified and they are also very nice to eat. The flavour is surprisingly mild, by the way. BUT - sort out your identification first!
I don't think there's a problem picking things you don't recognise, but to even consider tasting them without cast-iron identification is crazy. As someone once said, all fungi are edible, but some only once.
In Zukemonster's pic I would hazard a guess that the two toadstools on the left are from the amanita family and therefore potentially poisonous. The mushroom on the right - too red and shiny to be a cep and without a chunky enough stalk - is possibly from the russula family, known as vomiting russula....
But it's hard to be sure from a pic and I'm no expert.
Completely agree it could well be a russula - only mentioned ceps because I was going on to say how suitable they are, once you have the identification sorted out. Ceps [i]can[/i] be quite a red/chestnut brown, but obviously the other features must be there too (pores not gills, white stem and flesh, not changing colour when cut - plus all of the habitat clues and so-on).
The problem with picking without id is that if you end up with a mixed basket that includes some wrong-uns you have a new potential for some to slip through the net. Added to that, several features for identification are no longer present once you pick and remove the mushroom.
I happened upon these at the weekend;
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The flatter one is around the size of a dinner plate!
problem with picking without id is that if you end up with a mixed basket
Yes, fair point. My tactic is to only pick what I'm completely sure about (ceps and chanterelles mainly). But I suppose you could have two bags and divide the knowns and unknowns that way. Agree about boletes being the safest option for picking - though I've got a variety coming up now in my woods and it's getting hard to tell between them after rain etc. There are about a dozen dinner plate sized ceps now so I'm waiting for the next generation to come along!
Well I have no plan on eating anything just yet. I wanted to start picking a few to see what it was like to identify them. So far very interesting and also very confusing!
the one on the right isn't a Ceps as it doesn't have pores. So rusulla looks a better bet.
The two on the right I would agree look like amanita (bulbous base, discoloured when cut.
That rogers book has its own website which looks quite usefull [url= http://www.rogersmushrooms.com ]rogers mushrooms[/url]
just pick the magic mushrooms then you wont care about all the finer details because your face might feel like its melting 🙂
i think maybe we worry a little too much about mushrooms. All of the czech rep friends i have, laughed at me when i said you can do a course of mushroom picking. To them its something that everyone learns. One guy i knew would just go for a wander and come back with baskets full of mushrooms!
I went out pick with my brother last weekend, we are trying to learn as well. It wasnt as hard as I thought, and you quickly start learning the familys of mushrooms. Cross referancing between books is helpful (makes you confident that you have it correct) and making sure that all the details fit the muschroom you have picked. We filled a basket full, and identified most of them but it took a while. However we didnt eat any as we put it all in one basket.
Today's little catch.
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No intention of eating any, just want to get better at identifying them.
1st from left is some kind of chantrelle I reckon. 2nd from the left is a Pinkgill, No ideas on the others yet but I'm looking 😉
Try looking a seeing if there are any "fungus forays" in your local area. Some are organised by the local council and have an expert present to make sure you don't kill yourself. Some are run by self-appointed "experts" and can be a bit dodgy.
Fungus ID is a bitch - for some species it can involve putting them under a microscope and for most it's a case of looking at every part of the fungus, smelling it, examining its texture and maybe taking a spore print too. If you get the Phillips book you'll see how many species there are - a pocket guide will have a fraction of those and it's very easy to think "hmm, this fungus looks like this one, therefore it's safe".
You can't go wrong with Ceps (as pictured above in Cottage Handbook): None are poisonous, they grow under conifers and instead of gills, they have tubular pores like a sponge.
There are some poisonous boletus species, like Satan's Boletus. Hard to mistake for Cep but they do fit the description above.
Zukemonster, that bottom one olooks like a Milk Cap - try breaking it and see if it exudes milky fluid.
I don't like the look of your second from right/bottom - could be a death cap (it could be a lot of things, but be careful) 😯
Can't tell whether the one on the left is a Chanterelle, as you need to see the gills going into the stalk.
Second from left could be an Amethyst Deceiver (which are edible)
Far right / bottom looks like brown roll rim (poisonous)
Yes, no.2 looks like an amethyst deceiver. Also have doubts about no.1: the cap is too regular (and dark) to be a chanterelle. They're easy to identify: instead of gills it should have ridges (almost like wrinkles) that fork and branch and extend down the stalk.
as geoff said. 1 from bottom could v well be a death cap! liver failure, dead in 4 days.
saw some huge Fly agarics in Whinlatter last weekend!
try googling for <yourarea> mushroom foraging
learn from someone, use a book for backup and as a reminder
i thought the 3rd from top might be a magic one at first.. yyears since i picke dthem though so cant quite remember 😀
3 - Entoloma porphyrophaeum
Yes no1 is not a chantrelle, gills are wrong.
2nd from bottom I reckon now is some kind of Amanita. So could well be a deathcap!
Bottom one has gills that discolour when touched. No milky residue, so not a mik cap.
I've downloaded Mycokey which is great, but it almost kills my computer when its running (must be all those thousands of pictures held in memory or something?
What is amazing is that I found all those mushrooms within about 10 meters of each other, in a place that I had never even noticed them before I started looking today!
There's one tiny corner of a local wood where I reckon there must be 50-60 varieties: pink, purple, yellow, orange, red, white and every shade of brown. There are dinner plate-sized ceps and tiny white mushrooms the size of a pin head. You notice different types arriving in waves, I guess as they're triggered by certain conditions. My biking really suffers this time of year as I'm looking around rather than at the trail, though I've only got eyes for ones I can eat.
One tip is to check the trees with which certain types are associated.
Ok, the Satan Bolette will make you explode at both ends, but it's extremely rare and won't do you any lasting harm.
My point was that by sticking to chanterelles and ceps you are not exposing yourselves to risk; assuming you can identify a Chanterelle!
The collection above did indeed seem to contain a Death Cap, which shows how similar they are to supermarket mushrooms.
Stay clear of Field Mushrooms unless you really know your mushrooms, I would say!
Interesting thread; there was a feature in the paper (yesterday, I think) about a twelve year old girl who found some 'shrooms while out on her bike, and she ate a couple raw, having identified them as Field Mushrooms. They were Death Caps. Astonishingly she survived, and apparently without organ damage. A very, very lucky young lady. Also, a work collegue picked some mushrooms last weekend for himself and his wife. He was violently ill for the whole of the following day, says he's never been so sick in his entire life. Be very, very careful and double/triple check everything before you even think about eating it.
Quick note; all the chanterelle like mushrooms at swinley are False Chanterelles. Not edible.
There are a couple of boletus to avoid, satanoides and the bitter boletus which looks a little like the penny bun boletus but tastes nasty!
I was told that the risk of picking the wrong ones far outweighs the nutrional value of mushrooms though they can add a lot of flavour to home cooking!
The 2nd from right is a false death cap, the 2 in the first picture are Blushers, these look very similar to the Panther cap, therefore should not be eaten, although they are edible after cooking. I would choose 3 or 4 varieties of edible mushrooms that you would like to eat, learn about them and only ever pick them. I spend most days walking in woods and only ever pick what i know is edible. Bay boletes, Penny buns, chantarelles and portabellos are good and tasty and around this time of year.I use the net bag from my 661 pads to put my find in, then it lets the spores out.
Good luck and happy hunting.
1/2 hours collecting this afternoon
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Was quite pleased with this shot of a Fly-agaric the other day. There are hundreds of them in the woods near my home.
There are loads out in the woods today where i was walking the dog. This spot is popular with dog walkers.
I was thinking I could get a meal or two out of these, but thought better of it after the dog wazzed on some! ❗
I got this yesterday:
[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/5038801041_58b7eba92e.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/mountaincarrot/5038801041/ ]30092010403[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/mountaincarrot/ ]mountaincarrot[/url], on Flickr
Was quite nice with garlic toast.. the rest I dried for the winter
errr mountaincarrot, wtf is that!?