I’m jealous of all this abundance.
I have only today found my first cep of the season, first amethyst deceiver and a whole bunch of Parasols, still in the drumstick phase.
Wood Blewitts don’t usually pop up round here (Surrey) until late October, so if the frosts are early, there’s nowt.
There are always enough Fly Agarics to get the whole of Guildford shitfaced!

well I’m back home in Berkshire so had a scout around my usual spots. Picked just short of 9 lbs of ceps!!!! left lots of small ones as well so should get another bag full next week. Got anorher wood to check out tomorrow too, which is usually plentiful in good years.

Sparassis (Cauliflower Fungus)

check out Yunksters Winston Churchill 😀

Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric)

Mystika grotto (Fairy City)?

these little beauties were between 6 and 8 inches tall and carpeted the forest floor under the canopy of this tree.. any ideas?

I did a course yesterday down nr Midhurst so thought I’d see if I could put my new-found knowledge to use in the Surrey Hills. Found a big batch of Ceps and plenty of Bay Boletes, with a few Amethyst Deceivers, but sadly no Chanterelles. Feasted tonight on a fantastic soup and tomorrow should see a chicken & mushroom pie made, with the rest being dried.
Glenp – any tips on Chanterelle location and recipes welcome 😉

Can anynone identify the fungi from my vid that I made on Saturday? I have Fly Agaric I think but don’t know what the rest are.

[video]http://vimeo.com/76281761[/video]

Went with my Polish wife and FIL at the weekend. Disappointed that the stories of legendary knowledge being passed down the generations are lies 🙁 He goes home in 2 weeks so we have a limited window of opportunity.

I did uncover a new skill, sadly it was the ability to find a poisonous mushroom in a field of haystacks, whilst not seeing edible things under my nose.

Favourite quote of the weekend “yes you can eat those, but you have to boil them twice because they are poisinous” 🙂

There was a couple picking Ceps (are Cep, Porcini?) in the woods on Sunday, said they’d not seen such a crop for years.

Didn’t give me any though did they.

I bought a book and for every edible variety there was a “see page 76” and turning to page 76 would reveal an almost identical species that would give you the watery bum gravy and liver failure.

Cep / Penny Bun / Porcini all the same just different name depending upon whether you’re in France, UK or Italy.

Got some monster beefsteaks last week :p Need to get down to the local forest this week and check out my usual spots 🙂

some of those look truly mingin!

An abundance of fungus on the Surrey Hills at the weekend but we weren’t picking

On Sunday me and the wife picked about 10 quite large puffballs. Our lad came in and identified them as common earthballs which can make you pretty ill so they went in the bin.
Doh.

My trusty stump down the road had enough Oysters to cover a couple of slices or toast on saturday

An hours foraging on Sunday produced this little lot:

Apples, Damsons, Sloes, Ceps, Cauliflower fungus, Horse mushrooms and Giant Puffballs.
You can’t beat free food!

Those Liberty Caps look quite a lot like some that we find in our garden. I don’t know about mushrooms so when I saw the kids picking them I made them throw them in the border and wash their hands. A very good idea in hindsight!

My mushroom foraging experience is for Liberty Caps only. I keep thinking about broadening my scope. Fly Agarics look interesting, does anyone know anything about dose & preparation?

I picked some mushrooms at the weekend, stored them in a sealed tub to dry them out, had a look yesterday and they were infested with tiny white maggots. Not nice.

There’s some in the garden at the moment, light brown/cream, smooth, look a bit like a club. There’s about three or four dotted about, between 1″ and 3″ round heads that aren’t separate from the stalks if that makes any sense?

Jambourgie, a picture is best if you want an identification

The amount of ceps this year is crazy. Picked loads and left so many more. There are so many in some parts of my local woods that I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it for myself. Not seen any chanterelles though, only false chanterelles. Mushroom risotto again tomorrow.

It has indeed been a bountiful year so far, although i would love to see some of the pictures of places that people have described as carpeted with chaterelles,my local woods are carpeted with false chanterelles but i have only found 4 of the real deal, and every description of them that i have read describes them as being rare. I was watching an old River Cottage programme last night and they were showing false chanterelles as the real ones so it is obviously an easy mistake to make. That said i bumped into an eastern european couple the other week who were gathering the false ones by the bucket load, i tried a few fried in butter and they actually taste pretty good, and no side effects either so all good!

when looking for ceps, in local woods what sort of areas should I be looking in, in particular?

Richc, beech woods are generally a good place for ceps. Been out again today and they’re mostly gone by now so you may be a bit late this year. If we get some rain maybe we’ll get another batch. The grounds bone dry at the moment. Interesting that Bazz has the same thoughts on chanterelles as me.

Are these parasols before i eat them?

They were growing from a cut stump

Nope, parasols grow in open land and also have a moveable ring on their stem.

Not identifiable in my ‘brain’ database and can’t find it in my book at work and my best books are at home, so can’t actually identify it atm

Ill hold off eating them for the time being then!

I’ve come with a few after today’s forage, most I decided against there and then however I’m not sure about these in the whole

The left one an orange birch bolete I believe

The three on bottom left I originally thought were chanterelles but unconvinced now

The top left pile I put down as st George’s

Bottom right pile not a clue

And one on the right a wood blew it maybe?

Any thoughts

Love foraging but other than oysters and shaggy ink caps I don’t feel at all confident

Next year I’m going to find someone in the know to show me the ropes a bit I think!

Those Liberty Caps look quite a lot like some that we find in our garden

just saw this post..

I don’t get it at there have been no Liberty Caps posted on this thread.. which made me think

So I looked on google images and it’s actually quite worrying how few of the pics of ‘Liberty Caps’ on there are actually Liberty Caps..

Can anyone identify this mushroom? Would really like to forage for some but don’t know anything about them. Is this edible?

It was about 3 inches tall and quite dense.

A bit late but Bland. Those definitely are not chanterelles and those top ones are not st George’s .the St. George’s come up in April near St. George’s day,hence the name. Can’t help you on what they are though.

Not the right colour for a Death Cap….but right shape!!!

That small one, Lazgoat, is too immature to identify safey, plus you can’t see the bottom of it which would give vital clues.

Amazing year seems to be nearing the end here in Surrey Hills. Just about hd enough anyway! Got 3 Kilner jars full of dried ceps and a lot of cooked and seasoned risotto kits in the freezer. Chicken, sausage, ceps and cream pie with homemade rough puff favourite so far. Cep paté a close second.

Hi glen. whats your recipe for the cep pate if you don’t mind.

Really interesting thread this, had me digging around on-line and came across a blog from a chap who poisened himself 😳 . Seems he was very lucky to live.

amanita poisoning

I quote;

Being sick as a dog with constant vomiting and diarrhea is no fun! I had a diaper on. I felt helpless. I felt humbled.

Not nice…

Thanks glenp, there were only a couple, the other was about a third larger.
I’m toying with getting the River Cottage Mushroom book. Any others worth considering before I buy?

Whatever happened to puffballs? I used to remember kicking loads of them as a kid but haven’t seen any in years (I’m assuming my destructive ways didn’t single-handedly cause their extinction)…

River Cottage book is a good one.

Cep Paté
You need a few decent ones
Cut them into thin slices, then into thin batons, then into tiny dice.
Slow fry in a bit of olive oil and a knob of butter with whatever you fancy (could be a very finely sliced shallot, a clove or two of garlic, some suitable herbs, any or all of those).
Season – I always use Marigold veg stock powder which is salty/umami and makes all savoury food better.
Once you have driven most of the moisture out of the mushrooms and everything is more concentrated and less wet, leave to cool until warm not hot.
Mix in equal amount of full fat cream cheese and put in suitable container.
Keeps in the fridge for a week or more. Excellent just on toast. Also very good as creamy pasta sauce, for which you might want to slack it off a bit with a dash of cream.

I find the River Cottage book the “safest” as it really helps to tell you which of the edible species could be confused with poisonous, and how to easily tell them apart. That one increased my confidence a lot. The only other one I have is Roger’s Mushrooms – excellent book and more in depth.

bland – bit late now but a great pic! For future reference the chantarelles definitely aren’t, the “St.Georges” are Common yellow brittlegills (Russulas), edible and slightly peppery. The “blewit” is another brittlegill, possibly a Charcoal burner.

Get some books and go on a guided foray – well worth it at this time of year.

We were stopping every few yards on Saturday’s ride for a mate to pick a bumper harvest of Penny Buns on the edge of Slaley Forest.

The cep really is a good cyclists’ mushroom – sturdy enough to survive bumping around in a bag or jersey pocket. Try that with shaggy ink caps and you’ll regret it!

You’ve got to be really careful what mushrooms you pick- smurfs are dangerous when angered.