Mushroom quest 2013: continued

Not for eating! Pretty display though.

My Sunday trip to woodland brought yet another disappointment. No matter how hard I looked, no fungi presented themselves even to be photographed, let alone to be collected and eaten. Obviously, the recent warmth has not been enough. I've seen a report on the news that flowering season for bluebells was 4-5 weeks late this year. Does this mean that I'd have to wait for the first chanterelles till the end of June? I hope not!

Scotch bonnets! Oh, wait...

Despite my walk in the woods being a total flop (the magnificent display of wild flowers carpeting the forest floor doesn't count, does it?), I did get a couple of consolation prizes on my way home. Walking down the street I spotted two flower containers with features that were clearly not intended in the original planting design. At first I thought that my first find was a group of St George's mushrooms, but on closer inspection they turned out to be, most likely, some species of Inocybe. The second one at a first glance looked like Scotch bonnets (there was even dead wood present!), but the gills were all wrong, so I reluctantly had to identify them as LBMs*. Trip result: basket=0, camera=2. An improvement on the first attempt, but still not good enough.

Luckily, the supermarket was not too far away, so I consoled myself with buying a pack of exotic mushrooms, consisting of yellow and pink oyster mushrooms and shimeji. Firm texture, strong flavour... I think I know the perfect recipe to make these stand out. So it is decided: tomorrow - cooking report!
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* Little Brown Mushrooms