More on cordyceps

It's not yet Friday, but I am going on a short holiday, and there won't be any posts until 5th August. So here is a video from David Attenborough, with extraordinary footage of parasitic cordyceps fungi infecting various insects, each fungus species specialising on its own host.

There is a twist in the story - towards the end of the clip he remarks that cordyceps infection helps maintain the diversity of the forest, as it is more likely to attack species that are the most numerous, therefore preventing them from taking over ecosystems.

Enjoy! I'll be back in 10 days, with lots of foraging photos and, if all goes to plan, a report from a very special fungi-related exhibition.

Valley fever

Naussicaa film poster

Lately, I seem to keep returning to the topic of fungal disease and parasitic fungi, far too often for my liking. This blog is supposed to be about the love for fungi, but, well - life is never simple.

So I came across this news item about "valley fever", a potentially fatal illness that is endemic in Southern US, as well as parts of Mexico and Argentina. It's caused by a parasitic fungus, and while about 2/3 of infected people suffer no symptoms, in some of them coccidioidomycosis, as it is known in medical science (try saying that after a few glasses of wine!), causes breathing difficulties due to fungal growth in the lungs, and sometimes even death, if the fungus spreads to the brain.

While reading the article, I kept thinking that I'd encountered this somewhere before. Not in the real world as it happens, but in Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 animated film, "Naussicaa of the Valley of the Wind". In the fictional world of the film, people have to wear masks to protect themselves from spores that rot their lungs. Interestingly, these spores are spread by a fungal forest that is feeding on pollution and ultimately cleaning it up - something that fungi have been demonstrated to be able to do.

In the film, people live on an "island", surrounded by fungal forest on all sides, and they have nowhere to go. So they stay and fight (and eventually, make peace) with giant mutated insects, fungi and their neighbours. But in real life, why don't they just leave?..

Mushroom and beetroot salad

Just three ingredients

This recipe is more of a winter treat, but with the recent dry spell there hasn't been anything in the forest, and somehow I think it is inappropriate to go for fresh cultivated mushrooms in the middle of wild fungi season. Also, I didn't feel like complicated cooking yesterday, and this salad can be bashed together in about 5 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 300g mixed marinated mushrooms in olive oil (I used Tesco mixed wild mushroom antipasto but any similar fungi would do)
• 200g baby beetroots, boiled and peeled
• one small red onion

Great with ice-cold vodka!

Process:

Empty the contents of the marinated mushroom jar into a salad bowl. Slice the baby beetroots and the red onion. Mix well. Garnish with herbs (parsley or dill both work well) and serve. It can be eaten immediately, but will taste even better if you leave it overnight in the fridge, as the onions will release their juice into the oil and absorb sweetness (and colour!) from the beetroots. Enjoy!

No rain - but not for long

The weather forecast says that the dry heatwave is coming to an end, and this is great news for all mushroom hunters. This weekend, while waiting for the life-giving moisture to fall from the sky, I checked out the local woodland, in the mad hope that somehow, somewhere, fungal life will manifest itself.

Good news: I found some mushrooms. Bad news: they were neither edible nor easily recognisable. They were growing on a living tree about 3m above the ground  - probably some sort of polypore. Really big ones: the largest must have been 30cm or so across.

1.1 kg of wild strawberries

I do apologise for a bad picture of unexciting mushrooms - this is no good for a Monday foraging report, but hey, don't blame me. Blame Scottish weather. It is used to it anyway.

By way of tiny compensation for this disappointment, here is an image of last week's complete strawberry crop - this time I managed to snap a shot before it was gobbled up.

And now, since woodland has not been kind enough to provide, I'm off to the shops for some ingredients for tomorrow's recipe. See you soon!

Blue oyster mushrooms - time lapse

Today's video is short and sweet, and shows a time lapse sequence of cultivated blue oyster mushrooms. I particularly like how they start looking similar to cobras once reaching maturity.

Enjoy, and see you next week for more mushroom stories!

Fungi on London Underground

Occasionally I wonder if I am the only one who is so crazy about mushrooms. Then I come across an article like this one, and it becomes very clear that I am not alone in the universe.

In short, it tells about a few mycologists who went on fungal foray in London underground, in order to find out which of the lines is the mouldiest. The winner by a small margin was, unexpectedly, the newest, Jubilee line, where unfortunate commuters breathe in 1 fungal spore a minute, and unlike other lines these spores are not from penicillin, and why that has to be so, remains an unsolved mystery.

So, what made those people to look for fungi in the underground? Perhaps, Nils Norman's vision of Piccadilly line in 2050? After all, in its bottom left corner it prominently features Hammersmith Mushroom Facility. Not too far from Green Park, where it intersects with Jubilee line. Hmmm, I wonder what those unknown spores actually are...

Trees and stumps

What is it?

Our spell of (proper) summer continues, and the ground is already getting parched. So much in fact that even the strawberries are getting unhappy. A couple of my minions (other people usually call them "family members") went to the forest yesterday and brought back 1.1kg of berries, and that's probably the last of them this summer.

The only place where there's anything of interest is the trees and stumps, and I came across a rather fine fungal specimen today. As you can see from the photograph, it is quite big, the cap about 15cm across, and its thin stem at least as tall, growing from a dead tree stump. It looks a bit like some kind of entoloma, but the stipe is too thin and their caps, as far as I know, are never convex. A mystery! If it's still there this evening I'll take it home to make a spore print, and then perhaps I'll be able to identify at least its genus.

UPD: The spore print turned out to be white, so I have to conclude that it is some kind of toughshank.

Lots of chanterelles in sour cream

Despite my complaints about the weather, I brought home so many mushrooms last week that the chanterelle and mushroom pie only consumed a third of them. Chanterelles keep quite well in the fridge, but still there comes a time when a desperate forager has to either find a way to utilise them all or let them perish. Hold on a second, let them perish? Never!

So I got looking on the web for suggestions as to how to cook a large amount of chanterelles. They don't freeze or dry well, as I think I've mentioned before. It didn't take me long to discover this great traditional Russian method. I hesitate to call it a "recipe" as it only has 5 ingredients, but I've always believed that best cooking is simple cooking, so here it is.

Ingredients:

• 1kg of chanterelles
• 1-2 onions
• 200g sour cream
• some olive oil
• salt

Process:

Slice the onions into thin rings. Pour olive oil into a deep frying pan and gently fry the onions until soft. Add the cleaned and washed chanterelles, small ones left whole, large ones halved or quartered. Keep frying, stirring frequently, until all water evaporates. Salt to taste. Transfer the chanterelles to a heavy pot, add sour cream, stir well, bring to boil. Reduce the heat to the minimum and cook under lid for 20 minutes.

The result can be served with rice as a dish in its own right or as garnish to meatballs or steak. This is how they dealt with bumper crop of chanterelles in ancient Russia. I suspect that for the final stage they used a proper wood-fired Russian oven, but even on a conventional gas top the result is great. Enjoy! 

Foraging during a heatwave

Could it be the last?..

Who could have suspected that British summer actually exists? Well, there's this area of high pressure that's currently sitting pretty of the British Isles, and the Met Office is issuing heat wave weather warnings left and right.

No, I'm not complaining by the way. It's nice to be able to go out in the street wearing just one layer of clothing. I still keep my waterproof jacket in my bag, even though with no rain forecast for the next fortnight this is probably unnecessary. Just shows that the wounds inflicted on me by Scottish weather are too deep. They will probably never heal.

Consolation prize

Anyway, to the foraging report! This Saturday the forest was already dry like a cinder, but there were still a few mushrooms to be had under low-hanging branches and in the moss. Much smaller pickings than last time, and probably next week there will be none.

But fortunately something else was growing in the forest, almost as good as mushrooms. Wild strawberries got ripe and ready in all this heat. There are great masses of them on sandy dunes, and I collected at least half a kilogram in an hour. It's even harder work than small mushrooms, but the reward was worth it - see below!

Perfect Saturday night dessert: wild strawberries and single cream with a bit of sugar mixed in.

Richard Dawkins on the effects of hallucinogenic mushrooms

The video below is of Richard Dawkins responding to Graham Hancock's question about whether he'd consider taking hallucinogenic drugs. If you cannot bear the low video quality, here's the transcript of his key point:

"I think it very unlikely that whatever happened to me would be interpreted as indicating anything supernatural. I would, on the contrary, interpret it as a manifestation of what a wonderful thing a brain is, and how the brain can see and experience even more things under the right kinds of chemical stimulation."

I fully agree with the first part of his statement: there is nothing supernatural in the effects of drugs, it is just brain chemistry trying to fix itself following the injection of foreign substances. Drugs, however, do not make you see "more things" - it is just the same things, only skewed and unrecognisable. For this reason, I'd stay away from any mind-altering chemicals. It is difficult enough to make sense of the world with an uninebriated brain.

Concerning baskets

Basket - ready to take another season

Despite the doubts concerning the weather (still no rain in the foreseeable future), I took out my mushroom basket from its cupboard for inspection. My father brought it to me from Ukraine 3 years ago, and amazingly it looks like it'll be good for yet another season.

Outside of mushroom season I use it for storing vegetables and bird feed, so it has seen some regular use over the years. Not one twig out of place! That's what I call good quality.

It is made in authentic medieval style, 100% willow, no plastic anywhere. Not that it makes any difference to the mushrooms, as all kinds of baskets provide the same sort of support and breathing for the collected fungi, and they can all spread spores equally well since, obviously, they all have small holes. However, willow is much easier on the hands than plastic, and it makes a big difference if you have to carry home a big crop.

All right, all right, I won't bore you any more with this. To summarise: I have my basket ready for the mushroom season. Yay!

The king of mushrooms

My first cep

Today's highlight, as clearly follows from the title, is about Boletus edulis, or penny bun, or cep, or porcino. It is the holy grail of all mushroom gatherers. It is prominently featured on the covers of almost all edible mushroom guides. Even its scientific name - "edulis" leaves us in no doubt as to how great it is.

In fact, I never saw one in the wild before coming to Scotland. For some reason, they didn't grow in my native parts. So picking my first one back in 2006 was a very special thing. It marked the beginning of my love affair with Scottish forests and my bad mushroom photography. That's right. Ceps made me do it, blame them for everything.

This is the basket of a very happy
mushroom hunter

When I brought my first cep home to cook though, it was somewhat disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was a very good specimen, dry and firm. A bit maggot-infested, but any good mushroom guide book will tell you that you can and should eat ceps with maggots and all - they are just as wholesome as the mushroom itself. No, my disappointment came from all the exposure to the cep hype. I expected it to taste like white truffles, no less. But the truth is, it doesn't really taste of anything. Saffron milk caps, by contrast, have a much more distinctive taste and also keep their orange colour in the stew, which is why many people rate them above boletes, even though few guidebooks agree.

I do love ceps for one thing: their enormous size. Finding just one or two good big ones is enough to make a meal. A mature specimen can weigh over a kilogram! Also, compared to most other fungi, they are very easy to prepare for cooking - unlike chanterelles, for instance, which can drive you nuts because they are so tiny and each needs to be cleaned. Another advantage is that they have no poisonous lookalikes and can be eaten raw. There is the bitter bolete of course, Tylopilus felleus, but it's not poisonous, just very very unpalatable. I usually taste each mushroom before cooking to make sure that only good ones go into the pot.

The earliest ceps in Scotland appear in July, around this time. So, how is that weather forecast? Hmm, still no rain in sight... Just nice, sunny weather and temperatures in mid-twenties. No good for mushrooms. Hey, I want my proper Scottish summer back!

Chanterelle and egg pie

Selection of ingredients

This is the second recipe I cooked last week, after the courgette salad. Still not sure what to do with the current bounty of wild mushrooms in my fridge. If only they would keep! The forecast now says no rain for 2 weeks at least, so it is quite possible that mushroom season will be suspended. I guess I'll have to hunt for wild strawberries instead: in all this heat they will get ripe in no time. Today we had 26 degrees, which is I think the all-time record.

But let me not be distracted from the recipe. Here it is.

Ingredients:

Just before the return to the oven

• 1 ready-rolled sheet of shortcrust pastry
  (or you can make it yourself, but I am lazy)
• 500g chanterelles
  
• 1 large onion
• 6 eggs
• 100g double cream
• 100g white wine
• grated parmesan
• herbs, salt, pepper

Ready to eat!

Process:

Grease two 20cm baking pans with butter and dust with flour. Line each with half of the pastry sheet, making a case for the future pie. Fill each pan with baking beans and bake in an oven preheated to 180C (if it is a fan oven, or 200 if not), for about 15 minutes. Remove the baking beans and bake the cases for a further 5 minutes until golden.

Meanwhile, clean, wash and tear the chanterelles and chop the onion. Fry them together in a large frying pan with a little olive oil. Once the onion gets soft add herbs, salt, pepper and white wine. Cook on high heat until the liquid evaporates. Remove the herbs. Distribute the mixture between the two pie cases. Beat the eggs together with cream and pour them over the mushrooms. I don't salt the eggs but add their share to the mushrooms/onions instead, but this is up to the cook. Now, for the final touch - cover the eggy surface of each pie with a generous helping of grated parmesan and put the pies back into the oven. The temperature needs to be lower now, about 170C. They will be ready in 15 minutes.

Lots of chanterelles

Possibly the ugliest cep photo
on the web

It has hardly been raining at all last week, but that doesn't stop a true mushroom hunter from trying, right?

As it happened, the trip was so successful that I ran out of plastic containers and had to put some of the pickings into a carrier bag. Very bad form, I know. Next week, I'll definitely bring a basket.

Lots of chanterelles

I took a couple of helpers with me this time. Usually, I prefer to go alone as very few people can take the required legwork without complaining, but this time I was glad to have two extra pairs of hands to order around. The final haul was 1.5kg, and it may not seem like a lot, but it is many hundreds of individual chanterelles. If you are alone on the job, it can take you hours to cut them. I am really looking forward to ceps because of this - they are so much less work. I did get one yesterday, it was small, desiccated and heavily sampled by slugs, but it's still a promise of the things to come. Provided, of course, that the current dry spell ends soon. Scotland is at this moment enduring the worst heatwave of the century: temperatures in mid-twenties and no rain for the past five days.

The forecast promises some reprieve on Wednesday, with the more normal +17C and rain. About time!

Golden frog hotel and restaurant

In yesterday's post, I briefly mentioned a project to save Panamian golden frogs from deadly fungus that is threatening to wipe out the entire species. Here is a short video of how it is done.

They put the frogs up in a hotel room and feed them crickets and bugs that are collected at nights by research project staff. I admire these people's dedication, but am I the only one who also finds this hilarious?

In any case, enjoy the video, and see you next week. I am planning to go foraging again on Sunday, and if I'm very lucky, I'll be bringing home some ceps. I'm greatly looking forward to it!

Runners, stalkers and clickers

I regularly follow the news of videogame world, and with my love for mushrooms, this particular piece has naturally drawn my special attention. Last week, I wrote about a nice casual game (hold on, I think my little namekos have run out of food... will be back in a second...)

Right, where was I? Oh, yes. Games featuring fungi. I am talking, of course, about "The last of us". Unlike the cheerful inhabitants of "Mushroom garden", these fungi are not something you'd want to meet in real life. They infect humans, turning them into zombies, and trust me, it's not pretty. Here is a link to some artwork. 18+. You have been warned.

This is the correct position

The inspiration for the plot comes from ant disease caused by a fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. Once a spore settles on an ant, the fungus rapidly takes over its body and alters its behaviour. Eventually, the ant dies and the fruit body ruptures its exoskeleton, releasing spores and spreading the infection. The insects die attached to leaf veins on the underside of leaves. Curiously, almost all of the images I have seen on the web are the the wrong way up. Why? No idea.

So, how likely are humans to be infected by a mutated fungus and turn into hideous zombies? Not at all, actually. Ants are very small and have a very simple nervous system. It doesn't take much to take over it. Now, if we think of a slightly larger animal, such as a frog, things are not so disastrous. A good example are golden frogs, whose population is being decimated by parasitic fungi in Central America. However, it is only untreated frogs that die, so in the attempt to save the species, conservationists capture the frogs, quarantine them and treat them with antifungal drugs. The frogs recover fully and are released back into the wild. Going up to human scale of things, I think I do remember a case when a young girl with an impaired immune system had such a severe fungal infection that she had fruit bodies growing inside her nose. But did she turn into a zombie? Nope. Once the cause of her illness was discovered, the treatment was trivial, and the infection cleared within days. So I don't think we have to worry about stuff other than athlete's foot and ringworm. Just keep some clotrimazole capsules at home, and we should all be safe from this particular kind of apocalypse.

But who needs to worry about plausibility of apocalyptic scenarios anyway?

Some shades of grey

Grey heron

Monday's visit to the forest was marked not just by a decent crop of chanterelles, but also a few encounters with local wildlife. There are several shallow lakes (we call them "lochs" in Scotland) scattered around the forest, which are home to many birds, such as mallards, greylag geese, mute swans, coots, moorhens and many others. One particular resident of the loch decided it was happy to pose for a portrait, and here is the result. Grey herons are very common but also quite shy, and it is unusual to get a photo of one so close.

Grey russula

And what about mushrooms? The only sighting, apart from the edible fungi, was a grey russula, making a lonely appearance in the middle of a pine wood. But was it a Russula grisea? A pale-coloured cyanoxantha? Or, perhaps an amoenolens? Although, the latter is unlikely as it did not have a fishy smell. In short, yet another dose of russula-related frustration: we will never know the answer.

Warm salad with courgettes and chanterelles

Ingredients

Today's recipe is one of my old favourites, as it brings out the best in its ingredients - especially the chanterelles. I've tried cooking it with other mushrooms by the way, and the only alteration it tolerates is the replacement of no more than half of the chanterelles with ceps. Also, you need a really big pan to make this dish in any quantity. The version I cooked today serves two, and the two in question were both complaining about the size of their portions. Don't expect a massive dish. A couple of handfuls of chanterelles makes for a couple of handfuls of salad. It's a starter, ok?

Right, on to the ingredients:

Mixed, ready to go onto the pan

• a couple of handfuls of chanterelles
• a few baby courgettes or one normal courgette
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoonfuls of olive oil
• 1/4 lemon
• a handful of basil
• salt and pepper

Process:

The salad, ready to be served

Cut the courgettes into thin slices, leave chanterelles whole if small or tear into halves/quarters if larger. Put them together into a bowl, with salt, pour over the olive oil.
Mix well. Heat a frying pan over high heat, put the mixture into it. Arrange the courgette pieces around the pan. Wait until golden on one side, turn over. Once cooked, turn off the heat, add finely chopped garlic and ground pepper to taste, put into a serving bowl. Squeeze lemon juice and put basil leaves on top. Serve warm and enjoy!

For the thorough-minded, the original version of the recipe can be found on the BBC Food web site.

Update from the frontline

The new bit of equipment

I was away this weekend, so today's post is delayed slightly. In fact, I have only just back come back from the forest, and what a trip it was! A good crop of chanterelles, and some wildlife spotting. The said wildlife was even kind enough to pose for the camera, but I will save this for another time.

But let me not digress. Revenons a nos champignons.

The season is definitely picking up - I got at least 500g of chanterelles, even though the ground in the forest has been fairly dry. It was actually raining rather heavily all the past week - where did all that moisture go to, I wonder? In any case, chanterelles did not seem to mind.

I also got the first chance to test out a new mushroom knife that I got as a birthday gift recently. I think it's going to become my new favourite - very convenient grip, nice blade, a brush is a useful extra, too. The only issue with it is that because the blade is so sharp, it tends to slice right through the slugs instead of moving them away. I guess I'll just have to be more careful.

The day's result (with slugs removed). There is enough for a quiche!