Second chanterelle hunt

It has been fairly dry recently, so I didn't have high hopes for my foraging trip last weekend. But despite the lack of moisture, chanterelles were still growing, surprisingly more on sandy soil of the Tayport heath than deeper in the forest.

Deviating slightly from the path I took the previous week, I also found a semi-decayed lurid bolete, and a couple of overripe bay boletes. A forager's nightmare, this is. If only I took five steps to the left/right/off the path/took another turn (underline as required). Ah, well, you win some, you lose some.

And here are the trip results - all destined to go into a cream sauce a couple of days later:

About 500g here - already slightly dried out, but still good

Spring archive - part I

Spring in Scotland is not a great time for mushrooms. Fungi don't like appearing when it's below 15C it seems, no matter how much it rains. Rain, we have a lot. Warmth, not so much.

Nevertheless, around beginning of May you get some brave fungi that ignore this rule and stick their heads above ground. Such as these, peeking from under leaf blanket:

Tricholoma sp.

A few days later, I came across a much bigger group, growing in a rocky garden. Fairy inkcaps are always a joy to see. They are even edible, although due to their small size collecting any quantity would take hours.

If only they were slightly bigger...

Need some kind of automated micro-harvester!

First foray of 2014

This Saturday, as planned, I took to the forest in the hope of finding some mushrooms. I was expecting perhaps a few chanterelles, as it is still very early in the season, so only took a couple of small plastic containers with me.

Even before entering the forest, I knew that I should have taken more: the amount of fungal variety was much greater than you'd expect in mid-June. Firstly, puffballs:

Edible when young (like pictured)

Then, a beautiful red russula, complete with a slug -

Isn't it adorable how it is reaching out for food

And then finally, the stars of the show -

In significant numbers, too!

A nice looking fungus that I unfortunately I could not identify -

Rule No.1: if you can't positively identify it, don't take it, no matter how tempting it looks

Deeper in the forest, some slime moulds were munching their way trough moss and leaf litter -

It's yellow, but it's not a chanterelle

Overall, it was a much more successful trip than I expected. I even had to limit myself to taking the largest chanterelles so that I wouldn't run out of container space - very unusual at this time of year. One slight disappointment was that strawberries, which I expected to find in great abundance, were not quite ready yet. It has been fairly warm, but obviously not quite enough sunshine to let them mature properly. I'll just have to visit the patch in a week or so.

The grand total of the day:

That'll do Pig. That'll do :-)

Logs have ears!

This was one of unexpected winter discoveries that I made in small wooded area that I cross every day on my way to work. One day in late February a dead log sprouted brown-pinkish growths: Judah's Ears!

Temptation to forage them for food was powerful, but knowing how well-loved that particular log is by passing dogs, I managed to abstain. Also, I already have a pack of these wonderful fungi, in compact dried form, in my cupboard. So, just a photo -

Stunning!

Out of hybernation

This blog has been on hold for a while - partly because there hasn't been much fungi-related inspiration over the past few months, and partly because of real world issues. Russia's politicians have been consuming too many bad fungi lately. Or perhaps they have all been abducted and replaced by aliens. Either way, their war games involving occasional mention of ICBMs are unsettling. Nuclear mushrooms, I am not fond of. VERY bad for any other kind.

However, with the new mushroom season just about to start, even impending global destruction is not an excuse. So over the next couple of weeks I'll be publishing a backlog of my mushroom photos from this spring, and then if I'm lucky, some of this new season's early finds (first foray planned for this Saturday!), but for now - here is a photo of my breakfast from a couple of days ago.

Pan fried salmon with parsley and cream sauce, tomatoes and oyster mushrooms. Simple but nutritious. Enjoy!

The best way to start a day