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

Early arrivals, late encounters

Some early-flowering crocuses

Despite the current drop in the temperature (it was even snowing yesterday!), plant life is waking up. Snowdrops and aconites are out in huge numbers, and now later-flowering plants are joining them. Crocuses are now out, as well as a few butterburs, which I thought were summer flowers, but it looks like this year they were impatient to get out.

Impatient butterbur

Despite the relative abundance of flowers, there are still no pollinating insects in evidence, so I don't know what those early starts are hoping for. Must be invisible pink unicorns. They do exist, right?

Isn't it bedtime for your guys?

So, flowering plants are thinking that it's spring already, but fungi seem to be rooted in conviction that it's still late autumn. As evidenced by this fresh growth of sulfur tufts by the roadside.

Nature, you are not making any sense this year. Can you get your act together please?

Stash in the freezer

The ingredients

With all the recent frost and wind and fog, it seemed like spring was far far away, and mushroom season even further, so I was reluctant to open up my freezer. After all, what if it wasn't just a normal winter but the coming of a new ice age?..

However, with the arrival of snowdrops and aconites it became clear that we were safe from that catastrophe for now, and it was time to start eating into the stashes so that they are fully emptied before the new growth of ceps arrives.

I was really pleased that I was able to supplement my own ceps with an addition of wild mushrooms from a supermarket shelf, consisting of hedgehog fungus (bottom left) and grey chanterelle (bottom right). The three mushroom species, combined with some shallots and single cream, produced a great sauce for goose-fat roast potatoes we were having that evening. They all worked really hard: ceps provided flavour, grey chanterelles added colour, and hedgehog mushrooms were responsible for the firm, almost crunchy texture. White wine and cream took care of the rest!

And here they are, all together in a frying pan, just beginning to soften -

Ahh,, Beautiful!