What should have been a great start to the real mushrooming year got off to a bad start on Saturday…. with me oversleeping! Around this time of the year, you really have to be the first in the forest to get the best of the Ceps. Waking up at 9:30am doesn’t help your chances!
So, instead of finding this parking area clear (as I would usually expect), as you can see, my car (the white van) is at the back of the queue.
And I was also at the back of the queue, in terms of mushrooms. This part of the forest (right at the north) is very popular in the Autumn and usually yields good results. Perhaps it had today for those early birds but not for me.
The only thing I found was some cauliflower fungus (Sparassis Crispa) – which I happen to like a lot. It’s a useful mushroom to have in the kitchen and it keeps quite well. The only problem is that it often has additional nutritional value. The best way to get rid of any creepy-crawlies that are hiding within is to cut it into strips or slices and spray it with a light vinaigrette.
As there seemed to be no point in going to the well know, usual Cep hotspots, I started wandering off in a different direction. Ten minutes later I was lost. Not just vaguely lost but completely and utterly confused type lost. I knew that if I headed to the East I would eventually hit the main road but, the more I tried to head in that direction, the thicker the undergrowth became. I eventually found the edge of the forest (much further North than I should have been) and skulked along the edge of it until I came back to the road, and thus to where the car was parked.
As if this total failure wasn’t enough, I found that someone had had some trouble reversing as Bessie (the car) now sported a dent in her driver side wing and an unattached bumper! An emergency repair with some string that I carry around with me when I’m mushrooming (I knew it would come in handy, one day) got me home.
I decided to give up on mushrooming for the rest of the day and open a beer instead!
It gets worse? – Sunday 24th September
On the Sunday I decided to try the South-West of the forest. This is not so good for mushrooms but is a lovely walk. Once again I got lost. It was totally my fault! When I leave the path, I normally make a note in my notebook, where I was when I entered the interior of the forest and what direction the path was running in (so that I know which direction to go in to get back to where I was).
Needless to say, I didn’t and after twenty minutes of going round in circles, had to admit that I was lost. It is very tempting to think that you know where you are and to assume that going in one direction or the other is the right thing to do but, my feeling is that it is best to get to a known landmark from where you can make a real decision as to your future route. As I could hear the occasional car in the distance, I headed to what I correctly assumed was a road. There was a signpost, it pointed to Lanouee in one direction and Josselin in the other. Now I knew where I had gone wrong (not for the first time) and vowed to avoid the West of the forest for a while (I am often lost in the West of the forest, I’m not sure why).
I had to smile when I came to a pretty cottage that I had seen for the first time about a year ago. “Oh, I’m not lost”, I thought to myself. “I’ve been here before.” That cheered me up until I realised that the last time that I had been there was the last time that I had been lost in that part of the forest!
The conclusion
So, all in all, not a particularly successful weekend’s mushrooming but never mind, I got some exercise and learnt a few lessons. And anyway, it wasn’t a total washout.
The mixed basket of mushrooms that resulted from the wasted weekend provided me with a naughty omelette this morning with plenty left over for my Chinese style stir fry tonight. And, as I told my colleagues at work, one of the joys of running a cheap, old car is that it doesn’t really matter if she gets a dent or two!
This week I shall be only doing my normal 35 hours so I should be more able to get up on time for the weekend’s excitement. On Saturday, I intend to walk into the North of the forest (along the road, wearing my reflexive jacket) so that I don’t have to worry about getting back to the car – hopefully getting there at about 7am (before anyone else) – we’ll see! On Sunday, I intend to start on the Eastern side of the forest and work North, West and then South. This is one of my favourite walks. It comes in at about 30km and whilst it is not so great for mushrooming, there is a family of deer living in the South-East of the forest – now, a sighting of them is worth a Cep or two!.
This River Cottage Handbook, `Mushrooms’ by John Wright, is a genuinely funny and hugely informative guide to mushroom and toadstools with some useful cooking tips and recipes too. (Some are even simple enough to try!)
Quite simply – this is the best book of its kind – superb descriptions and pictures – the only book required to correctly identify mushrooms in the UK.
Wild mushrooms can be difficult to identify, and many poisonous species look similar to edible ones. An identification guide must therefore leave nothing to doubt, and this book uses both photographs and drawings to present all the essential details
This handy, practical guide offers a quick way for beginners to identify mushrooms and toadstools Collins Gem Mushrooms describes almost 240 species of mushrooms and toadstools to be commonly found in Britain. Portable and clear, it is the ideal guide for those out foraging for fungi!
This handy pocket-sized guide provides quick, accurate and easy identification of over 200 European fungi species. Identifying colours and symbols, it classifies the species according to shape. It contains 320 colour photos that show each species with its characteristic features in its natural habitat. It also features 320 graphics that highlight the typical identifying features of each species, and a calendar wheel, which helps identify the time of year when each species can be found.
Collins Complete Guide to British Muchrooms and Toadstools allows everyone to identify mushrooms found in Britain and Ireland. The book is illustrated with beautiful photographs throughout, featuring the species you are most likely to see. By only covering Britain and Ireland, fewer species are included than in many broader European guides, making it quicker and easier for the reader to accurately identify what they have found.
There are not many people who have been collecting, cooking and devising recipes for mushrooms for over 60 years, but Antonio Carluccio is one. Known as the ‘mushroom man’, Carluccio’s Neal Street Restaurant in London’s Covent Garden is a mecca for mushroom and truffle lovers from all over the world. Carluccio’s expertise is unrivalled and this book, with over 100 recipes that make the most of readily available mushrooms in dishes ranging from classic to contemporary via oriental and Eastern European, will not disappoint.
Fully illustrated throughout, this practical guide to identifying edible mushrooms gives you all the details you need to enjoy the adventure of locating and collecting wild mushrooms. The book features all edible species of mushroom, together with those with which they may be confused. Organised by habitat for easy reference, it is beautifully illustrated and includes the best ways to cook and eat the mushrooms you collect.
This one-stop practical guide will show you how to identify, pick and cook edible mushrooms. To make your progress easier, it comes in a handy format with colour photos and expert advice throughout. From identifying and picking edible mushrooms to growing your own mushrooms, from recipes for seasonal dishes to important information on poisonous species, this book provides all the helpful information you need to relish the exhilarating experience of collecting wild mushrooms.
This is the most comprehensive photographic handbook for the dedicated mycologist, general naturalist or mushroom hunter collecting for the cooking pot. It features 1,000 species of higher fungi found in the British Isles and northern Europe, from the most common to the rarest – including some never hitherto published photographically.
‘When all’s said and written, there’s nothing better than field mushrooms that you have gathered yourself, on toast, for breakfast.’ Jane Grigson, The Mushroom Feast The Mushroom Feast is an indispensable classic for all those who love mushrooms. It is a fine, timeless, literary cookbook. Truffles…ceps…morels, they all conjure visions of one of the most intriguing and subtle of all gastronomic treats.
Discover the delicacies that hide in your garden, local woodlands or fields with this fully-illustrated A-Z guide. Learn the identifying features and habits of the most popular edible mushrooms, and try the suggestions for storing and cooking your bounty. Also included is a section on inedible mushrooms, clearly illustrating the poisonous species that you are most likely to come across.
Gathering edible wild food is a wonderful way to forge a connection to the earth. Mushrooms are the ultimate local food source; they grow literally everywhere, from Central Park to your own backyard. The Complete Mushroom Hunter invites readers to connect with a hobby that will enrich their understanding of the natural world and build an appreciation for an ancient, but relevant, body of knowledge.
Mushroom collecting is becoming increasingly popular, and while a comprehensive identification guide is essential, the folklore, facts and fables, recipes and stories that have accumulated since ancient times create part of the charm of these strange organisms. Oddly, these facts have never been compiled in one book.
Field Guide Edible Mushrooms of Britain and Europe
The fields, woods and gardens of Britain and Europe are home to a wide range of edible mushrooms, a number of which are not simply good but truly excellent to eat. This book is a practical, user-friendly guide to collecting edible wild fungi species across Britain and Europe.
This indispensable guide to the Mushrooms of Britain and Europe is part of the new Black’s Nature Guide series. Over 450 species of mushroom are covered, each beautifully illustrated with detailed paintings and clear photographs.
Explores the world of edible mushrooms from the field to kitchen. Focuses on the best edible fungi, providing failsafe identification notes for over 50 choice varieties, and offers over 50 delicious everyday recipes using specific mushrooms and mixed mushrooms. Ideal for the forager and the foodie.
This guide offers information on observing and identifying 150 of the most commonly encountered fungi species in Britain and Europe, all of which can be recognized without the use of a microscope. A concise description details the main features of each species, which is illustrated by a colour painting. The guide explains how fungi grow, what to look for in each family division and how to make a safe identification.
Clear, highly accessible guide – it cuts out all the mushrooms with gills and reduces the field to a group of readily identifiable, edible mushrooms. It includes clear guidelines, encouraging the reader to read the book twice before going out so that they are confident about the principles it explains.
Ray Mears has travelled the world discovering how native people manage to live on just what nature provides. Whats always frustrated him is not knowing how our own ancestors fed themselves and what we could learn about our own diet. We know they were hunter-gatherers, but no-one has been able to tell what they ate day to day. How did they find their calories, week in week out throughout the year? In this book he travels back ten thousand years to a time before farming to learn how our ancestors found, prepared and cooked their food.
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