Fungi Forage
Many mushrooms: one hour in Killerton
We're lucky enough to live a short drive from Killerton House in Devon. A national trust property with huge grounds completely open to the public. And while I'm walking the dog amongst the cows I may as well..
Using my ever practical Food for Free (original 1970's edition) field guide. Aside from the (literally) plate sized parasol mushrooms, and some impressive sized horse mushrooms, here's a handful of what else I found today:
And just a couple taken home to eat. I'd identified these before, but never tasted:
On the left a Yellow-cracked Bolete: the skin on top was solid and dry, with it's distinctive cracked patterning. On the right (ignore the Bolete's stem) a common, cream coloured, puffball.
And slightly closer, the sulphur yellow of the Bolete's gills:
Not bad for an hours wondering. Now, there's a high probability I've miss-identified any or all of the above. My usual tactic before eating anything I find is to see if I could possibly confuse it with anything even remotely poisonous. Hardly fool-proof.
If you think you know better, please let me know. Perhaps before I eat any more of them..
..Look for mushrooms...
I know how it sounds, but I actually love it. I'm fairly new to it, but foraging seems to have come as a natural extension to brewing beer and wine from whatever I could find in the garden, lingering under hedgerows, or anything that was simply too slow to avoid me.
Killerton has giant areas of pasture land dotted with a mix of old broad leaf and fir trees, cultivated land, and woodland. In a word, everything, and seemingly a never ending variety of fungi.
Until I started taking an interest in these things I barely saw any. Now I normally see two or three species on a quick walk to Tesco, and at least six or seven wandering around Killerton.
Using my ever practical Food for Free (original 1970's edition) field guide. Aside from the (literally) plate sized parasol mushrooms, and some impressive sized horse mushrooms, here's a handful of what else I found today:
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| Shaggy Inkcaps in Woodland |
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| Large oak tree surrounded by what I think are probably honey fungus |
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| Some scattered Orange Peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia according to Wikipedia..) Not sure about the brown mushrooms on the left? |
And slightly closer, the sulphur yellow of the Bolete's gills:
Not bad for an hours wondering. Now, there's a high probability I've miss-identified any or all of the above. My usual tactic before eating anything I find is to see if I could possibly confuse it with anything even remotely poisonous. Hardly fool-proof.
If you think you know better, please let me know. Perhaps before I eat any more of them..
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