I've been meaning to go on a proper fungal foray with an expert for a long time, whilst killing some time on Saturday evening I came across a blog called edible leeds. It's written by a young guy called Craig Worrall who runs various wild food foraging days in the local area, luckily he had a couple of dates remaining for fungi hunts so I dropped him an email and managed to get me and Carol on last Sundays outing. We met at the arranged place and took a short stroll into a beautiful mixed woodland, some pine plantation with areas of broadleaf such as Birch, Beech and Oak mixed in amongst.
I tried to take some pics but they're pretty pants really, I didn't want to disrupt the talks too much and there was so much good info that I was trying to take in as much as possible.
We started with a chat about all things mycology, the fifth kingdom and some useful foraging advice before moving on to see what we could find. A few yards into the woods and we stopped beside a cluster of soft puffballs, Craig explained the differences between the puffball species and also when and where to find them, this would be the format for the rest of the day, very useful.
A couple of the puffballs were in really good condition so we took a few for the basket.
A little further down the track we came across a single Wood Blewit, another for the basket
Next was a couple of Peppery Boletes
We'd only covered a hundred yards or so but the variety of fungi was amazing once you got your eye in, around the next corner were a couple of Fly Agarics and a pretty manky Cauliflower fungus
I can't remember the name of these, sorry Craig if you ever read this
Possibly more Blewits but I'm not sure, I took a notepad to jot some stuff down but forgot when we were there.
Russula
It was useful having a copy of Roger Phillips book to hand for the trickier ones, I've got a copy on my santa list
White Saddles
We had a really good haul after a couple of hours, just by taking one or two of each as we found them. The end of the walk finished in a nice Oak woodland where we all went off searching for what we could find, there was so much variety in this one area that we were able to add even more edibles to the basket, Wood Hedgehogs, Amethyst Deceivers and Waxcaps all went in. A nice finish to the day was a chance to actually try what we'd found, Craig had brought along a stove, frying pan and butter and also some other fungi treats he'd made previously.
I'm a bit gutted I've come across Craig's website so late in the season, but I'll definitely be doing more of his foraging days next year. Highly recommended for anyone in the local area, Craig really knows his stuff and came across as a really nice bloke. Check him out if you're interested.
I've got some ID board photos from Craig but I won't share them on here until I've asked him, if he says it's okay I'll add them later.
http://edible-leeds.blogspot.co.uk/
I tried to take some pics but they're pretty pants really, I didn't want to disrupt the talks too much and there was so much good info that I was trying to take in as much as possible.
We started with a chat about all things mycology, the fifth kingdom and some useful foraging advice before moving on to see what we could find. A few yards into the woods and we stopped beside a cluster of soft puffballs, Craig explained the differences between the puffball species and also when and where to find them, this would be the format for the rest of the day, very useful.
A couple of the puffballs were in really good condition so we took a few for the basket.
A little further down the track we came across a single Wood Blewit, another for the basket
Next was a couple of Peppery Boletes
We'd only covered a hundred yards or so but the variety of fungi was amazing once you got your eye in, around the next corner were a couple of Fly Agarics and a pretty manky Cauliflower fungus
I can't remember the name of these, sorry Craig if you ever read this
Possibly more Blewits but I'm not sure, I took a notepad to jot some stuff down but forgot when we were there.
Russula
It was useful having a copy of Roger Phillips book to hand for the trickier ones, I've got a copy on my santa list
White Saddles
We had a really good haul after a couple of hours, just by taking one or two of each as we found them. The end of the walk finished in a nice Oak woodland where we all went off searching for what we could find, there was so much variety in this one area that we were able to add even more edibles to the basket, Wood Hedgehogs, Amethyst Deceivers and Waxcaps all went in. A nice finish to the day was a chance to actually try what we'd found, Craig had brought along a stove, frying pan and butter and also some other fungi treats he'd made previously.
I'm a bit gutted I've come across Craig's website so late in the season, but I'll definitely be doing more of his foraging days next year. Highly recommended for anyone in the local area, Craig really knows his stuff and came across as a really nice bloke. Check him out if you're interested.
I've got some ID board photos from Craig but I won't share them on here until I've asked him, if he says it's okay I'll add them later.
http://edible-leeds.blogspot.co.uk/
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