Fungi - Article in the Metro Thursday Oct 13

[P Wren]

Morning all. Lovely weather in London today...not.

I don't really like my daily commute on these dark grey soaking wet mornings - squeezed up to some strangers armpit while being repeated bashed in the shin by some Ms's handbag - it's about as far from the outdoors and all things Bushcrafty as you can get so it was a pleasant surprise as I was reading through my 'soggy' copy of the Metro to this morning to find an article on edible fungi and mushrooms.

The interview was with Antonio Carluccio talking about what was out there and how fungi where underrated here in the UK because of a general lack of knowledge on the subject.

I thought it a little odd that more wasn't made about sustainable gathering or safety aspects of foraging for fungi - but hey it's the Metro !

To all you lucky country dwellers - I hope your foraging grounds aren't over run by by us townies at the weekend

PW

 

[stovie]

....To all you lucky country dwellers - I hope your foraging grounds aren't over run by by us townies at the weekend ......

PW

Hi PW

I am lucky enough to have wonderful foraging ground on my doorstep. And fungi are a passion of mine. You are right in what you say about sustainability AND safety.

Sustainability and safety can be one and the same, by picking only full grown fruit bodies, which (a) allows for spore dispersal and (b) correct identification, as many fungi are very difficult to accurately identify in the immature stage. The other main point on sustainability is to cut stems close to the ground with a sharp knife, and NOT pull fungi from the ground as this disrupts the mycellium and can potentially ruin future growth.

Sorry if I am preaching to the initiated

I love to see "townies" on my patch, they are often MORE respectful than the locals

 

[Marts]

The other main point on sustainability is to cut stems close to the ground with a sharp knife, and NOT pull fungi from the ground as this disrupts the mycellium and can potentially ruin future growth.

Of course this is fine if you can readily ID the fungi in question. If however you are unsure then it is far better to remove the entire fruiting body for identification purposes. Potentially you can end up with some disasterous results by not, for instance, recovering the volval sack.

 

[stovie]

Of course this is fine if you can readily ID the fungi in question. If however you are unsure then it is far better to remove the entire fruiting body for identification purposes. Potentially you can end up with some disasterous results by not, for instance, recovering the volval sack.

From a mycological point of view you are absolutely right. But i would argue that for the sake of gastronomy, stick with readily identifiable species

 

[moduser]

I recommend Carluccio's book
Complete Mushroom Book: The Quiet Hunt
Too big to use as a field guide (although the field guide section is very good) but great recipes for using fungi

 

[P Wren]

I am ashamed to say, that after 30 years hanging out in many woody places I doubt that I could reliably name half a dozen types of fungi.

I have no excuse because both my folks took an interest and we'd regularly be hanging around waiting while my Dad took pictures of fungi during walks through the New Forest.

Hopefully I'll get to a Bushcraft meet and follow a foraging sortie. I'm not sure my Loft Wiseman field guide is sufficient for me to start on my own !
Is it true you need a license to gather mushrooms and fungi or is this just in places like Epping Forest where there's a danger of people stripping the forest bare ?

I'm sure I've seen Antonio Carluccio interviewed on Newsroom Southeast or one of the Local London news shows about his enthusiastic passion for mushrooms in cooking.

Paul

 

[stovie]

Is it true you need a license to gather mushrooms and fungi or is this just in places like Epping Forest where there's a danger of people stripping the forest bare ?

Paul

Not to my knowledge

 

[moduser]

Never heard that before, doen't mean it's not true though.

 

[Porcupine]

cant say im an expert but i was told on my latest bushcraft course to avoid all shrooms that have gills on the underside or a ring around the stem.

the rationale behind it was that then you'd avoid all the species that kill,still might end up being sick though.

 

[gregorach]

That pretty much only leaves boleti, hedgehogs and brackets... And the Devil's Boletus is pretty nasty, so I've heard. But yes, avoiding gilled mushrooms does cut out all the really dangerous ones.

 

[storm]

cant say im an expert but i was told on my latest bushcraft course to avoid all shrooms that have gills on the underside or a ring around the stem.

of course it's imperative to know the fungi one consumes, it seems that whomever taught you that (in above quote) is just reiterating nonsense because he/she knows nothing about fungi (but safety is of the utmost importance). to say that one should avoid all gilled or ringed shrooms is like saying: in order to avoid being poisoned by plants, avoid the ones with leaves or ones with bark around them.

maybe 85-90% of edible mushrooms are gilled. i am well aware of the difficulty most people (i was one of them) have in "getting into", or becoming familiar with, fungi. it's scary, considering the stories we hear out there.

 

[Porcupine]

storm,

i was more refering to marts remark about shroom id,the guy that gave me this rough rules said more then these rules only

basicly he said:
1 get to know your shrooms (preferably combine a book with someone knowledgable in the field)
2 be sure what it is before you eat it,when in doubt leave it out.

while we were chatting a bit more he gave the "rough rule" about avoiding gills for when you end up in a survival situation and you dont know what it is.anyways,with my luck id end up finding a new undocumented type that would finish me off al the same