Yesterday morning, Mike joined me on my first mushroom foray with the Cotswold Fungus Group. My god, I have a lot to learn about fungus. But what a great time. I met some great “local people” and moreover and learned a ton (most of which I forgot, but what a good excuse to do it again, and this time with a notebook!).
Dave, the guy running the show, works for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to identify mushrooms growing on their protected land (Ravensroost Wood, in this case). Dave knows his fungi, from Latin names to funny stories like that of the black bulbous Daldinia Concentrica, aka King Alfred’s Cakes. The name comes from a legend that King Alfred burnt some old lady’s cakes while hiding out from the Danes in Somerset. These stories are far easier to remember than the Latin names, though I suppose you get better at that with practice.
Speaking of Latin names, Mike and I vowed to memorize at least one from our bucket of finds (by the way, real mushroom hunters carry cheesy wicker baskets rather than plastic buckets). We settled on Lepista Nuda, aka Wood Blewit, an edible mushroom which Dave claims is “the reason why God invented streaky bacon” (I think he meant that streaky bacon is the reason why God invented the Blewit, but nevermind).
Aside from mushrooms, it was really fun meeting some real English country folk, who were a lot less “country” than I expected. In fact, everyone was really nice and their enthusiasm about fungi was contagious. I often stereotype English people as being too polite and unimpressed, but these people were the complete opposite. I guess they were all just geeks like me.
A few of the mushrooms we found were edible, including puffballs, blewits and one baby oyster mushroom (and supposedly a “goblet” mushroom, but we were dubious on that one). We cooked the ones we were sure about in some olive oil with salt and pepper and had them with a bit of balsamic and Mike’s fresh bread. They were delicious, especially the puffballs and the oyster, and made extra tasty knowing that their edibility was confirmed by an expert.
You can see more photos here: Mushroom Hunting on Flickr.
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