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Mushroom question

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
After loads of hiking and blank trips I finally managed to find my first decent haul of fungi. Spent most of the day walking around a wood in swansea, covering loads of ground, only to find these in a very small patch under some young oak trees (the entire wood is oak). Spent ages looking for them, and it wasn't until I'd unzipped to answer the call of nature that I realized I was about to urinate on a promising little patch of chantrelles. Got a few hedgehog mushrooms as well (tasty but not as nice as chantrelles). Apart from the small patch where I found the chantrelles the entire wood was devoid of them, any theories on why this might be?

Is it a case of conditions in that patch being perfect and the rest of the wood being less suitable?

or is it just a case of it maybe being early/late in the season and the rest of the wood having already/not fruited yet?

There hasn't been much rainfall recently up until this week, which could be the cause.

When do the chantrelles generally stop popping up?
Any advice about harvesting? e.g is it better for the fungus if you cut the stem before picking, or if you just pull the whole fruiting body out?
good job Fro - persistence definitely pays off. It is funny you mention the call of nature assist - It has often been the case with my hunting. Perhaps the lesson in that is that we should try to be more aware, look at as many angles, etc. When I am hiking through the woods I look far, then near and back and forth. When I pass an area I look back.
Time for chanterelles here (Northern California) as well - next weekend will be my first real hunt of the season.
 
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I was always told it's better to cut them at the base as you don't harm the mycelium underground as you can do if you pull the whole thing up.
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Probably a good idea when collecting volumes, as shown above but if you are unsure which what type of fungus/mushroom you are dealing with, some books recommend taking the entire "fruit" to aid identification (along with a spore test). [Remember to collect with a basket tho', so that spores have a chance to drop back to earth where you are collecting - to allow for future growth.]
 
If I am not sure what the fungus is then I dont pick it!
I use a sharpened filling knife (painters knife) to cleanly cut through the base.
I quite often spot the cut bases of ceps when I am out hunting where someone has beaten me to it!
Mr x, there must be guided forays around your way this time of year?

I collected a basket of green walnuts, 4 ceps, & 1lb of chanterelles yesterday.
 
I'm with Foxfish there, if you don't know what it is leave it where it is.

What do you do with the walnuts Mart?
 
Well as you may know I am allergic to walnuts!! So I put them in storage for my Halloween party.
However I am told they are really good when fresh & the shell is still soft.
 
Horse Whisperer author - poison fungi

There was an interview with the author "Horse Whisperer", Nicholas Evans, in The Times last Saturday.
'Mr Evans was struggling with £65,000 of debt when the actor/director Robert Redford bought the film rights for his unfinished debut novel, The Horse Whisperer, for £3 million in 1995. When the adaptation, starring Redford and Kristin Scott-Thomas, was released three years later, it received Golden Globe nominations for best drama and best director. The success of the film also boosted the book, which sold 15 million copies around the world. ' - The Times


He's promoting his latest book & his wife's associated music. He's the chap that ate poison fungi with his wife and brother-in-law, & his wife, 2 years ago, in Scotland. Apparently 3 have been undergoing regular dialysis over the last year, 2 are awaiting kidney transplants and the third will likely need one in the future :(.

Horse Whisperer author, Nicholas Evans, poisoned by wild mushrooms - Times Online

In the article he said he and somebody else both thought the other had identified/recognised the fungi - perhaps something to beware of. Fortunately none of the children present ate the "mushrooms". At the time of the incident, there was talk of chanterelle-like fungi being the cause - apparently Scotland has a similar looking fungi that is poisonous and England has another:

'Michael Jordan, from the Association of British Fungus Groups, a mushroom conservation charity, said it was likely that Mr Evans and his family had mistaken Cortinarius speciosissimus for chanterelles. “This species grows in similar locations and can look similar to edible chanterelles,” he said. Mr Jordan said the mushroom was extremely toxic. “If people are in a decent state physically and you get them on to dialysis fast enough it is possible to survive, but there have been a smattering of cases across Europe where it was lethal. The liver is broken down into a pulp,” he said.' - The Times article, link above.

But this recent article from the mail has more of the details:

The deadly dish that poisoned our lives: How The Horse Whisperer's Nicholas Evans almost killed his own family with wild mushrooms | Mail Online

'Nick picked around a pound of the nut-brown fungi. But crucially, his basket was not actually filled with Boletus edulis, as ceps are officially known. Nick had unwittingly harvested a similar species, Cortinarius speciosissimus – or deadly webcap as they are commonly known, with good reason.' - The Mail

Poisonous:
article-1308997-0B048A40000005DC-959_224x423.jpg
Tasty:
article-1308997-0B048A6E000005DC-541_224x423.jpg


article-1051634-02802DF100000578-919_468x610.jpg
 
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i'm sorry but you'd have to really try hard to confuse a cep with a deadly web cap, seriously should have gone to Specsavers. If you cant tell gils from tubes/pores you shouldn't be eating wild fungi. Scary though about the confusion of chanterelles with another similar fungi, any idea what it was they confused it with? As I've been picking loads of chanterelles recently and from spot to spot there are slight differences in appearance.
 
It might be possible to mistake chanterelle for "false chanterelle"
false chanterelle are mostly found under conifer, poisonous to some but, not nice tasting anyway.
Meadow waxcap looks a little like chanterelle but grow in grassland.
The only thing I have mistaken them for was hedgehog fungus but only for a microsecond & I eat hedgehogs fungus anyway!
 
A very phallic looking stink horn has popped up among some tree stumps at the edge of our garden. Never seen one there before, spores probably brought in with the wood that is now cut up nearby in woodpiles, ready for the winter. Pity it wasn't chanterelles, oysters, ceps or porcini!

StinkHorn:
Stink+horn.JPG
StinkHornFungus-1445.jpg
 
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I went mushroom hunting in the Northwest of California last week. It is a very good year for Golden Chanterelles up there. They are mycorrizal to Sitka Spruce in this area - the forest floor is covered with spagnum moss, super green and it takes my breath away. Here are a few photos and youtube videos.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2VbNaF7AeA]YouTube - Humboldt Chanties! 036[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFd3L91RDZA&feature=related]YouTube - Humboldt Chanties! 033[/ame]

humboldt004.jpg

HumboldtChanties035.jpg

HumboldtChanties045.jpg
 
WOW! That's incredible!

Makes the few shaggy ink caps I found a few days ago look embarrassing!
 

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Hi Guys,
I am currently working on a site in Mid Wales, I am confident with ceps but these threw me a bit, they look just like all the other chanterelle but the colour is different. As you can see from the pic's they a deep golden colour. Is the colour very variable with chanterelle. I have tried them raw and they have that peppery after taste and key out to only chanterelle!!
 

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Yes, they can come in all sorts of shades from orange to pale yellow.

I found a patch of yellow staining mushroom today, thet really look like your common supermarket mushroom but can be quite nasty for some folk - I left them alone!
 
Do you ever get the Saffron Milkcaps? I had a feed of those and some Chanterelles yesterday, great stuff!
 
Walked back through a field on sat after lobstering and stumbled upon a dozen parasols :) easily the tastiest fungus i've eaten, found some at the start of the summer in st davids, and a few at home in Guernsey, but spent ages looking for them down the gower over the last couple of months and had'nt seen any. Just goes to show the some of the best finds are just down to plain luck.
 
Parasol & shaggy parasol look very similar but shaggys can be toxic for some folk so be carefull!
 
We get saffron milkcaps in Australia, one of the few wild mushies I pick because they are so distinctive! Also, because they look like they could be toxic, people freak when you eat them - I've shocked a few friends that way :D

Speaking of horse whisperers (a little off topic, but interesting nonetheless), this is some classy riding:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7v8Ck1crg"]YouTube - Stacy Westfall 2006[/ame]
 
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Season in full swing for me at least, 15lb of Ceps in two days & some very happy friends & restaurateurs.
I swapped a few lbs for a free meal in two different Italian eateries but it was the chefs faces when they saw the size & condition of my catch that made my day.
 
Any advice on morels? I know its a spring thing, but they are on my hit list next year and i'm determined not to miss out. I'm sick and tired or buying fungi as opposed to finding, plus your standard mushrooms no longer appeal, tasted the goods this autumn and now I know what i've been missin out on. I live in South wales a the moment, so your Guernsey spots are safe from me, in your opinions where are the best places to look, and when? I have access to all sorts of forests and parkland so there is potential to fill my boots (creamy pastas just arent the same without tasty wild fung :( ) any advice would be much appreciated.
 
You could ask for a mushroom hunting DVD for Christmas?
There are some really good ones around....
 
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