Calvatia / Langermannia gigantea, Giant Puffball

Thanks to Peter the farmer for pointing me in the direction of this one and permission to walk across his land, a friendly chat while out Blackberry picking got around to the topic of mushrooms,he did forewarn me that this one would be past it's best.However it was worth the look as I haven't seen one in this last couple of years and what ever stage they are at they are a thing to marvel.
When they are young and fresh (firm with the flesh white throughout) they are simple to cook, peel and slice 2cm thick, season with salt and white pepper, panfry with butter until golden brown both sides.They go well with the usual things, eggs and bacon being good.

Aurantiporous fissillis , The Greasy Bracket

The Greasy Bracket fits into a category of fungi that I admire and generally walk past, not worth eating or no use for the table. This is a striking example of it growing aggressively, so I stopped and took a few photographs.It most likely caused the rot in this tree in the first instance and led to the tree being felled for safety.

felled tree stack

aurantiporous fissillis, aggressively growing in a decayed tree.

aaurantiporous fissillis, 'the greasy bracket'

aurantiporous fissillis, 'the greasy bracket'

On the upside I'd the top table for a break.

Siamese stinkhorn!

The stinkhorn 'Phallus impudicus' normally grows a single stype/stem, this one's a bit of an odditty.

Fly agaric gallery

Amanita muscaria-fly agaric, like to grow in groups and are a good (almost always) indicator of the presence of ceps nearby, if there is peppery boletes growing it's game on!

Winter Chanterelles, Yellow Legs

Craterellus tubaeformis, Winter chanterelle

Craterellus tubaeformis, formally known as 'Cantharellus' tubaeformis, reclassification in the fungi world happens, the common names stick 'Winter chanterelles' or 'Yellow legs' are what they are known as locally and across the sea on our neighbouring Island and work for everyday use.

They are a member of the Chanterelle family and there are a few variations in the species but unless pushed they all get picked under the one title. I picked two variants in one area, one basket and the winter chanterelle tag will do for both.
When you find them they are quite rewarding, usually in good numbers and in the right spot unless you've a good market for them you'll be leaving loads behind.
Pine and spruce stands on damp ground are good spots to start looking, my closest spot is under beech but they like the damp leaf litter, on the drier areas they don't appear. 

Up hill picking

Carefully washed and left to dry

Craterellus tubaeformis.
What to look for.
Cap, up 3-4 cm wides, wavy margins deeply funnelled, brownish/yellowish.
Gills, greyish/ yellowish, vein like.
Stem, yellow or brownish,up to 5- 6 cm long and hollow all the way.
Flesh, thin, fragile when old,  smell- indistinctly mushroom.
Spore print, white.
Habitat, Spruce, Pine forest and Beech leaf litter in moist conditions.
Season, late summer through to early Winter frost.

Cooking with them, for sauces cut the caps of keeping them intact, chop the legs up roughly before use as they can be slighty stringy and hang of your fork. Pickling, they look pretty in a jar and taste good.Drying, this intensifies the flavour making them a good addition to soups or stews just crunch them up in your hand before use.

'Craterellus tubaeformis'

'Slippery jacks' Suillus luteus

Slippery Jacks, Suillus luteus

Slippery jacks 'pinheads'

A member of the Boletus family that have sponge like tubes under the cap where one would normally expect to find gills.

Found in abundance easy to identify and makes for easy pickings, the downsides are they're slightly labourious as you need to peel them and discard the slimy skin,hence the title 'Slippery jacks' best if you can pick them small and on a dry day for immediate use,or bottling up for winter treats, peel and thinly slice the larger ones for drying. The slugs get to them quickly as well usually attacking the sponge first.Slippery jacks do soak up a lot of water in moist conditions however I always give them a quick rinse before proceeding to use them as i do with most of the mushrooms I use, especially chanterelles. They are mycorrhizzal enjoying relationships with spruce conifers and pine.Depending on the season they can found towards the end of June through to August.

Slippery jack, Suillus luteus
What to observe.
Cap. Up to 12cm brown yellowish brown
Gills. Sponge small tubes pale yellow darkening with age.
Spores. Pale yellow.
Stem. Thick fibrous yellowish. browning with a ring veil.
Smell. Pleasantly sweet and fruity
Habitat. Pines, Spruces.

Foraging Notes, Mushrooms.

Foraging is a good way to supplement the food basket, get outdoors and tune in with nature, it can be dangerous however, without proper guidance and research fatal mistakes can be made.My friend Louis Smith advises when he takes a group out on a fungi foray, 'There old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but there's no old and bold mushroom hunters' sound advice. Louis is co author of 'Forest Fungi in Ireland' a very good guide to what is around and well worth including in your library.

Red-stalked Boletus 'Boletus erythropus'

I've been foraging for mushrooms quite a while now and have a hit list that I'm certain with in my local area, all the good ones are on it, there are others that I'm fairly sure of  but until I'm in the company of someone I trust, a mental note of location and a photograph is all I will take.

What is a mushroom?
 Simply a mushroom/fungi is a fruit body on a mycelium -the web like structure of hypae that run underground or through rotten wood, and leaf litter.I liken it to an apple on a tree.
 The purpose of the mushroom is reproduction and it distributes spores 'seeds'.
There are thousands of variations of this 'fruit body', the difference in structure and forms and their particular peculiarities leads into 'classifications'.
This is first achieved by dividing the fungi into two groups. mycetoza - slime moulds- which we will skip and true fungi eumycota which we will focus on.

Eumycota or true fungi are divided into sub-divisions,  reasons ranging from structure to spore reproduction.
Gill fungi i.e. saffron milk cap, wood blewitt, tube fungi- boletes, fungi with out gills- i.e. chanterelles, puffballs, Cup and Flask fungi-morels,
These mushrooms/fungi share the fact they need a host to live off as unlike plants they can't produce chlorophyll and use the host as a source of food.
Their relationship with a host will further determine their groupings and habitats.



Mushrooms relationships with their host/habitat.

Parasitic fungi take nutrients and give nothing in return.

Mycorrhizal fungi take the food and in return provide nutrients to the host.

Saprobes decompose dead matter.

Some form a Symbiotic relationship with a tree or host, so the types of tree in a particular area can lead us to assume certain mushrooms will be found in that area,  however there are further complications in the matter, soil type, pollution, soil disturbance and prior climatic conditions.
In looking at true fungi we will be breaking these into three groups; edible, inedible and poisonous.

How can we identify fungi?
In all guides mushrooms will be described in a similar way,  Descriptions given will be visual- colour-appearance-shape, olfactory, tactile, habitat, and in some cases taste (this is only in the cases where one is satisfied that the mushroom is not poisonous in any manner).
Cap
The cap will be described along with it’s colour as being of a certain size, shape and any tactile notes I.e. slippery, sticky.
Gills/tubes.
Colour, how they are attached to the stem, size, spacing and shape..
Spores.
Colour when a spore print is made- place a cap gill side down on apiece of white card for 1hr+ and the spores will drop onto the card giving a colour indication. Where similarities are to great a microscope can be used to look at the spores formation.
Stem.
 Height, width, shape, the base of the stem, colour, surface, any markings present.
Flesh.
Colour, any discolouration upon cutting, smell, texture. (In the lab mycologist use  different chemicals to determine reactions on contact with the flesh )
Habitat.
Trees, soil types, leaf litter, moss, pasture.
Smell.
 Differences in smells are used in the identification of mushrooms
Microscopes.
As mentioned above the use of a microscope and chemical agents are used in laboratories to enable the mycologist to clearly define the ‘genus’ family of mushrooms, worldwide variations of species  appear in each family. Some guidebooks do contain spore formations as a guide.
Further information can be obtain through books, browsing the web and attending a workshop/hunt.


Fungal names.
Mycologist only apply names in Latin-this method of identification makes research  and communication easier as it first gives the family/group/genus name followed by the specific mushrooms species name.
For example 'boletus edulis'.
 The first name in Latin tells us that it is from the ‘bolete’ family and the second name ‘edulis’ the specific mushroom from that group. this allows us to know the group and the second is descriptive and it is indeed very edible as the name suggest. Another in this family is called ‘boletus satanas‘ no prize here for surmising it is bad for your health, though it comes from the ‘boletus‘ family that provide us with the no 1 mushroom on most list. Boletus are characterised by sponge like tubes where you’d normally expect gills to be.
Common names apply to most mushrooms,Penny Bun, Porcini, Steinpilz, Borowik and Cep are all common names for the 'boletus edulis’, but in different languages.
It's best to familiarise yourself with both Common and Latin names it makes researching and identifying and communication easier.

Edibles.
Those that are consumable, again the similarities to selecting fruit are applied -only specimens that are in good condition should be consumed, those that are old, insect infested or immature, should be left in their habitat. As a general rule when picking mushrooms leave 25% of the type untouched to grow and provide for next year.
Have a hit list of edibles.
Always cook wild mushrooms  before consumption. Never ingest large amounts,. Keep a sample.

Inedibles
These are unfit for consumption, and are  by far the largest majority of mushrooms. For various reasons, bitter taste, to tough to digest, unpalatable, size -to small to ever be worth picking in the first place  aka little brown jobbies-.

Poisonous  
I cannot stress the importance of familiarising yourself with these mushrooms. There are among the same family of mushrooms some that are edible and others that are Deadly!
The Amanita family has some of the most deadly, ‘the death cap’ Amanita phalloides, ‘destroying angel’ Amanita virosa being two that cause liver failure, termed phalloid poisoning,
'the fly agaric’ Amanita muscaria {the red and white one usually depicted with an elf on top in fairytale books}, ‘the panther cap’ Amanita pantherina  both contain muscarine poison.
Psychotropic poisoning, caused by magic mushrooms- psilocybe/ liberty caps- are to be avoided.
Brown roll rims. Paxus involutous
Yellow stainer. Agarics xanthoderma
The sickener. Russula emetica.


Where and when?
When autumn's best, though every thing is weather dependant mushrooms do like a hot summer with some rain late august and nice temperatures to follow during September.  long wet periods and cold breezes aren't good.
There are mushrooms in appearance year round though St George's 'Calocybe gambosa' and Common Morels 'Morchella esculenta' usually start the season for most hunters.
Early in the morning and midweek are good times, as there's fewer people around.
While mushrooms can be found in most places and as mentioned earlier the habitat will dictate types. For edibles its best to cover areas of deciduous and coniferous woodland, as these two areas will provide a wide range of habitats that hopefully will provide a wide range of specimens. Of course park land and meadows can provide good habitats but are more likely to have been disturbed by pollution and pesticides.
 Remember to keep your bearings when in a new wood /area.

What to  wear/bring?
Suitable clothing, Wellingtons/waterproof walking boots, warm clothing, rain gear.
 Water, banana, bread or energy bar.
A Light Flat bottomed basket, or cloth bag with stiffened flat bottom {i.e. available at most supermarket tills, stiffen out with extra card board.
Small paper bags or waxed bread wrappers are good for isolating differing types of mushrooms in your bag/basket.
A sharp knife preferably with a folding blade,there are special knifes for mushroom hunters with a bristle brush on one end for cleaning of any dirt before you place your mushroom in the basket.
 Do not carry a open blade while walking.
Pen, notebook, Camera 2 build up your own records, take notes and photograph mushrooms you are unsure of for reference later at home.

Mobile phone, also let someone know your intended area of hunt and estimated time. accidents do happen.


RESPECT  THE COUNTRYSIDE.
LEAVE THE AREA AS YOU FOUND IT.
FOLLOW ANY INSTUCTIONS INDICATED IN FOREST/PARK LAND.
DO NOT TRESSPASS.
BRING YOUR LITTER HOME.
DO NOT  COLLECT SPECIMENS WHEN FIELD IDENTIFICATION WILL SUFFICE.
KEEP DOGS ON LEADS AND SCOOP WHENEVER.
DO NOT DISTURB  THE WILD LIFE UNECCESSARILY.
CLOSE ANY GATES THAT YOU MAY OPEN.

A list of my favourite edibles commonly found in the greater Dublin area.

Porcini. Boletus edulis.
Bay boletes. Xerocomus badius.
Saffron milk caps. Lactarius delicious.
Amethyst deceivers. Laccaria amethystea.
Hedgehog. Hydnum repandnum.
Giant puffball. Langermannia gigantea
Chanterelles. Cantharellus cibarius.
Yellow leg chanterelles. Cantharellus tubaeformis.
Wood blewitts. Lepista nuda
Slippery jacks. Suillus luteus.
Larch bolete.Suillus grevelli.
Brown birch boletes. Leccinum scabrum.

Penny Bun 'Boletus edulis'

A few of the poisonous mushrooms found in the greater Dublin area.

Death cap. Amanita phalliodes
Fly agaric. Amanita muscaria
Panther caps. Amanita pantherina
Brown roll rims. Paxus involutous
Yellow stainer. Agarics xanthoderma
The sickener. Russula emetica.
.

Fly agaric 'Amanita muscaria'

During the course of the season I will post my Finds of edible mushrooms, using the above notes as a guide and hope you can use them as an aide to your forages, naturally there after the responsibility is all your own.

Short clip at Killegar Mushroom Festival, spelt my name wrong must be my accent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHjEHgeCndU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
















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