Foraging

WeLuvIbiza said:
Foraging would be much more fun in these little babies were indigenous to the uk;

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Peyote?

Don't underestimate the UK liberty cap - by weight one of the strongest shrooms you can take. We also have fly agarics - beautiful looking mushrooms, but a different kind of chemical producing the trip and many find them a lot less pleasant.
 
Peyote, yes, a fabulous gift from the gods:D

Spent many a happy hour with ye olde Liberty cap but finding the little blighters seems to have gotten much harder these days.

In the summer I do like collecting any manner of berries, usually ending up in jam or smoothies seeing as various wine making projects failed miserably. That said I did make some nice dandelion beer once (recommended).
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
Peyote, yes, a fabulous gift from the gods:D

Spent many a happy hour with ye olde Liberty cap but finding the little blighters seems to have gotten much harder these days.
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The house my dad used to stay in had lib caps in the back garden. Someone managed to get them going in their own garden by stamping the caps (and hence the spores) into the ground, although amounts vary from year to year. TBH, I'm not a huge fan of psychedelics.

You want to be careful of going out picking since fresh ones became illegal. I've actually heard of the rozzers parking up beside fields to bust mushroom pickers. :rolleyes: You'd think they'd have more to do.

Fly agarics are still legal, though.
 
agentundercover said:
Have you read up on Noma?

Copenhagen restaurant, no 1 in world ( tho a list with as much real worth as the dj mag one perhaps). Specialises in danish cuisine, lots of it is foraged - chefs often start the day looking for berries and grasses in fields.

http://www.thecriticalcouple.com/noma.html
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I think we chatted about this place before.
Some friends wanted to go there when we were there in Feb. but earliest table was in April or something. (you had a similar result?)
 
agentundercover said:
Have you read up on Noma?

Copenhagen restaurant, no 1 in world ( tho a list with as much real worth as the dj mag one perhaps). Specialises in danish cuisine, lots of it is foraged - chefs often start the day looking for berries and grasses in fields.

http://www.thecriticalcouple.com/noma.html
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Interesting article, but all sounds vaguely pretentious when I'd argue food derived from foraging should be anything but. Also the business with the live shrimp: :eek:
 
Morbyd said:
I think we chatted about this place before.
Some friends wanted to go there when we were there in Feb. but earliest table was in April or something. (you had a similar result?)
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yep - i got up on 14th Jan and hit redial for an hour.

got a £10 phone bill for the international calls, but did not get through.

i'll keep trying though, one day maybe.

btw - if anyone ever bags a reservation i'll buy it off them!
 
agentundercover said:
yep - i got up on 14th Jan and hit redial for an hour.

got a £10 phone bill for the international calls, but did not get through.

i'll keep trying though, one day maybe.

btw - if anyone ever bags a reservation i'll buy it off them!
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I saw a show on the restaurant, they have a big waiting list for reservations. I think it is a bit much myself, just another hook to get you in the joint.
 
So anyone been out shrooming this season - for either edible or psychedelic varieties?

Seen a few liberty caps and spotted some of the smaller species of puffball (inc the spikey looking ones) a week or so ago. I should man up and pick/eat some puffballs, though the big ones are meant to be tastiest. Planning another walk this weekend - take a different route out of the village that I haven't previously explored.
 
There were loads in the neighbouring field at the out of the ordinary festival last weekend.

Made for an interesting weekend. :lol:
 
Our 4yr old daughter got collins gem Mushrooms&toadstools book off her grandad,all she wants to do now is go foraging and see can we find ones from the book..she wanted to pick some for her nature table in school yesterday we decided not to just in case some kid eats them..
 
Here are some funghi pics from my garden today. Can anyone help identify any :?: .. too cautious to eat them fearing getting poisoned & missing the closings !!

















The last 2 pics above are monster funghi - watering can added to photo for scale. The pic on the RHS is of the 'skeleton' of a fungus which reached maximum size a few weeks back. More like are emerging nearby :eek: ...
 
6th down look like some sort of woodland puffball... possibly

I'm 99% sure I've seen some varieties of puffball while out (tho never the huge ones, which are meant to be the nicest to eat). I would just work on ID'ing shrooms and not picking/eating for a while. They say the best way to get started is to focus on just a few species (tho obviously depends on what's around you) and take it from there. Chanterelles and ceps are meant to be common and about as tasty as it gets, but I've never seen any...
 
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Johnny Vodka said:
6th down look like some sort of woodland puffball... possibly

I'm 99% sure I've seen some varieties of puffball while out (tho never the huge ones, which are meant to be the nicest to eat). I would just work on ID'ing shrooms and not picking/eating for a while. They say the best way to get started is to focus on just a few species (tho obviously depends on what's around you) and take it from there. Chanterelles and ceps are meant to be common and about as tasty as it gets, but I've never seen any...
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Thanks ! There's quite a few of the 6th one down dotted around - they are without stem, and on open soil/chipped bark averaging about an inch in diameter. The combo of heat and lack of rain is retarding / causing everything to go over pretty fast unfortunately and shed load perished under the mower the other day...

Do you think there's a chance the big ones in the bottom photos are the super-tasty puffballs ? There are now about 4 which have hit the size of the one on in the photo on the LHS.
 
The super tasty puff balls were white AFAIK or at least the ones we used to eat on our farm were :rolleyes:

Also found some massive mushrooms one year which were just like normal mushrooms except they were about 18" in diameter, my Dad called them horse mushrooms and was too scared to eat them :lol:

Weather was perfect for shroom picking until the hot weather came to us, maybe we might get an extended season this year if October isn't too cold.

My days of shroom picking are over now, far too old to be stumbling around in fields in the early morning bent over looking for little liberty caps :rolleyes: plus peyote is much better and they're legal to grow at home ;)

Only foraging I've done this year is the usual blackberry picking for my yearly blackberry jam making :D
 
Everything's coming back to life now... and I'm ready for a forage. :D I haven't yet had the chance to wear the walking boots I bought in November. :spank:

I'd love to spot (and eventually eat) some morels - meant to be out March - May in the UK - but don't know how easy they are to find. Been a mild/wet winter here, so maybe a good chance of finding some early-ish on?

Is peyote easy to grow at home? Not brave enough to eat it, but like the idea of growing it!
 
Oooh I love the woods

Oh I luv to have a good walk in the countryside, and ya can't beat being with trees :)
My favourite food forage is berries! Raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, goosegoggs... Oooh yummy
 
Minxy said:
Oh I luv to have a good walk in the countryside, and ya can't beat being with trees :)
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Yeah, definitely. I love it on a Sunday morning, providing weather is okay & I've not been out the night before. A wee while to wait before they're any berries, but wood sorrel and wild garlic aren't too far off, not that I'd eat either in huge quantities.
 
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