| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| PeteS |
Friday Forage... Chicken of the Woods is hereJust a few things spotted while out and about on Friday...Young Chicken of the Woods 
Another 
Wild Garlic for as far as the eye can see £££££ 
St George's (yawwwnn) 
Weird 
Wonderful 
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| bingo |
Looks like a false morel? | ||||||
| Jamanda |
Is that bad? |
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| bingo |
If you eat it, yes, you could die. |
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| Jamanda |
Ooooh!  Is that photo weird or wonderful?
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| bingo |
weird | ||||||
| hedgehogpie |
Young 'chicken' is great, has the texture of oyster, all soft and lovely. hmmm. | ||||||
| Treacodactyl |
Not having found any morels I've not had the problem, but I knew about the similar looking poisonous ones. If I was to ever find a morel how do you tell the difference? White stem, spore print, smell or something else? Looking out for CotWs but not seen any yet, plenty of ramsons though. |
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| skedone |
well that is wrong because if false morel is prepared right it is safe to eat ( tho even breathing the fumes from cooking will kill you(it has a 14% mortality rate ) but then again some people are not affected by the toxin like that family in France who ate them and 2 out of the six fell ill.
it is a very complex toxin what it does in simple terms is this ... the acid in your stomach reacts with gyromitirin to produce monomethyl-hydrazine better know as rocket fuel |
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| Jamanda |
Well that's reassuring 
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| RichardW |
I thought "weird" was Jews ear & "wonderfull" was false morrel? Justme |
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| Slim |
The best way I've heard to differentiate between true and false morels is that true morel should be hollow all the way through, and false morels aren't. Anyone else go by that principle? | ||||||
| skedone |
i find best way to tell them apart is the fact they dont look the same lol | ||||||
| PeteS |
Hi,
Been a bit busy over the weekend. 'Weird' is Verpa conica - no common name that I know of - it is considered rare. Not poisonous as such but not great to eat. At first I thought it was a false morel too. Verpa conica is always associated with hawthorn and there was a ring of about 9 of these around the base of a hawthorn. When you see them they do not look real, almost plastic. False morel is associated with pines and the top is more red brown. V conica is dull brown. Otherwise they are similar. 'Wonderful' is Mitrophora semilibera, common name half-free morel. Edible but not great which I can confirm! There were about 8 of these around an ash tree but can be associated with hawthorn too. I have been searching hard for Morchella esculenta (common morel) - said to be the best edible morel. Common (this year at least it is not) as I have now found every other type of 'morel'. Still. it has been a great learning experience. |
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| cab |
I've never seen a false morel before!
What habitat was that in? |
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| PeteS |
The false morel (or Gyromitra esculenta) tends to be associated with pines.
Verpa conica - always found with hawthorn. Semi-free - almost always ash or hawthorn. To tell the difference between all of the above and the 'A-list' morels (Morchella elata and Morchella esculenta) cut one in half and look at the cross section. M elata and M escalenta both have the stem joining the head at the bottom outside edge. See the cross sections here... http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6467.asp http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6466.asp The Semi-free morel has the lower part of the head FREE from the stem (hence semi-free). See the cross sections in... http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6464.asp Verpa conica has then stem going all the way to the TOP of the head. See... http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6912.asp As does the false morel (stem going to the top of the head)... http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5984.asp |
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| skedone |
seems i found some free-stems today did wonder what they were as stem was not connected to head in normal way lol thanks for this save me searching it out | ||||||
| steve01 |
cab
have you seen that willow covered in cotw at newnham will try and take photo and post |
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| cab |
Haven't nad time to go looking for any forage in Cambridge for a couple of weeks now  Will do, will make time!
Should be plenty COTW about if there is some out in Newnham. |
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| cab |
Gosh, but I think I know the one you mean now (after a walk over lunch). Had a couple of foragers visit it, from the looks of it, but theres still masses there. I've picked it from that tree for the last couple of years, but haven't seen anything like that much on it before. Used to be just on one side of it. |
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| cinders |
Hope i can manage to find one this year.Not found any edible kind yet. | ||||||
| cab |
Norfolk, eh? Any good old willow and polar trees up your part of Norfolk? |
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| Slim |
We're finally getting rain, after a couple mostly dry weeks. Hopefully the fungi will react accordingly. I've never gone for COTW before. Easy to spot? Hard to confuse? Tastier than the day is long? likes to grow on ________? | ||||||
| cab |
Errm... Over there... Its picked in your part of the US I belive. Trees, especially willow and poplar here, but also sycamore, oak, many kinds of wood. If its a toxic tree (e.g. laburnum, yew, eucalyptus) don't eat it. Cook it, and you ought to be fine. Confused with... Errm... You might get cinnabar polypore over there, don't immediately know what else you might encounter. Easty to spot; yes, very, its bright yellow on wood. Tastes like mushroomy chicken, excellent when young, rather less exciting when its getting on becuase its tougher, more fibrous. |
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| cinders |
 what do they look like  I don't think norfolk has any wild shrooms
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| cab |
Dare I post my favourite shrooming haunts in Norfolk.... No, sorry, too ingrained, I just can't do it 
Norfolk has some great shrooming. Look along by where you get big trees close to fresh water, see what you see growing on them. Should encounter some COTW this time of year. And think of all of the forestry up there... Lots of good shrooming there. Then theres the sand dunes along the North, with pine behind them... |
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| cinders |
I have woods near me which grow fir and oak trees, will i find any there.What about other shrooms in this area of woods.Go on gives us a clue where to look I don't require alot its only me who eats them and then i have to be careful :wink:And i hate to drive
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| cab |
Fir and oak, this time of year... Well theres St. Georges mushrooms, chance of morels, chicken of the woods and oyster mushrooms on the oak stumps, very soon a fighting chance of the occasional Agaricus, wet bits could even have chanterelles soon... Tell me, acid soil in that bit of Norfolk? Sandy soil? Roughly whereabouts are you? |
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| cinders |
I think its sandy soil were west norfolk and about 40mls from cambridge | ||||||
| cab |
Oh, in that case I'd go looking in field edges for little white mushrooms, post pics here and we'll see if you've got St. Georges mushrooms. Look out for bracket fungi on the trees, and in summer/autumn you should have plenty of assorted agaricus and boletus, not to mention more russulas than you can shake a stick at, puffballs, etc. | ||||||
| cinders |
were close to the fens is that any good | ||||||
| cab |
Only if you go ambling around there 
Look out for messy looking but grand old trees near fresh water. Odds are they're poplar or willow, and sooner or later if you spot those in Spring you'll find chicken of the woods. |
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| steve01 |
here are photos as promised.
cab i saw somebody else had cut some plenty to go round. 
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| cab |
Thats the one! Magnificent, ain't it? Lovely pictures. | ||||||
| cinders |
need to make mental note of this one and check map for where to go
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| Steve A |
I've spotted one just emerging on a dead oak, so will pop back in a few days & harvest it.
Anybody got any good recipies? |
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| cab |
Curry it; get some beef, chicken or lamb, dice COTW up the same size, and curry it with the rest of the ingredients. Works really well. Or in a meat and shroom stew or pie, just as good. | ||||||
| Bernie66 |
Can I freeze it or would it be better drying it? Assuming of course I am lucky | ||||||
| cab |
If you get it REALLY young then you can just about get away with drying it, but it still isn't good dried; never really reconstitutes well when you cook it, no matter whether or how long you soak it. Better frozen.
I used to always blanch it or fry it off before freezing, now I just slice or dice it and bag it up. Sometimes I marinate it with olive oil, garlic, herbs and just a tiny dash of wine before freezing, that means I've got something for veggie kebabs when people who don't eat meat come round for barbecues. Works nicely, if you baste with more oil during cooking. Pickles okay too, but so few people seem to like pickled shroom that I rarely do that. |
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| Bernie66 |
Sounds good to me, I have this fantasy about collecting enough wild stuff during three seasons to get me through winter with home grown and seasonal veg without it getting boring. I think it probably involves a chest freezer or two though. | ||||||
| cab |
Or a dehydrator, maslin pan and a keen eye for winter greens
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| Bernie66 |
Whats a maslin pan? And my wild food knowledge is limited I'm afraid so I go for what I know. | ||||||
| cab |
Maslin pan... Errm, preserving/jam making pan.
In Winter, you've got a surprising number of edible greens about still. You're on the Wirral with all of those pesky Tranmere fans... Are you within foraging range of the coast there? Cos there should be some cracking greens to be had there in Winter. |
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| Bernie66 |
The whole of the wirral is within cycling distance of the coast ,mate.
http://www.wirral.gov.uk/LGCL/100006/200073/670/content_0001012.html Beautiful |
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| cab |
Excellent... If you look at the top ten wild foods at the seaside article, you'll see that there are some cracking foods to find in winter there. Young shoots of alexanders appear in Autumn, they're good through till Spring, and then theres sea beet too. Thats as well as all the other stuff like chickweed, dandelions, etc.
Anywhere clean enough for shellfish? |
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| Bernie66 |
Its printed and going with me next time I go down there
Its clean enough for shellfish, that's on the agenda this year too |
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| PeteS |
Be careful with COTW. I know someone that became vilolently ill after eating just a small amount of it. About 10% of the population have an allergic reaction to it. | ||||||
| Bernie66 |
I am ok, will try it in small portions on other victims. Are there any pre-eating trials or just a "try a little" first approach? |
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| cab |
With any new food, always try a bit first. Chicken of the woods isn't THAT risky, especially when it is young, when its cooked, and fed to adults; goes right through some people, which is the worst I've observed with it. Most likely, toxicity of COTW is down to what its growing on, hence the general advice to avoid it off poisonous trees (laburnum and yew I've seen it on, apparently its also found on eucalyptus, whcih can be well dodgy). Theres meant to be an extraordinarily rare reaction to it where you hallucinate; I suspect that may be caused by other fungi growing on it. Its the kind of thing where everyone has heard of it but no one has ever observed it. |
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| Bernie66 |
Will do. I have read somewhere that if you put a cut plant which you may react badly to on a sensitive part of your body-i.e. the soft skin at the top of your underarm it may irritate you and warn you of its inedibility. | ||||||
| cab |
I can think of a number of poisonous plants where you'd need somewhere rather more sensitive than that to warn you that its dangerous. And one or two which are very differently toxic by absorption across a mucosal membrane than they are by ingestion. |
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| Bernie66 |
Fair enough, it didn't seem too believable anyway. I'll continue to test unknown varieties on other people first. |