Mushroom Growing

Beware Of False Morels!

It is springtime here in the UK and the Morel mushroom is one of few edible mushrooms that magically appear at this otherwise barren time of the year for mushroom hunters but one thing to be wary of is that the False Morel also makes an appearance at the exact same time as the Morel,  so you must be extra careful when out looking for Morels!

I had a surprise recently when I noticed several Morel-like mushrooms appear in my backgarden, a common spot for Morels to grow as they often appear within woodchip borders and are often spotted at garden centres too. However upon closer inspection I was not quite as lucky as I had first hoped – they actually turned out to be False Morels. The main visible difference between a False Morel and a normal Morel is that False Morel’s have an irregular pattern to their convolutions whereas the edible Morel has more of a honeycomb like structure with defined patterns. The False Morel looks more like it has just been scrunched up whereas a Morel is more structured. Hopefully by remembering this you should be able to steer away from False Morels.

false morels

Brown Birch Bolete (Leccinum Scabrum)

The Brown Birch Bolete, or Leccinum Scabrum, is unfortunately one of those rarer mushrooms which tastes rather poor when compared to its appearance. However it is not actually a rare mushroom, just rare in the taste department (so many of the edible mushrooms that look “tasty” are actually very good to eat too).

Brown Birch Bolete

From around late August the Brown Birch Bolete’s have been appearing in great numbers wherever the conditions are suitable, and this year seems to have been very good for them in particular. They will grow amongst Silver Birch trees (as the name suggests), and like wet, grassy ground. Expect to find them in many deiciduous forests, and anywhere really that Silver Birch are present.

Bolete Mushroom

Amazingly I recently spotted a larger, firm Brown Birch Bolete which beared the markings of some kind of animal. At first my guess was a bird of prey, using the Bolete as a perch, but the marks left by the feet of the animal don’t really seem right for a bird. Later on, after having some more time to consider it, my guess was that it could have been a Squirrel. Whatever it was, it looks like its gone to take a chunk out of either the Bolete, or whatever it was that it was carrying (maybe a nut), or maybe there was an insect or creature on the mushroom that it decided to eat. Anyway I’m open to any of your suggestions as to what you think may have left this print?

Bolete animal print

Chestnut Mushrooms Growing In A Field

With the temperature dropping recently in the South of England and plenty of wet, damp weather, conditions seem to be perfect for many different, more Autumnal types of mushrooms and it seems that Chestnut mushrooms have also been very happy with the recent conditions, as I’ve noticed many of these coming up in the past week or so.

Chestnut Mushrooms Growing

I’m not certain what these mushrooms are called, whether its a Chestnut mushroom (as they are labelled as in the shops), a Button mushroom, a Closed Cap mushroom, a White mushroom, a Horse Mushroom, a Portobello mushroom, they all seem to be the same type of mushroom – also known as Agaricus Bisporus. This is the number 1, most cultivated mushroom in the world, but when found growing in the wild it will have a more intense, nuttier flavour than the shop mushrooms which are usually far less fresh and less flavoursome.

Chestnut Mushroom Growing Wild

You will find few varieties of Agaricus Bisporus mushrooms growing in fields in the wild, and they like the presence of horses

Porcelain Fungus – Oudemansiella Mucida On A Beech Tree

Porcelain Fungus

When you find Porcelain Fungus growing somewhere you will probably find that it seems to have completely overtaken any other kind of fungi growing on that specific tree. That was pretty much the case in my case when I found various specimens growing on a dead beach tree – there were a few Oyster mushrooms scattered around too, but the majority of the tree was covered with Porcelain Fungus. This is because the mushroom produces a very powerful anti-fungal agent, a very clever way of preventing any other kind of fungi from attacking the host tree. For this reason you will find Porcelain Fungus completely taking over dead beech trees and such, and since this fact was found out the anti-fungal agent has since been extracted and used as a way of increasing yields of crops (almost every type of wheat will be using this extract, which is known as a Strobilurin fungicide).

Beefsteak Fungus – Fistulina Hepatica Growing In The Wild

One of the most gruesome or unappealing mushrooms that you are likely to see growing in the wild is the Fistulina Hepatica, also known as the Beeksteak Fungus, the Beefsteak Polypore or the Ox Tongue. Although it does tend to have the appearance of a lovely tasty and succulent beefsteak, it unfortunately fails to taste anything like this, and it is definitely one type of mushroom for those people with a more developed taste palette.

Although some people seem to think that it does look very tasty, some people say it would be more suited in some sort of horror movie – it appears like a red tongue, and often you will see red droplets below the mushroom as it grows on an Oak tree. No, this is not blood, but it certainly has this appearance, which is probably why it is referred to as the Ox Tongue by some people.

Beefsteak Fungus

I discovered an Oak tree in a forest in Dorset which had many Beefsteak Fungus growing on them – I counted at least 6, and took some photos of some of the bigger specimens. I didn’t bother to take on any of the mushrooms as I have tried it before, and wasn’t too keen on the flavour, although some people seem to like the taste. It has quite an acidic flavour, and some cookbooks recommend that you soak the fungus in a bowl of milk for about 24 hours before cooking it, to neutralize the flavour a little. When cooking you can slice it thinly and cook it like you would a steak, obviously for not as long but it can tend to be tough if not cooked for long enough.

Cauliflower Fungus – Sparassis Crispa Growing In The Wild

It was nice to discover a very large if slightly old Cauliflower Fungus growing at the base of an old pine tree in the New Forest, on a route that I usually pass where there are various other edible mushrooms.

Even though this Cauliflower fungus was possibly still okay to be eaten I decided to leave it for other people to enjoy, and I’ve heard that old ones are far harder to get clean (not that the young ones could be much easier to clean I imagine!).

This Cauliflower Fungus was probably about 40cm in diameter, and I’m pretty sure when I returned a few weeks later that someone (or something) else has taken part of it off, whether it tempted another person or not I’m not sure.  They can grow much bigger then this one, and if you do find one this size then its best to just take off a small section – its unlikely that you will be able to eat all of it, unless you are feeding many many people with it!

The mushroom itself is supposed to have a strong, nutty flavour, and is considered to be one of the better types of edible mushrooms. It is very hard to confuse this with any other kind of wild mushroom, the only one bearing any kind of resemblance is the also edible Chicken of the Woods, and it is extremely unlikely that you would confuse the two.

Mushroom Growing/ Mushroom Picking Blog – Welcome!

Welcome to the very first post of the blog that accompanies the Mushroom Growing website.

Hopefully this blog will talk about various ways of growing mushrooms as well as the occasional post on picking wild mushrooms (when in season, of course!).

Please check back soon…