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.