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

Interestingly in some countries they actually believe the False Morel to be quite a delicacy although I personally wouldn’t like to risk it. It seems to be quite random whether you die/get seriously ill from consuming the False Morel or whether it doesn’t affect you at all. There was a case a while back where a family ate False Morels, 1 member of the family died whilst 1 was ill and 2 were fine and completely unaffected. It is said that if you would like to try them (and I am not recommending that you do), you can boil them and discard the water and then boil and discard the water again. It is believed that they can react inside you to create rocket fuel, not something that you would like to mess around with.

false morel

The best place to find real edible Morels is in gardens, churchyards, grass verges and generally around town areas and not so much out in the countryside. Mushrooms in general only tend to fruit when they believe that they are running out of space to grow underground (the Mycelium is the underground net-like structure where the mushroom forms). They might encounter a tarmac road or building where that the Mycelium cannot continue to grow, and so it panics and creates a fruit (the mushroom) which allows it to spread spores and reproduce. This is apparently very much evident in the Morel mushroom which only tends to fruit when under pressure, which could go to show why they love growing in gardens and more urban environments.

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

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

 (whether this is due to the horses grazing on the grass, keeping it short for the mushrooms, or due to the natural fertilizers that the horses will produce on the ground, I’m not completely sure). Many mushrooms love to grow in or around horse manure, and maybe this is why many Agaricus Bisporus mushrooms will appear in a field that also contains horses.

Horse Mushrooms In The Wild

The Chestnut/Horse mushrooms that we picked a few days ago were growing on damp, wet ground and they almost always appeared to grow in small clusters – if you saw one mushroom you would probably find about 4 or 5 of them scattered around that one position. On some occasions they even grew in lines, almost like the fairy ring mushrooms. The only negative with these mushrooms is that often the maggots will have worked their way up the stems and inside, so when you cut them at the base of the stalk have a quick look to check for any holes in the bottom of the stem. If there are some, try cutting the mushroom in half (up the stem) to see how much damage the maggot has done. Usually if you see any sign of maggots then its best to just lay the mushroom back down on the field in the same position, so that it can continue to drop its spores.

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).

The Porcelain Fungus is edible but first you will need to remove the slimey layer covering the outside of the mushroom cap. This can be a very tedious process, especially when dealing with smaller specimens of the fungus. For this reason I tend to only pick a few of the larger mushrooms, but try to leave as many as possible for animals/over people to enjoy. (To remove the sticky layer I just use a small sharp knife to try and peel back the complete layer – if you are lucky you can sometimes get it off in one whole “peel”). There are far better mushrooms to eat, but its still quite nice to have, and isn’t too dis-similar in taste to the Oyster mushrooms (if not a little more “slimey”). Another point worth noting is that its not really possible to eat the stems of the Porcelain Fungus, they are far too hard and so its best to just cook the caps.

This mushroom is also known as the Beech Tuft, due to the fact that it grows on Beech trees and because they usually grow in small tufts of about 3 or 4 mushrooms. It is also known as the Poached Egg Fungus, most probably due to its white, egg like appearance (and the taste of the fungus has the same sort of texture of a cooked egg). The mushroom is very easily to distinguish from others – you will find it growing on Beech trees, in big clusters, and it is very white (almost see-through), with a slimy white layer over the cap. It has hard, white stems and there will be a very visible ring below the cap of the mushroom.

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.

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.

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.

Fistulina Hepatica

It was quite amazing to see the Fistulina Hepatica take over such a large, old oak tree in the manner that it had, I don’t often find any Beefsteak Fungus (although I don’t tend to be looking up at the trees, my eyes are usually fixed to the floor), but they do like to grow on old Oak trees and there are plenty of these around in many forests in England. The mushroom will also grow on Chestnut trees, although I think you will have to be very lucky to discover it on one of these trees, and am presuming they much prefer to grow on Oaks. You should be able to find them from August to around Autumn time, and mine were discovered just a few weeks ago.

If you do decide to give this mushroom a go, be careful when picking it as it is quite tough to cut (a bit like cutting a slab of meat), so you might need something a little stronger then your average mushroom knife. When you do cut the flesh of the Beefsteak Fungus, red droplets will appear, again like blood, which again shows how much this mushroom resembles real meat, and it is no surprise that in some countries it is used as a meat substitute. Definitely one for any struggling vegetarians to try

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.

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…