Ate my first wild fungi - Honey Fungus

[Toadflax]

I finally took the plunge and ate my first wild, foraged fungi today. A few of us went out to the woods with one of our Polish DPhil students, and we found a couple of large patches of Honey Fungus. He is very experienced in gathering wild fungi from home and had no doubts about the ID for these. We also found some amethyst deceiver and shaggy ink-cap, but I didn't bring any of these home.

I took half a dozen home but only prepared and ate two of them - just in case I reacted. I boiled them for 5 minutes first (my mushroom book recommends this to remove some toxins) then fried them for a couple of minutes in butter and olive oil and was very pleased with how they turned out - a nice flavour and texture.

I realised afterwards that I should have done a spore print first to check that they had white spores, and am doing so now. Not many spores yet but they do look white on the bit of black card that I'm using for the base. I'd do this before eating them next time if I gathered them myself.

Anyway, no ill effects yet.



Geoff

[Scots_Charles_River]

Good stuff. I wish I knew more as I'm constantly amazed when out and about.

Nick

[ady05]

i had a good feast on oyster mushrooms (pleurotus ostreatus) and shaggy inkcap (coprinus comatus) today that i foraged localy very tasty

[pibbleb]

I don't know if it's the wine or what, but reading through this thread I've just remembered that my Grandad used to take me foraging for mushrooms, I'd never eat them though I was always a little to scared. I have this mental image of some Clint Eastwood film where he is a Union soldier who is fed some poisonous mushrooms.

I just can't bring myself to trust the critters, if they aren't from Sainsburys I ain't eating!

Good for you though well done!

Pib

[Toadflax]

I just can't bring myself to trust the critters, if they aren't from Sainsburys I ain't eating!

Good for you though well done!

Pib

I have to confess that I was rather nervous about eating them - though I do trust the judgement of the person who took me out, as he has been collecting and eating wild mushrooms for years. I tried to follow the standard precautions: only eat a small amount the first time, check against ID books; check the spore print (admittedly after I had eaten some); keep a few raw specimens aside for identification in case of poisoning; prepare carefully according to instructions in guide books.

I'd be pretty confident now about IDing and eating this species (honey fungus).

Some piccys at http://www.wombatcube.co.uk/album under bagley_wood.



Geoff

[andyn]

I have to confess that I was rather nervous about eating them - though I do trust the judgement of the person who took me out, as he has been collecting and eating wild mushrooms for years. I tried to follow the standard precautions: only eat a small amount the first time, check against ID books; check the spore print (admittedly after I had eaten some); keep a few raw specimens aside for identification in case of poisoning; prepare carefully according to instructions in guide books.

I'd be pretty confident now about IDing and eating this species (honey fungus).

Some piccys at http://www.wombatcube.co.uk/album under bagley_wood.



Geoff

Nice one Geoff. LOL I hope you didn't add those red ones into the pan. "Ohhh hello little fairy...ooohhhhh"


Wild 'shrooms are nothing to be worried about. Just stick to common sense and you wont go wrong. "if in doubt leave it out"

[Toadflax]

LOL I hope you didn't add those red ones into the pan. "Ohhh hello little fairy...ooohhhhh"

Ermm.......................... .............................. .............no.


Geoff

[dtalbot]

spore print first to check that they had white spores, and am doing so now. Not many spores yet but they do look white on the bit of black card that I'm using for the base.

Anyway, no ill effects yet.



Geoff

If you were out with a Polish mushroom collector (and an awful lot of Poles are) and he ID them then you have a 100% ID!!!!!!!!!
Polish friends of mine love visiting the UK in the autumn as there is all that wonderful food in the woods that most of us Brits just ignore!

[pibbleb]

You can't dismiss the value of practical experience being passed on! I was to young to take any notice of my grandad, but it would be good to hang out for a couple of days with someone who knows their stuff when it comes to this sort of thing!


Pib

[Toadflax]

You can't dismiss the value of practical experience being passed on! I was to young to take any notice of my grandad, but it would be good to hang out for a couple of days with someone who knows their stuff when it comes to this sort of thing!

I think that, as much as anything, having an expert along with you helps you to learn the techniques for identifying species of mushrooms and helps to build confidence (and a healthy caution) for if /when you go it alone. Rather than blindly accepting someone else's recognition, I accepted that the recognition was correct, but then studied the various features using my field guides and the internet to confirm the recognition myself. Because a fear of wild fungi seems to be quite culturally deep rooted in Britain, I suspect that I will still want an expert to help me with ID for other species for a while but hopefully this is a step on the way to becoming independent.


Geoff

[xylaria]

I think that, as much as anything, having an expert along with you helps you to learn the techniques for identifying species of mushrooms and helps to build confidence (and a healthy caution) for if /when you go it alone. Rather than blindly accepting someone else's recognition, I accepted that the recognition was correct, but then studied the various features using my field guides and the internet to confirm the recognition myself. Because a fear of wild fungi seems to be quite culturally deep rooted in Britain, I suspect that I will still want an expert to help me with ID for other species for a while but hopefully this is a step on the way to becoming independent.


Geoff

A few months back I got very worried at the type advice that is given on here could be taken literally by an idiot who then sue/blame/beat-up tony because they were incapable of using common sense or field guide. I was reassured that most people have more brain cells than internal parasites. Fungi is so much easier when standing there looking at it, than a photo, It was very smart you to bring easten european to point out features.

Thank you Fiona

[tommy the cat]

Just about to get the id book out and read this thread. Growin on dead wood not sure what deciduous I know.

I am very green behind the gills here so take pics and try to id. I have still not ate wild shrooms yet so good on ya.....well there was some magic ones I ate.....hmnnn not a good idea !
DAve

[Jodie]

Still with us Geoff?

[Toadflax]

Still with us Geoff?

I am indeed. Two days on and no ill effects - and so are the others from work who ate the mushys.

Pretty sure that tommy's photo is honey fungus but, as Xylaria says, you need to do the research yourself. Try for a spore print - it should be white. I believe that fungi that may be confused with honey fungus have non-white spores (e.g. brown). I think I can see from the photo that there appear to be white spore drops on some of the lower caps. The slightly scaly caps with a smooth ring around the outer edge of the cap also tends to point towards honey.

Honey fungus is a tree killer, so you will often see it growing on dead stumps or at the base of trees - so check if it is growing on a tree that seems to be distressed. Because of this, I threw away the caps that I didn't use, rather than composting them. I don't want the spores getting spread around my garden.


Geoff

[tommy the cat]

Got to say there Geoff, doesnt seem to mention 'doing a spore print' in my book so would appreciate if you can enlighten me (it may do but not in those words)
Was growing on dead wood as mentioned deciduous but pretty rotten so no id.
Loads of them to be honest but I am realllllllll careful about id and plants/eating.
Ta Dave

[Toadflax]

Xylaria is probably the one to ask for an expert opinion, but to do a spore print, cut the stem from a mushroom, lay the cap on a sheet of paper /card /glass gill side down and wait for a few hours. The spores will drop down onto the sheet and (for artistic purposes) leave an impression of the gill pattern - a pretty thing to look at.

For identification purposes, using a piece of clear glass or plastic is probably best, otherwise you may want to do two prints - one onto white card and one onto black. For identification of some species, you need to check the colour of the spores (which is why you might use two different coloured pieces of card, as white spores won't show up on white card, while dark spores may not show on dark card). If you use clear glass or plastic, you can then hold this over a dark or light background to check the spore colour.

If you look at your photo, you can see white dust on some of the caps, which is where the spores have dropped from higher caps onto the lower ones.


Hope this helps.


Geoff

[tommy the cat]

Geoff, thanks for that makes sense. Got to say I know this is prob a bit ott but I don't like picking anything really unnecessarily but I guess that has got to change regarding accurate id. However, where do I find out about the relevant spore patterns?
I guess I will have a look see at the bigger guide book that I have got and see what it says, can't remember it mentioning this.
D

[Toadflax]

As far as I know (being pretty new to this myself) it is not the gill pattern that the spore print produces, but the colour of the spores that is the ID factor for spore prints.



Having said that, the pattern of the gills can help in identification, e.g. whether the gills are closely or widely spaced, whether there are intermediate gills, how they join onto the stem. But for this, you can simply look at the cap. For this, though, you need a good guide (or an expert).

But unless you are going simply to look at fungi, you will need to pick some. For myself, I'd only pick them if there were plenty left after I had picked (but that's just the way I work). Remember, though, that the bit you see is the fruiting body and that the mycelium underground is, in effect, the main 'plant'. So you could think of picking a mushroom as the same as picking an apple - you take the fruit but leave the tree intact.

We could do with Xylaria coming back into this thread again for some words of wisdom...


Geoff

[xylaria]

You follow the instructions Dgcalvert has given.

What makes spore print important,is that they make IDing much easyier by giving a big clue to where you should look in the field guide to find the ID. If you were looking at a tree with lobed leaves you start looking at oaks not maples, fungi are the same. So if you get fungus the is funnel shaped, with white spores and no ring, I would look up the word clitocybe or funnel cap in the index. I would then look for simerlar species in the book, so instead of looking at every page, I norrow down the search to a few pages.

Here is a very rough key to spore colours

White spores with a ring= amanita, lepiota
White spores without a ring= tricholomas (including funnel caps), wax caps

Pink spores= entoloma, pluteus and volvariellas

White to deep cream spores= russulas and milk caps

Brown spores= cortinarius, bolbitius, paxillus

Brown black spores=Agarics, some stropharias (brick caps)

Purple black spores=stropharias(psilocybes and mottle gills)

Black spores=ink caps.

Obviously i haven't included all of them, but collecting for the pot alot of duds and toxic ones can be discarded if spore colour is known. Brown, pink, and purple black spore species shouldn't be eaten in mistake for well known edibles,and personally I think it makes picking for the pot alot safer.