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| A parasol protruding from the woodland floor |
This autumn has been blessed with a plentiful harvest of mushrooms. There is something so exciting about picking the different varieties that grow in the hedgerows and woodlands near our house. With names like parasols, puffballs, shaggy inkcaps and blewits, they impart an air of magic for the enthusiastic fungus forager. Whilst caution is undoubtedly needed when eating wild mushrooms, finding varieties that you can collect with confidence and frying them in some butter and garlic is a treat we look forward to every year. Wild mushrooms are far superior in flavour than their cultivated 'button' relations and they look much prettier as well.
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| A basket of mixed wild mushrooms picked in the woods near our house |
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| Young shaggy parasols before their caps are open |
Parasols have been most plentiful over the last few weeks. They are best picked young, before or just after they have opened their caps (above right), as they can be prone to maggots; the trouble with the mushrooms that grow in the wild is that it's not just us that wants to eat them! Puffballs give a nice flavour to a mushroom omelette, but they often need peeling due to their tough skin. We also found our first blewits of the year a few days ago; this is a sure sign that the weather is becoming much colder and more damp, conditions enjoyed by these purply-blue wood mushrooms.
Fried with garlic on toasted homemade bread is by far the best use for smaller harvests. If you can collect a basketful of different varieties, then risotto, tart or casseroled with game birds or venison are our favoured recipes.
Basketfuls of early autumn bliss
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