mushrooming!

tim_n

I want to go out and learn a lot more about mushrooms from someone experienced so I don't go poisoning myself. I love mushrooms and am constantly depressed by the range available in the local supermarkets or veg shop!

I'm in Essex, near southend. Anyone got any ideas where I can start (good books just don't do it for me, I need something hands on!)

Agutka

Park rangers, forest rangers or whatever you want to call them sometimes hold classes in the autumn. Look out for notices or just ask. I live by the Lookout in Berkshire and they get asked to hold classes every year.


I spent a lot of my childhood picking mushrooms with my daddy. Now when I do it on my own I just don't trust myself and have lots of jars of dried porcini etc which I am scared to use!! Although I know my parents have used the ones I gave them .

tim_n

indeed - the worry starts me off. If I got a good understanding of how to identify (make spore prints etc) then I could get online id from downsizer.net = )

I can remember finding my very first giant puff ball in the woods about three years ago. I'd never seen what one looked like but it was huuuge. I gave it a squeeze and yellow gunk fell out of it. Obviously it was off :- (

Anyway, been spreading the lines out this morning. Found one being held nearby but it's not till late september.

squeaky

This article is worth a read:-

Wikipedia - mushroom picking

Agutka

tim_n wrote:

Anyway, been spreading the lines out this morning. Found one being held nearby but it's not till late september.

That's when the season starts, sign up for it. As daddy says, it must be warm enough and rain constantly for a week for the mushrooms to pop up in their full glory. If you're not wearing wellies mushroompicking you won't bring much home! Oooh, I can't wait.

Smashing

I thought the title of this thread was going to be a euphemism for something else entirely.

tim_n

That'd be shrooming surely? Not interested in the blue dusters! Much tastier mushrooms to be had out there thank you very much!

Been seeing plenty of mushrooms about recently - I thought we'd started early

nives316

Wow .. I didn't know you could go on mushroom picking classes ... how can anyone say they are bored

tim_n

if you don't go with someone experienced then you'll find yourself in the same unfortunate group of the inexperienced! Ill or dead! = )

kittiwoz

That's rot. I used to go mushrooming with my dad and a copy of Roger Phillips' Mushrooms (excellent book now available in online version [url="http://www.rogersmushrooms.com]www.rogersmushrooms.com[/url]) and have never been ill from eating anything we picked. You just have to use due care and ensure you know what type of fungi you have. If you have doubt don't eat it.

tim_n

Some of the types of mushroom you can pick can cause allergic reactions - some of which come on almost a day later from the initial 'dose'. By then you may have eaten more!

It's something you really have to be careful of! Mushrooming requires a great deal of caution!