Wild Fungi Foraging

Well this morning my 6yr old was at school and I had some rare baby free time and so I thought I would go out foraging for elderflowers and wild dog rose but it started to rain which is no good for collecting either of them, so I decided to have a meander in town instead until the storm came over and I got soaked to the skin with the torrential rain and hailstones. It was incredible how much water came down in 30 mins it was like a monsoon.

But it was fun to be out in and i went home to get dry clothes and it wasn't long before the sun was out and off I went, this time to the woods to have a first time forage for fungi, its usually too difficult to do with a pushchair so I took my opportunity today and was so glad I did.

I headed straight for a local wood which has alot of pine, elder, oak and silver birch. There was alot of leaf cover on the ground and fallen dead wood so I thought it might be a great place to start looking. I was surprised to find one straight away and armed with my Collins Gem Mushrooms book I tentatively tried to ID it but to no avail, I thought it might be a russula so i picked one to take home and try and identify later.

After a few more minutes looking around the base of some trees I spotted a rather large oak with something yellow near the bottom of it. I knew that this type was called a bracket fungi as my partner and I had seen a hoof fungus the day before so I knew which section of the book to go too. It was very distinctive in that it had a orange topside and a bright yellow underside so i could easily ID it as the sulphur polypore so I excitedly gathered some from the tree and carried on.

It was amazing being under the cover of the trees as with the gentle rainfall and the smell of the woodland it seemed that I was being cocooned and enveloped by mother nature and it was invigorating. As I walked slowly around and stooped lower to look carefully near the base of the trees and dead wood it made you just slow everything down and really take in all the little details for fear of missing some hidden treasure.

I was intrigued to find another type of fungi which looked like little ears growing from the dead elder wood and they felt almost gelatinous and funny to the touch. I found them in my book and identified them as Jews ears or Jelly ears. I found quite a few so I harvested some to try in a soup. I had been in the wood for about an hour when I could hear the distant rumble of thunder and I know they say that the last place you should be is near trees I actually felt protected under the dense cover and it was quite nice listening to the rainfall and rumbles and somehow it seemed to heighten my senses even more. I found some old king Alfred's cakes as well as lots more Jews ears and even some other bracket fungi which I think maybe jelly rot and old grey polypore. I have posted the pictures so if anyone has any thoughts then I would welcome your comments. I'm quite new to this so I can't wait to learn more about it.

After I had been bimbling around the woods for a couple of hours I could here the thunder getting closer and reluctantly came out into the open and headed home.

I tweeted my finds when I got home and a lovely man who is a regular forager helped me identify the mushroom I had found first as a blusher as when I cut it in half it tinged with pink, had white spots on the cap and grew from a sack. Thanks to wildfoodforage for his kind help :)

I can't wait to go out again and I will blog about my cooking experiences with the sulphur polypore and the Jews Ears very soon.

If you would like to learn more about my exploits foraging for free wild food and the recipes I have cooked with my herbs and grow your own then please have a look at some of my other posts :)

Jews Ears

King Alfred Cakes

Possibly Jelly Rot

Sulphur Polypore (chicken of the wood)

Blusher