It’s a huge topic, far too much for one post, which helps explain why I have not posted for some time. I’ve been too busy foraging, preserving, and eating my delicious finds. Perhaps I’ll do better starting with the most obvious finds, and keep the rarities for later?
In pride of place comes the Penny Bun, aka Cep, or Porcini. This is the King of mushrooms, coming in many sizes from cutesy to enormous. It’s found mainly under older trees, especially beech, spruce, pine and oak.
For culinary purposes, the Cep is excellent, lovely firm white flesh, and very tasty in any mushroom recipe. It can also be dried or pickled in vinegar. And it is commonly found with other good edibles: the Cep is a Bolete, with pores instead of gills, which is a big family, and includes many choice mushrooms such as the Scarletina. This is a mixed bag.
I’ll hazard a guess that most beginners regard this as their first introduction to serious foraging.
Another find that every beginner loves is the hedgehog: so called because of the very distinctive spines instead of pores or gills.
Finding a large group is a real thrill: because this is such a superb culinary mushroom.
Thats all for today, folks!