Any foragers out there?

[Dutto]

Christ you're like a goat...

Unlike the goats owned by a mate of mine, I draw the line at eating Kellogs Cornflakes packets!

He throws the empty packets into the goat's field and it's frightening to see them rushing over to make sure that they get their share!

 

[pms67]

I do a bit of what I call 'Urban Foraging' and hang about by the bins outside KFC. You wouldn't believe how much meat some people leave on the bones. It's criminal.

There's a group of 'girls' that come every Wednesdy after "Young at Heart" over the sally army and you can bet without fail that at least one of them has forgotten her teeth. There's one called Joan that has a real go at chewing but can't get anywhere. It's like watching a hamster chewing the bars on a cage. By the time I've swooped on her leftovers it's like they've been tenderised to perfection by her incessant gumming and slathering. It tastes a little bit more of lipstick than I'd like but it sort of sets you up for the inevitable snogging.

 

[fury_tea]

One of my neighbours used to do a bit of urban foraging in the bins behind Sainsbury's and M&S.

They would throw around a hundred loaves away per week. I considered raiding it myself for bread for a toast ale type brew

 

[chrisb8]

One of my neighbours used to do a bit of urban foraging in the bins behind Sainsbury's and M&S.

They would throw around a hundred loaves away per week. I considered raiding it myself for bread for a toast ale type brew

I have a friend who used to do that. He was also known to vulture leftovers from other tables in wetherspoons

 

[foxy]

I have mushrooms coming up on my front lawn, I have a block of land at the side of me which is also producing mushrooms. Autumn is now only a few days away so I can expect an explosion of mushrooms any time soon. I do know about yellow stainers Dutto, but I did pick some mushrooms down at our local park a year or so ago. It was dark picked the mushrooms had them for breakfast and a couple of hours later I was on the porcelain phone to God. I couldn't understand why, went back to where I picked the mushrooms in daylight and saw the tell tale signs of council spraying of weed killer with the red dye all around the area.

 

[hedgerowpete]

the two golden rules with foraging is

1, never collect anything lower than a dogs willy in public places

2, with mushrooms, you are only one quiche away from certain death

(if you dont know quiche is the most popular method of toxic mushroom digestion in hospital result tables)

 

[geigercntr]

Totally agree with the dog wee one!

With mushrooms, as with plants, if you know what you've picked, risk is minimal. Obviously if you're just guessing what you've got, then risk escalates.

This is the case for many plants too. Yew is very common and is absolutely deadly (even though the pulpy bit around the edge of the fruit is safe and very tasty). This plant could possibly be confused with spruce or juniper (which can be used in brewing for example)

There is an inherent fear of mushrooms in the UK. In a lot of Europe (the bits that still have big, old forests in particular), kids tend to be taught which are safe and which are not from an early age. There is much less of this in the UK

[edit: yew fruits have a pulpy bit, not a puppy bit. Damned phone]

 

[Clint]

People don't realise the amount of toxic plants that are about,mushrooms or otherwise.
A short while back I was at a local garden centre and amongst the border plants for sale I spied Monkshood! Highly dangerous!

 

[Oneflewover]

People don't realise the amount of toxic plants that are about,mushrooms or otherwise.
A short while back I was at a local garden centre and amongst the border plants for sale I spied Monkshood! Highly dangerous!

Equally people don't realise just how many plants are perfectly edible - and in fact very tasty. Knowledge is essential

 

[Hanglow]

About 2/3 of people I see out mushroom hunting tend to be eastern european. It's a bit odd as the UK is a very good place to hunt mushrooms, despite the deforestation its suffered over the centuries. Still, more for me!

I walked past an elder today here in glasgow and it was completely covered in wood ear mushrooms. I don't pick mushrooms from in the city though

 

[hedgerowpete]

if you were in eastern europe where everyone picks mushrooms and knows them and are taught them its fine. but no one does that any more in the uk. i only know ten that i can cut and pick with 100% confidence in Poland thats about what is expected for a five year old. The other thing with mushrooms in the uk is no one here knows what a real mushroom looks like.

All they see are perfect white horse or chestnut and these are grown in green sheds , with compter controlled base layers and sporn and grain from europe and compost from the uk and laser guided feed rollers to plant, firm, water and pick the mushrooms. stick a morel under someones nose in tescos and as its not plastic wrapped they will freak out its deadly, pretty much all my pickings have slugs, and animal knibbles and so forth or HEAVENS SAKE MUD ON THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


shocking stuff indeed.

I am more plants based anyway, my identification of plants is very good, so is my uses library of them. honestly though i plant more herbs than people think. i know where mint is, because i planted it there, same with apple trees and cookers and so forth. i harvest hedgerows as well as planting them, thats where the name comes from.

if your uncertain of mushrooms, buy a mushroom kit, grown it at home, when its finished go and put the spent compost in a good area and see itf it re-populates. I know a wicked area of Shiitake mushrooms for many many years because i started it. for someone as a young man with no money my family used to eat the food of kings because we planted so much

 

[Dutto]

............ I do know about yellow stainers Dutto, but I did pick some mushrooms down at our local park a year or so ago. It was dark picked the mushrooms ............

Unfortunately, so did I, but your Post got me thinking. I picked them from a grass verge at the side of the road at dusk (which comes early in Aberdeenshire in September). I then took them home, cooked them and ate them before catching the train.

I've always been a bit "anally retentive" when it comes to picking mushrooms so I could only put the vomiting session down to Yellow Stainers because they look so much like ordinary Field Mushrooms; but in light of the above and the fact that I honestly can't remember any "yellow staining" when I cut them up, I'm now beginning to wonder if it was something else!

Not to worry, here's a quick recipe for any type of mushroom (but especially Chanterelles):

1. Give the mushrooms a quick rinse and slice them up into bite-sized pieces.
2. Fry them gently with a large knob of butter or olive oil in a deep frying-pan.
3. When the liquids have nearly boiled off, stir in a dessertspoonful of plain flour.
4. Keep stirring as you add sufficient milk to create a sauce.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste and allow the sauce to simmer and thicken.

Serve the hot mushroom sauce on thick slices of toast as a complete breakfast (if the foraging has been good) or let it cool and serve it on small squares of toast as a "nibble" with an aperitif. Perfect!

Not that anyone would suspect ...

... but eating food comes a very close second to drinking beer as one of my "Favourite things to do!"

 

[nige]

Got most of my Morells from edges of supermarket carparks.

 

[Hanglow]

I did read that most morells in the uk seem to grow on imported wood chippings! which would make sense to find them in car parks. I've never seen one in scotland

 

[foxy]

Most plants produce toxins because they don't want to be eaten, its just their form of self defense, it is amazing though that fungi with barely any root system can produce deadly toxins, and unlike a plant the fungi cannot make its own food.
I was reading about the Yew tree and they were trialing bark from the Yew tree for fighting cancer.

 

[Clint]

We have some training in work regarding contamination,cleaning, bacteria and the fella says fungi are more related to animals than plants.

 

[nige]

I did read that most morells in the uk seem to grow on imported wood chippings! which would make sense to find them in car parks. I've never seen one in scotland

Yes, I think it's when the bark chippings include fruit wood so carparks edges and around pub garden borders, anywhere that gets bark mulch every year or two.
I believe you're correct also cliff.

 

[prog99]

Yeah, those ones are pine boletes. I dried most of them, probably picked 50kg worth.

I've never picked horse mushrooms, everything I pick tends to come from forests. I like the strong tasting ones like hen of the woods and winter chanterelles, they add a great umami flavour to soups and stews

Pine bolete are so similar it’s easy to get confused.
I know about 10 species I can reliably pick and know I won’t kill myself. Funnily enough I won’t touch anything that looks like a shop bought one. Once had wood blewits growing in the garden only discover that despite tasting great I must have a mild allergy to them.
Pick loads of berries too. Brambles, raspberries, bake errors and some random stuff growing in the local supermarket carpark.

 

[Clint]

Gotta be careful...some nightshade berries look edible.

 

[Dutto]

..........
I was reading about the Yew tree and they were trialing bark from the Yew tree for fighting cancer.

Two totally useless pieces of information:

1. Yew trees were used as the source of the English Longbow. The trees were grown in churchyards to offer the trees protection and to bless them!
2. Bowmen were often "deformed" as arms were lengthened or shortened depending on how the drew their bow.