From: rusty.hinge@foobar.girolle.co.uk   
      
   On 22/09/13 06:44, tree wrote:   
      
   > Last week's rain has helped the mushroom season to start properly in   
   > Scotland.   
      
   And in England   
      
   > In a foray a couple of days ago areas sheltered from the wind were   
   > almost carpeted in Russulas. Got a few chanterelles but no ceps, save for a   
   > very mouldy possible ex-cep which was past the ID stage. Saw a monster, what   
   > I'm pretty sure is, Slimy Beech Tuft/ Porcelain Fungus/ Poached Egg fungus   
   > (Oudemansiella mucida) bigger than my hand! In the summer I was enjoying   
   > particularly juicy and delicious bilberries in this area and they have been   
   > buried by some excavation work from some construction project. I remember   
   > those bushes being there for years. Collected an interesting mushroom to   
   > identify when I got back home. It reminded me of Rozites (now Cortinarius   
   > apparently) but on checking my books it looks unlikely. I also collected a   
   > purple Russula in the area which has been annoying me for a while, and still   
   > did not manage to identify it.   
      
   You're fighting a losing battle there. I don't know how many species   
   have been identified within Russula, but experts can't agree.   
      
   Even using an array of chemicals, a × 1,000 magnification microscope and   
   associated dyes etc, certainty is not certain...   
      
   > Now the wind has died down, the ground is damp and it's humid and getting   
   > milder I reckon the next couple of weeks are going to be spectacular. It's   
   > shame that such abundance is concentrated into a few weeks of the year with   
   > this hobby.   
      
   It isn't - if you know where to look, and for what. Yesterday I had a   
   pan of field mushrooms, a horse mushroom and some small puffballs -   
   Lycoperdon sp. I expect more species to appear soon.   
      
   You don't say where in Scotland. I've found the Western Isles to be   
   rather poor in the larger fungi, but the Western Highlands to be really   
   bountiful. Perthshire has produced several excellent meals (The Birks of   
   Aberfeldy being especially productive, as were the woods of Braid just   
   outside Edinburgh. Stirlingshire is not to be sniffed at, either.   
      
   Here in East Anglia is probably the dryest part of the country, but I   
   still find more to tempt me than I pick.   
      
   My biggest bags are pretty consistent, and result from raids on a   
   neighbour's lawn, where I find baskets of Lactarius deliciousus and L.   
   torminosus.   
      
   (If you want to know how to prepare L. torminosus, see   
   http://www.girolle.co.uk/recipes/ - they are best pickled IMO)   
      
   --   
   Rusty Hinge   
   To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)