Foraged / Unusual food recipes

I pick those from the same spot every year between Aug - Oct. Slice & fry with the juice from the scrambled eggs they're served with, or souped up.

I've been picking up the remains of old ones and kicking them around under my apple trees hoping they'll establish.

 

I'm too paranoid to forage fungi. The reason being there are so many species that look similar to each other. For example, on my land we get a mushroom that looks exactly like an edible one on some charts, but also looks exactly like Deathcap, a mushroom that is so toxic that it is reckoned one cap is toxic enough to ensure certain death for 4 healthy men, with no antidote, and no treatment except a liver transplant within 48 hours. Scary stuff.

 

To right Dave, never eat fungus unless you are 100% sure of its ID. This can involve spore prints and microscopes as well as all the other methods, including habitat, association with other plants and especially trees. Don't eat the red one with white spots, took me 4 days to get better from that one

You won't confuse the giant puffball with anything else though. There are, I think 2 poisonous smaller puff balls, one of which grows in woodland, not the open grassland habit of the giant puffball.

Scrunge, I was thinking about breaking the puffball spore mass into my leafmould enclosure as well as innoculating our meadow, would have to nobble sisters lawnmower in that case.:D

 

This non-edible fungi (you'll get a bit ill) grows in excatly the same location as the edible puffballs I gather and can look just like a small puffball as it emerges:



Not the best of pics to demonstrate how it can look just like the real thing when emerging:






I've found puffballs up to 450mm dia on Exmoor, but only earthballs on North Hill.

My wife found one locally about 600mm diameter as a child.

 

Hey, good pics Scrunge

Making I hungry looking at that & we all know, evenings are for drinking not eating :D

Found this site : http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Mushrooms.Folder/Giant%20Puffball.html

Made I laugh

 

Would that be Fly Agaric, a member of the Aminita family, and one of two toadstools that are sometimes referred to as magic mushrooms?

Legend has it that before Greece was called Greece, there was an all woman tribe of warriors that would eat fly agaric before battle, and then get so tripped out that rather than just pummelling their enemy into oblivion, they would also slaughter anyone or anything else that caught their attention, sometimes including each other.

 

Yes, but only after they'd climbed back down from the ceiling.

 

That would be the one.

Didn't go beserk or slaughter anyone. Wish I had now, at least I would have memories other than feeling the red blood cells dying off for best part of a week, leaning on a shelf at work & thinking, "I've bloomin done it this time:DOH:"

Anyway, back to the safer side of foraging.

Califlower fungus, tastes fantastic, needs a good clean & again, don't fry it in oil, use butter, oil will make it bitter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparassis

Grows on the base of pine trees & is pretty much unmistakable for anything else.

Found a huge specimin while working on Clarendon Palace, Henry IIs gaff. Took it home & put it in the kitchen whilst I went to fetch horrible wife, when we came back into the kitchen, the 2 little ones were stabbing it with kitchen knives, they didn't know what it was & didn't want it attacking them ("Barney, kill it before it kills us !)

 

Aaarrgghhh, you're getting me hungry again, interfering with the natural order of the day.

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, tea like a duke & then get really lashed up like Henry the VIII for the rest of the evening. :D

That homemade rum i'm doing measured at 30% abv a couple of days ago & its still fermenting.

Currently on 20% wine & haven't had to drink any Captain Morgans for the past 2 Days

All for less than 35p a bottle

Bother, got to eat some cheese now :DOH:

 

[size=large]Salad made with tender chicory leaves (wild) and sliced hard boiled eggs seasoned with vinegar salt and oil.[/size]

 

Hi Flower,

AAArggg, the hunger :DOH: Tis drinking time, give the bloke a break :DOH:

 

Can anyone recommend an easy, foolproof (and I mean totally luke foolproof!) forage material that I can start out with... Im fairly confident on stinging nettles :D

Im going to try looking out for wild garlic. As far as I can gather, It grows in woodlands... near the likes of bluebells, so I know a place locally which fits the bill. (Will post a photo when bluebells are out in bloom... looks wonderful) So long as It smells like garlic and when in flower... has white flowers, Im hoping I cant go wrong with that one either.

Dandelions are edible too I assume... tender leaves = nice, older leaves = bitter (I think) ... and the roots for dandelion root coffee and the flowers.

Anything I can add to my very short list of forage material would be hugely appreciated... remember FOOLPROOF! (Dont want any risks as I know the kids will be joining in with the eating part)



(p.s. If anyone recommends I should start this as a thread of its own, rather than hijacking this one :WINK1: ... I would be happy to)

 

I'll be back a bit later, just popped in to check e mail. How about a thread called basic forraging or something