Sparassis crispa!

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Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
Determined to out-ponce @rich p in the dinner stakes, I have knocked up a cheese n lentil loaf with some fried free mushrooms off the bike path prepared a terrine of red lentils, ramiro peppers and Hafod cheddar, served with a trio of sauteed Gower wild mushrooms and wilted spinach. It was rather good, if I say so myself.

This particular poncery stems from the chance discovery of a Sparassis crispa, aka Cauliflower Fungus, which I spotted whilst riding along the seafront bike path to work a couple of mornings ago.

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It was still there and in fine fettle yesterday, so I nabbed a slice, and snuffled around for a few additional 'shrooms. I was rewarded with a handful of Amethyst Deceivers (taste of nothing much but look pretty), and a single Saffron Milk Cap (a winner all round).

The Sparassis is a delicious but slightly daunting mushroom, as its convoluted form makes it an ideal home for about 200 varieties of creepy-crawly (thereby putting it off the menu for rich, the big wuss). Anyway, it seems to be a good year for mushrooms, so brace yourselves for some more of this dinner aggrandisement. Aubergines are so last-season.

And show us your 'shrooms, if you are that way inclined...

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You haven't tasted my salads.

I prefer mushrooms whose provenance I can be sure about which are ones that are in plastic trays with cellophane wrapping ;).

I imagine there is quite a spike in numbers admitted to casualty at this time of year with stomach cramps and vomitting.

Also I suspect being at the base of a tree trunk your mushroom would have been irrigated by pretty much every dog in Swansea happening to be being walked along the seafront plus no doubt quite a few drunks celebrating late at night in Swansea. Yuk.
 
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OP
theclaud

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
You haven't tasted my salads.

I prefer mushrooms whose provenance I can be sure about which are ones that are in plastic trays with cellophane wrapping ;).

I imagine there is quite a spike in numbers admitted to casualty at this time of year with stomach cramps and vomitting.

Also I suspect being at the base of a tree trunk your mushroom would have been irrigated by pretty much every dog in Swansea happening to be being walked along the seafront plus no doubt quite a few drunks celebrating late at night in Swansea. Yuk.

I think I'd rather have a poisonous mushroom covered in piss.

Anyway, Crankers - this nonsense is what comes of knowing nothing. This particular mushroom is 4 miles out of Swansea, and not on the path itself but simply visible from it, up a bank. In effect it's just one tree in a very spacious linear park alongside a vast beach. It's also a firm, rubbery-textured, mushroom when raw, and not a spongy, porous one. It, ahem, rains now and again down here. Plus my preferred method of evicting its many inhabitants is to stick it in a bucket of salted water so that they all panic and accumulate on the tiny mushroom island at the top, whence they can be scooped off and set free. Foragers who are afraid of eating anything that lives at ground level are going to have a pretty dull time of it. Pickings a bit thin along the Guided Busway?
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
I think I'd rather have a poisonous mushroom covered in piss.

Anyway, Crankers - this nonsense is what comes of knowing nothing. This particular mushroom is 4 miles out of Swansea, and not on the path itself but simply visible from it, up a bank. In effect it's just one tree in a very spacious linear park alongside a vast beach. It's also a firm, rubbery-textured, mushroom when raw, and not a spongy, porous one. It, ahem, rains now and again down here. Plus my preferred method of evicting its many inhabitants is to stick it in a bucket of salted water so that they all panic and accumulate on the tiny mushroom island at the top, whence they can be scooped off and set free. Foragers who are afraid of eating anything that lives at ground level are going to have a pretty dull time of it. Pickings a bit thin along the Guided Busway?

You sure? Each to their own I guess. Must be a Swansea thang.

The Guided Busway currently has a huge population of snails, migrating from one side to the other. Maybe snails are a delicacy you find most appealing? I could send you some to go with your poisonous mushrooms and truffles. In the mean time bon appetite.

It would of course be most sad to hear of your premature demise at the hands of a toxic mushroom that you thought was edible, but unfortunately wasn't. Take care.
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
Srsly tho, @theclaud , did you learn what's safe to forage, from someone else, from books or trial and error(:ohmy:)?
I recall Hugh Frightfully-Whatsisname doing a programme on wild mushrooms with that non-fun-guy fungi expert he traipsed round with.
Most of them were pretty ordinary or awful when cooked IIRC but I bow to your superior expertise.
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
I've been on a couple of organised walks where the person leading showed us which fungi were edible and which were not. At the end we cooked the edible ones, but none of them was anything much to savour I thought - they needed tons of garlic butter and some of the textures were horrible. Anyway, within a day or two I'd forgotten enough details that I wouldn't trust my judgement about the poisonous vs non-poisonous distinction.
I did a walk in the Black Forest (:whistle::whistle::whistle:) with a knowledgeable German friend and we were hunting for a specific 'shroom.I can't recall its name but I got the hang of finding them and we cooked them up for breakfast. Underwhelming!
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
I think Sparassis crispa is Latin for Hydro Body Sponge :smile:

nettedbathsponge.jpg
 

glasgowcyclist

Charming but somewhat feckless
Location
Scotland
the chance discovery of a Sparassis crispa, aka Cauliflower Fungus

I spotted something very like that a couple of weeks ago on a walk. Is this the same thing?
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And show us your 'shrooms, if you are that way inclined...

Other funghi spotted on the same walk. I'm not brave enough to eat any of them, I just enjoy looking them up in my wee wildlife book when I get home.

I think those below are Scarlet Waxcap, Common Funnel, and one I don't know.

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GC
 
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theclaud

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
Srsly tho, @theclaud , did you learn what's safe to forage, from someone else, from books or trial and error(:ohmy:)?
I recall Hugh Frightfully-Whatsisname doing a programme on wild mushrooms with that non-fun-guy fungi expert he traipsed round with.
Most of them were pretty ordinary or awful when cooked IIRC but I bow to your superior expertise.

As it happens I intend to start a wildly pretentious thread in P&Lite about mushroom ID (for culinary purposes) as a knowledge paradigm applicable to forum intercourse. You're probably disappointed that I haven't got round to it already. But the short answer is that you don't need to know everything, but you do need to know some stuff pretty well. And, more importantly, you need to to what you need to know, and to recognize when you don't know it. Hope that helps. Mushroom hunting is a heady combination of rapid cognition, taxonomy, experience, observation and precautionary principle. Your form on bush crickets suggests that you might need to work on it a bit...
 

MacB

Lover of things that come in 3's
As it happens I intend to start a wildly pretentious thread in P&Lite about mushroom ID (for culinary purposes) as a knowledge paradigm applicable to forum intercourse. You're probably disappointed that I haven't got round to it already. But the short answer is that you don't need to know everything, but you do need to know some stuff pretty well. And, more importantly, you need to to what you need to know, and to recognize when you don't know it. Hope that helps. Mushroom hunting is a heady combination of rapid cognition, taxonomy, experience, observation and precautionary principle. Your form on bush crickets suggests that you might need to work on it a bit...

I'll translate for you Rich - you're crap
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
As it happens I intend to start a wildly pretentious thread in P&Lite about mushroom ID (for culinary purposes) as a knowledge paradigm applicable to forum intercourse. You're probably disappointed that I haven't got round to it already. But the short answer is that you don't need to know everything, but you do need to know some stuff pretty well. And, more importantly, you need to to what you need to know, and to recognize when you don't know it. Hope that helps. Mushroom hunting is a heady combination of rapid cognition, taxonomy, experience, observation and precautionary principle. Your form on bush crickets suggests that you might need to work on it a bit...

Couldn't you just get them from a shop.
 
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OP
theclaud

theclaud

Openly Marxist
Location
Swansea
I spotted something very like that a couple of weeks ago on a walk. Is this the same thing?
View attachment 59640



Other funghi spotted on the same walk. I'm not brave enough to eat any of them, I just enjoy looking them up in my wee wildlife book when I get home.

I think those below are Scarlet Waxcap, Common Funnel, and one I don't know.

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GC

With the disclaimer that it's never a good idea to ID from photos, I'd say that your first mushroom is certainly a Sparassis, I don't know exactly what your second is but I'd bet £50 it isn't a wax cap of any kind and it may have more in common with no 4, your third looks more like a False Chanterelle, and your fourth is a Suillus of some kind - some of which are edible but, in my view, disgusting. Nice pics though!
 
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