August marks the beginning of the mushroom season! It’s not fully in swing at this point, but certain shrooms will be making an appearance at this point, particularly ones that are great for beginners to study.
The main one that I recommend is Chicken Of The Woods. You’ll see it growing on the side of trees: beautiful waves of rippling yellow or orange, with the edges often being their own distinct stripe of pale yellow. I can’t wait to go picking! It’s always important to not be greedy, to only take a third of what’s there at most, but with how much there is out there that shouldn’t be a problem! You can use it fresh, you can dry it and powder it (to make a faux chicken soup!), it’s brilliant.
The next is the Fairy Ring Champignon, a cute brown mushroom that can often be found growing in lawns. It’s lovely fried up, but you’ve got to be careful with it as it looks a bit like Fool’s Funnel. The major difference is in the gills. I recommend this site for further reading on the two:
Fool’s Funnel – Wild Food UK https://share.google/Ss22GJhdAygwomWJF
The gills of the Fool’s Funnel seem to radiate from the stem, whereas the gills of the Fairy Ring Champignon are free from the stem. However, when in doubt, leave it be. Don’t pick if you don’t know.
Now, the next mushroom is an easy peasy one: the Giant Puffball! They’re big, they’re round, they’re white. It’s hard to muddle them with other things. If it’s big, round and spotted brown, you may have found a Pigskin Poison Puffball – don’t pick it. It’s obviously not a Giant Puffball. If it’s white, round and the size of a fist…leave it be. A lot of young poisonous mushrooms start off like that and open up to become something very different in appearance later on. You don’t want to risk picking a Destroying Angel Mushroom.
If you want a Giant Puffball, it needs to be the size of a melon. You will see them out there. They can get as heavy as 20kg, and you’ll end up having to wheel it home in a pushchair.
But when in doubt, leave it be.
I’ve been going a little mushroom-mad today, so I’ll just do one more: Oyster Mushrooms. This one is a great choice for newbies trying to learn more about mushroom foraging, and it’s a really popular one for people learning to grow them at home. I’ve heard of people growing them out of coffee grinds, they’re that versatile. They should be one of the first things that appear, so get in there quick!
Okay, enough about mushrooms, or I could be here all day. Now it’s berry time.
Every Brit knows Blackberries, and this is the time of year they start coming out. It’ll depend on how the summer’s been, but you should have a lot of them all around the place. They’ve supposedly got more antioxidants than blueberries, and they’re free, so have at them! You can make pies, crumbles, alcohol, jam, all sorts. They’re brilliant!
You’ll also start to see Bilberries around at this point. They’re a massively underappreciated fruit, but they’re worth a pick. For anyone in the UK near the Peak District, they’re meant to be in abundance there.
Now here’s one for the Scots: Crowberries! They’re tastier cooked than raw, but nutritionally they’re worth it. Plus, they tend to grow near Lingonberries, so it’s worth having a look for them.
The last one I’m going to leave you with is Sea Buckthorn. It’s a little known super-food, rich in vitamins A, B, C, E, and K, as well as carotenoids, flavonoids, amino acids, fatty acids, unsaturated oils, etc. It’s something I really need to study further, simply because it’s so good. Unsurprisingly, you’ll find it along coastlines, so if you’re at the beach and see yellow berries, that may well be it!
So here’s the list for this month:
- Chicken Of The Woods
- Fairy Ring Champignon
- Giant Puffball
- Oyster Mushroom
- Blackberry
- Bilberry
- Crowberry
- Lingonberry
- Sea Buckthorn
Happy foraging everyone! Stay safe, and when in doubt, leave it be.
