A sinister Yellow Stainer
Bay Boletes, Weeping Boletes, Dark Cap Cep, Slippery Jacks and Saffron Milk Caps and a few Woodland Puffballs
Field Mushrooms found on the roof of Cafe Indigo
Bay Boletes
Fly Agaric - the fairy tale mushroom
If you go down in the woods today... you're sure of a surprise or two.
Autumn tends to be all about mushrooms and our executive head chef Adam Clark has certainly found plenty on his woodland foraging trips. Adam has been keeping his eyes down on the look out for all manner of interesting fungi and found the edible, poisonous and hallucinogenic variety.
"I absolutely don’t claim to know everything there is to know about mushrooms," says Adam. "So it's been an educational experience and one we've approached with much caution. We only taste once we have had a positive identification.
"Even Michael, our food and beverage manager, has popped in on his days off with some very exciting findings.
"On Tuesday he came in with some great Shaggy Parasols that looked like drumsticks. We knew these guys, and were happy to try them, as they had been recommended to me.
"I was told to stuff these with some bacon, get them bread crumbed and fry… delicious.
"On Wednesday Michael turned up with another basket full of mushrooms, this time more sinister. They were Yellow Stainers. They look just like field mushrooms, which is why they are the single most common cause of mushroom poisoning in Britain, the stalks are slightly longer though and when broken an intense yellowing appears.
"Steer well clear of these."
Adam has found some rich pickings in the fields and woods near where he lives. He's harvested and soundly identified lots of different varieties including Bay Bolete and Weeping Bolete, Dark Cap Cep, Slippery Jacks and Saffron Milk Caps, a few Woodland Puffballs as well as a couple of Field ones.
He will serve these dried and reconstituted in a consomme soup. "By the way," he adds to anyone thinking of doing a little mushroom hunting of their own, "the Weeping Bolete and Slippery Jack have a mildly poisonous skin which peel, or it may work as a laxative on you!"
Adam has even found the famous Fly Agaric - the fairy tale mushroom with its bright red hood covered in white, moveable spots. "Beautiful, magical," he says "and not seriously poisonous, but should definitely be avoided. If you want to know why…look them up in a mushroom book. I highly recommend the River Cottage Handbook No.1 by John Wright."
"I only had one iffy moment when my dog Slinky wouldn’t return when I called him in the woods. I hauled myself through the trees and bushes only to find him barking at a huge dead badger which couldn’t of been dead for long. I did have a heart in mouth moment of what kind of body he had found!"
