Mushrooms

kellys_eye · Post by **kellys_eye** » Mon Oct 19, 2020 3:30 pm

My garden has suddenly sprouted mushrooms. Gazillions of them. Front and back too.

Where TF do they come from and what should I do (apart from create a mushroom curry?).

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Mon Oct 19, 2020 4:04 pm

They are seeded by spores that float in the wind. The spores are produced and released as part of the mushrooms life cycle. The spores will take if the conditions suit and will develop to start the cycle again. I believe there are toadstool varieties that burst to send a shower of spores that form a circle of new toadstools. This is what is knowm as a fairy ring and that, as kids, we were told to jump into the middle and make a wish. I am still waiting.

DWD

ayjay · Post by **ayjay** » Mon Oct 19, 2020 4:12 pm

You need to check that they are edible before making the curry, not many aren't, but some of those can be lethal even in small quantities, and even edible doesn't necessarily mean palatable. Identification can be very tricky.

Ceps, Parasols and Chanterelles are the best that I'll eat from the wild, things like Shaggy Inkcaps are nice enough, but a few seconds in a hot pan and they've practically disappeared into a watery mush: not worth the bother.

kellys_eye · Post by **kellys_eye** » Mon Oct 19, 2020 9:29 pm

We have a good crop of penny buns as well as these other 'shrooms but the curry idea was in jest as I'd never risk it. The penny buns are fist-sized but don't last long on the ground - they deteriorate after a couple of days but they are VERY good eating!

I'm not too bothered about them and expect they'll disappear when the weather gets colder. We did have a tree close to our property that 'fell down' (chainsaw assisted) but hasn't been removed for firewood yet and in previous years we found it covered top-to-bottom with 'shrooms but this is the first year since then (around 8 years ago now) that 'shrooms have appeared on the lawn.

Mowing them down was suggested but I reckon that'll only make matters worse. Stuck between a rock and a soft place as there's too many to pick and destroying them will only create more!

ericmark · Post by **ericmark** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:37 pm

The mitochondria (not sure of spelling) that grows under woodland is claimed to be the largest living organism in the world, and it can be linked to one type of tree, and the trees need it to thrive. The mushroom is it's fruiting body and some are quite tasty, honey fungus for example that grows on rotting wood. Although I know trees need it, not so sure about other plants.

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:01 pm

Mycelium is the word you are looking for. Mitochondria are something completely different.

Argyll · Post by **Argyll** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:25 pm

I remember a story of an English author who holidayed in Perth. He and his friends ate some. One died and the other was blinded.

There's a girl I know who forages all the time for them. She showed me the inky cap ones which are quite nice with garlic but personally I'd rather buy mine from Tesco to be on the safe side. It's not worth it if you don't know what you're doing.

Argyll · Post by **Argyll** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:26 pm

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti ... rooms.html

Found it. Shame it's from The DM but ah well.

I'm sure I read somewhere one of them was blinded.

Argyll · Post by **Argyll** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:40 pm

These are on a tree stump near my house. They kinda freak me out, to be honest. I've no idea what they are but they just appeared a few days ago.

: IMG_20201026_213301.jpg (138.19 KiB) Viewed 4738 times

ayjay · Post by **ayjay** » Mon Oct 26, 2020 10:37 pm

Argyll wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:26 pm https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti ... rooms.html

Found it. Shame it's from The DM but ah well.

Mushroom ID can be very difficult, but how he got those two species mixed up I don't understand, the man is an idiot, (just look at the underside of the cap on both species).

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 9:20 am

You certainly do need to be careful but it is worth remembering that there are far more edible (thought not necessarily tasty) mushrooms out there than deadly ones.

I used to pick a lot more mushrooms than I do now, I stopped because it actually costs a lot of money to pick "free" mushrooms. You need to spend time looking for them (potentially using petrol to drive to good hunting locations), you are often unsuccessful and you need to spend time researching as well. Rarely do you find them when you actually want to eat them, so I just buy them, supermarket mushrooms have excellent flavour and are very cheap.

If you are going to go hunting for them I think the best thing to do is learn some good, safe, easy to identify varieties and stick to only picking those rather than the scatter gun approach that some take of trying to identify everything they come across. If you hunt in your local area you will soon find out which varieties grown in certain locations and they tend to crop up time and again in the same places.

ayjay · Post by **ayjay** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:44 am

Rorschach wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 9:20 am I used to pick a lot more mushrooms than I do now, I stopped because it actually costs a lot of money to pick "free" mushrooms. You need to spend time looking for them (potentially using petrol to drive to good hunting locations), you are often unsuccessful and you need to spend time researching as well. Rarely do you find them when you actually want to eat them, so I just buy them, supermarket mushrooms have excellent flavour and are very cheap.

I'm out most days anyway, so travel cost is irrelevant for me: biggest problem I have is finding them before the local wildlife has had a nibble or any feral kids have kicked them to bits.

I do buy quite a few as well, the small Oyster Mushrooms have become a favourite recently, I cook those quite differently to my usual methods for mushrooms.

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 11:05 am

ayjay wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:44 am I'm out most days anyway, so travel cost is irrelevant for me: biggest problem I have is finding them before the local wildlife has had a nibble or any feral kids have kicked them to bits.

I do buy quite a few as well, the small Oyster Mushrooms have become a favourite recently, I cook those quite differently to my usual methods for mushrooms.

If you are out and about anyway then that's good. I used to walk frequently in my local woods and would collect various wild foods such as mushrooms and edible greens (there was a tree stump that grew the most fantastic grey oyster mushrooms for several months of the year), unfortunately I do not feel safe in that area anymore and have to confine my walks to urban routes now.

Megan81 · Post by **Megan81** » Thu Feb 11, 2021 1:21 pm

Not all kinds of mushrooms can be consumed. Use some weed / pesticide to clear your lawn of it.