When I began foraging for mushrooms I never thought May would be a particularly good month for them – I always associated them with Autumn. But it turns out they are an all-year-round event, with different mushrooms growing at different times of the year. As I mentioned in the last blog, up here in the North East of Scotland we were a bit late with the St. George’s, but boy, they have now truly landed! Yesterday I picked a lot on my bike ride, and made soup:
Then today I had the biggest surprise of the year so far. While out on my early morning walk I went along a track that I visit pretty much every day – but I hadn’t been for a few days. Guess what has sprung up in my absence: Giant Puffballs!!
These are summer/autumn mushrooms, so to find them in our neck of the woods in May was highly unusual to say the least. They were sliced, pan fried (with a bit of homegrown thyme) and devoured with great gusto:
Fuelled by this delicious second breakfast, we powered up the steep road to Tollohill Woods. With a rucksack and a knife, because, well… you never know! While we didn’t find anything edible inside the woods, once we were out again and on our bike, I had only just finished saying to John “there weren’t any mushrooms”, when my tires shrieked to halt at the sight of a bolete in the hedge. Its two siblings had had a close shave with the hedge cutter, but the one remaining was in perfect condition. It’s the same species as we found last week:
Having identified this one a few times now, I felt confident about eating it. The mind has to overcome a certain degree of reticence to agree to eat something that looks utterly inedible (red, blue), but when we did it actually was tasty. Apart from the pores, which I must remember to remove the next time:
Here ends the month of May. In the coming week I will be checking my chanterelle woods – some people in England are already finding them, so who knows what treasures lie in store for us! Watch this space…
The healthy forager 