mountain harvest!

[peanuts]

Wild fungi seem to have been very late in getting going this year, certainly in SW France, but today we were walking in the mountains and found both parasol mushrooms, and large prince mushrooms - 1.8kg in all! Supper will be good!

[peanuts]

[goodlife]

WoW!....lucky you! 

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

It amused me when on a trip to a French town a few years back to buy some Trumpets of Death fungi to bring back and cook.

[hippydave]

fantastic foraging im very envious

[Jayb]

Mmm, they look good 
What have you got planned for them?

[peanuts]

I cooked them all this evening, in olive oil and butter, with seasoning and a little garlic.  Then I made a sauce with some of them, some creme fraiche, wholegrain mustard, and garden sweetcorn kernels, and a dash of lemon, to go with a couple of slices of lamb's liver.  We ate this with the lettuce I''m just about to put in for the lettuce/salad competition!  I've frozen the rest of the cooked mushrooms.

[antipodes]

Yum, even though I am nervous about eating wild ones. Get lots in teh forests around here but you need to be a local (and usually about 80 years old!) to know where they are.

[peanuts]

Searching for fungi  here is a major pre-occupation in the autumn particularly, among the young and old. It is SERIOUS!  Driving in forests you might see a car tucked into  a parking space every 100 metres or so when it is a good time! But the French are notoriously, or reasonably, reluctant to tell anyone else where they find a good harvest.  We have gradually got to know our favourite spots, and we have been very honoured in having two French friends (not anywhere near 80yrs old!) who have taken us mushrooming, and shown us their best places. They taught us the necessary details for just a few species and we have gone on from there, now being carefully confident in being able to identify 7 or 8 different edible ones now.  We have also taken some into a pharmacy for identification several times - all French pharmacies have to have someone trained in that.

[Jelliebabe]

Well jell!  I cant identify shrooms in the supermarche!  Never mind in the wild  :D  LOVE THEM

[peanuts]

mushrooms are definitely getting going at last,and will grow more after a day's heavy rain yesterday.  This morning we had our first little white mushrooms growing in the garden. Usually we have  started gathering them in September, so they are nearly a month later this year.  Two days ago we had a second big harvest of parasol mushrooms (1.4kg) in the mountains.  They are so  great to find, as they are so obvious, and almost wave at you, being visible 100 yards away!

They fill the pan with  the addition of salt, pepper and garlic.  It is a very big fry pan, and you can tell that as it happens to be next to my biggest  tomato, which almost looks small!:

They cook down to not very much, but they taste delicious!