So every year now I look forward to the sunshine after the first rains. It means that there will be some mushrooms coming up in our paddocks. If we get to them before the cows then we get a few feeds of fresh field mushies. We have them come up in 3 areas that I know of but one paddock I wont pick from as I am not 100% sure on if they are the right type. The ones in the triangle paddock look and smell just like real mushies. When left sitting on a piece of paper the spores are dark. BUT, when young the underside of these is white. They go brown as they age and get bigger but to me the underside should be pink when small then darker/brown. So I wont eat the ones from the triangle paddock. I will eat them from the other 2 patches, no worries, have done for the last 5 years or so and am not dead yet so I figure I am right and they are the right ones. We picked a batch a month or so ago and thought they were finished but with the latest batch of rain and sunshine Husband found a couple more and I had them a couple of nights ago.
Manymanymany years ago we used to sometimes find big mushrooms, what we called horse mushrooms. I'm not sure though if this is right as the underside is pink and some stuff that I have read says that Horse Mushrooms start off white...maybe the triangle paddock mushrooms are real Horse Mushrooms even though they are not big like I think of a HM?
Anyway, we kept an eye on the mushroom, watched it open as it grew and I put a bit of white paper underneath to see that the spores were brown and not yellow. And I covered it over with some grass and small branches from the trees out there, to hide it from any mushroom stealing people that might pass by though technically, as it is/was on public land it wouldn't have been stealing...
The mushroom has been picked and is in the fridge...I now need to decide how to use it but it is big enough to try a few different ways.
Do you pick real mushrooms from your paddocks? Get big ones like this? Know what they are called? All comments appreciated, thankyou.
I don't have a paddock, just 1/3 acre yard. I have plenty of mushrooms but know nothing about them except not to eat them. Your expertise amazes me. Your bravery amazes me, too! Actually, I have never seen a mushroom that large anywhere. Maybe I need a mushroom book AND a teacher. Have you ever considered growing mushrooms? It requires a certain type log to inoculate and grow mushrooms.
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ReplyDeleteWow, that's a chunky fellow all right. Good, tasty eating there. We used to pick mushies from the sheep paddocks when we lived on a farm. I tried drying them on a screen over our open fire - oh the incredible rich smell, but they kept well. Fresh from the paddock is always the best I reckon!
ReplyDeleteThat is such an impressive mushroom. I have never eaten a mushroom that I haven't bought. I feel like I would need an experienced person standing next to me, saying,'That one's OK, no, don't eat that one..'
ReplyDeleteApparently in France you can take them to the pharmacy where the pharmacist is trained to identify edible mushrooms. How handy would that be? Well, I hope it is delicious... it will certainly feed a crowd!