Wild mushrooms are my pick of the bunch

Fungi are nature’s recyclers. They break down organic matter from plants and animals, and provide food for the trees and the many woodland creatures who feed on them. Unfortunately, we tend to disregard the important role fungi play, trampling some into the ground in our haste to collect as many as we can find out of sheer greed, often leaving with a basketful, which usually contains far more than we can eat.

October is their month, though with more than 14,000 different species to be found in England they can be discovered throughout the year, particularly when the weather is warm and moist. You can certainly tell if you have entered a wood filled with fungi because of the earthy aroma that hangs in the air, even as late as November.

I write this having just spent the after-noon walking Pinsley Wood, the ancient wood that can be reached from North Leigh or Church Hanborough. I was armed with my trusty camera rather than a basket as I’d hope to find clusters of mushrooms and toadstools to photograph for this article. Sadly, despite the warm, moist weather, there were no fungi in sight, not even a few toadstools, suggesting that either weather conditions were not right, or that they have been picked out.

The RSPB, National Trust and Forestry Commission are apparently now all concerned that wild mushroom foraging is getting out of hand and is damaging local ecology. A new generation of foodies and foragers is beginning to trample the forests and woodlands in search of fungi that can either be sold on to celebrity chefs or to mushroom enthusiasts. The problem is getting so serious that some collectors found with bagfuls of mushrooms picked for commercial gain are now are being prosecuted and their spoils confiscated. Conservation managers agree, however, that small-scale collection for personal use is not a problem. In fact, the Forestry Commission and the National Trust organise courses that help people identify safe mushrooms and teach us how to harvest them without damaging the landscape. Baskets or a porous bag are the preferred containers in which to collect rather than plastic, as they allow the spores to disperse as you walk.

Where you find mushrooms growing in pairs, only pick one and try to leave at least 50 per cent of any patch you find, taking care to cut carefully at ground level to prevent damaging the delicate mycelium below.

Another reason for being cautious is that you can fall ill from foraging if you mis-identify your harvest. Just one month into this year’s foraging season, which begins in September, 84 cases were report-ed to the National Poisons Information Service who are the ones to consult for advice. Varieties such as the Death Cap mushroom, the Destroying Angel and the Fool’s Webcap contain toxins which attack the liver and kidneys, often fatally. It’s worth noting that it is not easy to differentiate between toxic and non-toxic species, even if you are an experienced forager. And you can’t always tell they are poisonous by tasting them when cooked.

If you want to experience the delights of harvesting mushrooms, there is another way, which is perfectly safe... you can cultivate your own. There was a time when you could only purchase packs of button mushroom spawn to propagate, now you can grow several delicious varieties. There are the beautiful oyster mushrooms that come in several different and very delicate colours, also the very tasty chestnut mushrooms, elm mushrooms, and the Japanese Shiitake that come in plugs to be inserted into logs. For a very dramatic fungi that can be harvested in June and July that you can grow at home, there is the Lion’s Mane, which grows as a cascading cluster of white spines that taste of lobster when cooked.

There are also small windowsill kits so you can pick your own as you cook and add them to the pot seconds after they have been harvested — you can’t get anything fresher than that. A mushroom-growing kit makes a great Christmas gift.

One trick if you are adding mushrooms to a casserole or stew is to add half, finely chopped, when first putting the dish together, so that they infuse their flavour into the rest of the ingredients. Then add the rest at the end, having fried them in butter and removed them from the frying pan before they are fully cooked. Then drop them into the cooking pot, stir in and serve. This way you can enjoy both flavour and texture, and if glistening with butter when added to the dish, they look great.

The ultimate comfort dish, of course, is mushrooms on toast, particularly if you use homemade bread, or sour dough for the toast, cutting it quite thick and smothering it with butter. Definitely the perfect dish for a winter’s evening.