For all the mushroom lovers: a chap in Poland has found a stonker!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24292021
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24292021
Giant Mushroom found in Poland
- Thread starter Foss
- Start date
Pine Marten
Well-Known Member
Wow! I found one about half that size last year, but other than that, 2012 was rubbish for mushrooms. Usually when I go to the woods looking for woodcock, I don't come home with any, but there are a few mushrooms to out in my gamebag instead. Last year, nothing. No woodcock either for that matter.
Obviously I can't tell you where my best mushroom patch is, but I can tell you that until maybe a decade ago, my mother and I had the run of the place because none of the locals were interested. And then, the Poles arrived, and they LOVE mushrooms. I can't blame, and fair play to them, but it means that now, if we want any, we have to turn up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday and beat our Polish counterparts to it. Ah well, we had a good run while it lasted. Now we just have to up our game. I don't know whether I'm going to manage it this Autumn though, what with the Young Pine Marten making planning difficult.
Obviously I can't tell you where my best mushroom patch is, but I can tell you that until maybe a decade ago, my mother and I had the run of the place because none of the locals were interested. And then, the Poles arrived, and they LOVE mushrooms. I can't blame, and fair play to them, but it means that now, if we want any, we have to turn up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday and beat our Polish counterparts to it. Ah well, we had a good run while it lasted. Now we just have to up our game. I don't know whether I'm going to manage it this Autumn though, what with the Young Pine Marten making planning difficult.
Ah Mr PM!
I actually thought of you when posting this - thought you might enjoy it! The tale you tell is the same even where my parents live in the boonies. The big difference I think is that many pick for commercial reasons and so are less discerning in the number they take or the one's they might otherwise leave. Therefore you really can tell when they've been because everything is gone and nothing is coming through. We are v fortunate and have lots of different ones. Wife's favourite is the Orange Birch Boletus but mine is still the Boletus Edulis and the odd hedgehog.
Just re-read my post - that's not a jab at the Poles - just whomever it is that has started turning up with the van and team to pick them all!
I actually thought of you when posting this - thought you might enjoy it! The tale you tell is the same even where my parents live in the boonies. The big difference I think is that many pick for commercial reasons and so are less discerning in the number they take or the one's they might otherwise leave. Therefore you really can tell when they've been because everything is gone and nothing is coming through. We are v fortunate and have lots of different ones. Wife's favourite is the Orange Birch Boletus but mine is still the Boletus Edulis and the odd hedgehog.
Just re-read my post - that's not a jab at the Poles - just whomever it is that has started turning up with the van and team to pick them all!
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Pine Marten
Well-Known Member
A few years back there were indeed groups of people picking every single damned mushroom. I saw them once with three black bin liners full. But I know that in other places, the authorities came down on them. In one place, they just banned mushroom picking altogether which is a shame. I haven't seen or heard of it later. It could be that in the end, it just wasn't a good way of making money. Everyone was a bit more clued up, and anyway, in a bin liner full of random fungi, how many are of any value? I daresay they all realised there were better ways of making a few quid.
This wood has plenty of all sorts of boletus including some ceps, and usually you can find a forest cauliflower too if you're lucky. Also popular with the dogging fraternity but they take the night shift and don't really stray from the car park. I don't mind, at least they leave the mushrooms alone.
This wood has plenty of all sorts of boletus including some ceps, and usually you can find a forest cauliflower too if you're lucky. Also popular with the dogging fraternity but they take the night shift and don't really stray from the car park. I don't mind, at least they leave the mushrooms alone.
If you’ve got very good ID skills as is suggested by your parentage there should be plenty of people who are still hesitant to pick all but the Penny Bun and would bite your hand off to have you tag along on a hunt as their Personnel Mushroom Guide for a share of the findings.
K
K
Pine Marten
Well-Known Member
Well I try and learn a new one every year, but in the end I just know which ones are good in the places I go to. I've been trying to convince my friends near Durham to eat the shaggy inkcaps that grow in their garden for years. Despite eating a plateful of them in front of them with no ill-effects, I just can't convince them, so ingrained into them is the fear. I daresay I miss out on a lot of mushrooms because I don't know what they are. In fact, I know that I must do.
An amusing thing happened last year though: I picked a bitter bolete by mistake. They look just like the good varieties, they're not toxic, and also very rare, which is why I'd never come across one before. What they do is to totally ruin your dinner by making everything unbelievably bitter. One of evolution's little jokes, that one.
Now that said, I will come to your shoot and impart any mushroom knowledge that I have in exchange for shooting of some sort! Best time is September to early November, after that it's too cold.
Pine Marten
Well-Known Member
They sell them here for about the same price as fillet beef, so that mushroom of his is worth about £130. Mushroom hutning is the only hunting/gathering activity that really makes any sort of financial sense. Except that obviously it doesn't because you wouldn't have spent £130 on a mushroom.
Let me know when you have your MSC L2!
phillc
Well-Known Member
My wife is Ukrainian, and every time we're out for a nice ramble in the Autumn she spoils it by stopping to pick every edible mushroom she can find. 
Seriously though, her knowledge of fungi is truly amazing. I never realised there were so many edible types. I guess such knowledge comes from an early life where having enough to eat demanded it.
We often chop the mushrooms quite thinly, dry them for a few days, then store them in a jar. When added to soups in the deep mid-winter they rehydrate very nicely and taste great.
Seriously though, her knowledge of fungi is truly amazing. I never realised there were so many edible types. I guess such knowledge comes from an early life where having enough to eat demanded it.
We often chop the mushrooms quite thinly, dry them for a few days, then store them in a jar. When added to soups in the deep mid-winter they rehydrate very nicely and taste great.
That Mushroom is not in Poland,.... it's the one they keep us under where I work, ... and they cr*p on us more than twice a day!
cracking that,
always fancied it but to **** scared to pick as know nowt about it..... other than watching the bloke off of HUgh fearnleys program picking em and makin a gorgeous looking mushroom risotto type dish.....Christ looked good
don't know anybody my way who knows anything bout em......maybe start looking and trying to identify but wouldn't eat it unless had it confirmed I think by someone in the know
Paul
always fancied it but to **** scared to pick as know nowt about it..... other than watching the bloke off of HUgh fearnleys program picking em and makin a gorgeous looking mushroom risotto type dish.....Christ looked good
don't know anybody my way who knows anything bout em......maybe start looking and trying to identify but wouldn't eat it unless had it confirmed I think by someone in the know
Paul
Toxster
Well-Known Member
Sauer - Where you are is fantastic 'shroom country. Heaving in Chanterelle, Blewitts, Shaggy Ink Caps, Boletus and of course Field Mushrooms. Once you can identify those five you can take the rest of your life to worry about the rest.
A timely post this as I dumped some failed mushroom compost in a bed last year and hey presto, this week I have a corner of stonking portobello mushooms!
A timely post this as I dumped some failed mushroom compost in a bed last year and hey presto, this week I have a corner of stonking portobello mushooms!
you may be right.......just 5 mins from the house was renowned for " magic mushys" and every year would be droves o folk harvesting them.....
my mum was always wondered why there was heaps o folk jist milling about when walking the dog.
heheheheheheee
seriously tho might get a book and have a try
paul
my mum was always wondered why there was heaps o folk jist milling about when walking the dog.
heheheheheheee
seriously tho might get a book and have a try
paul
Very inspiring!
Pine Marten
Well-Known Member
Damn it man, where the hell do you live? Those ceps are magnificent! I've just finished dinner and those still make me hungry.
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