I was called back to the UK by an illness in the family a couple of weeks ago but once my duties as a carer were done I was able to grab the unlooked for bonus of a weekend at Oaklands before flying home. For a year now a little seasonal marker has been placed in the Autumn part of my brain after the discovery of the prospect of good eating mushrooms from the wood. I detail my discovery of Trooping Funnels in a post here. I was too nervous to actually bite the fungal bullet last year and only managed to convince myself that I had discovered safe eating after I had returned to Dubai.
The wood is beautiful at the moment with its floor carpeted in brightly lit yellow and copper leaves. Each morning or afternoon I would take a quick walk around hoping that as we pressed into November my now treasured mushrooms would reappear. I was not disappointed. I found in total 3 small "troops" which no doubt will continue to produce the goods in my absence. All that was needed now was some bravery.
I decided to watch the same Youtube video again and also read several more books and dipped into websites online. The problem is with a potential deadly mushroom dubbed the "Fool's Funnel". When the true "Troopers" have grown to around 15 cm across its clear that you cannot make an error but when they are young and fresh there is room for mistake. The indicators I needed if I was to eat the small mushrooms was a good "umbar" of nipple on the cap and a firm structured stem. It seemed to me common sense as well. If the Funnels in roughly the same place had grown to a serious size last year then these surely must be from the same mitachondrial strand. I decided that the best thing to do was to just cook some and then to observe how I felt carefully for the rest of the day !
A fry up was called for as the temperature was set to dip below 5 degrees that evening and (another) storm was looming.
I survived breakfast and then was galvanised to collect and preserve. Reading up it is clear that my Trooping Funnels are, as well being a breakfast delicacy can double up to take the role of Porcini as a dried mushroom. I have never really got on with porcini - all the soaking in Milk but the idea of capturing something of Autumn in the wood and storing it for the bleak months seemed a good one. Various attempts at drying mushrooms ensued. The top shelf of the big dresser in the kitchen seemed a prime spot.
And worked !
I tried drying on a rack in the Aga with mixed results. This seemed to bleed out moisture that then clung back to the mushroom if that makes sense - the result was a dark tobacco and black stained colouring on the mushroom which was not particularly attractive. The experiment started well. An alternative might be to plunge into good quality olive oil ? Rather expensive but an option I am considering for this year's glut of Artichokes from the potager.
The concept seems sound though - we should have seasonal mushrooms each Autumn for breakfast, soups and risottos I guess. The smell is really porcini like and once you are used to a more robust texture than a pallid supermarket button mushroom I think they are very agreeable. Piece by piece from wood piles to meals I am starting to piece together what life might look like in the future.
I will leave you with a picture of a fading late Autumn sun over the Wye Valley from the edge of our wood - now prime breakfast real estate.
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