Now it has started raining,  after weeks of hot dry weather, the field mushrooms have come into their own.  We have eaten mushrooms in some form or other pretty well daily over the last ten days or so.  There is a neighbours field opposite where the grass is very short after the sheep, which are now elsewhere, have been grazing.  There are masses of little and big white buttons – easy to spot!  GOS laughs at me tripping across  the road into the field, very early in the morning, in my wellington boots and pyjamas in order to collect a few for breakfast.

We are not very “adventurous” in our fungi collecting really as I do like to be sure of what I am eating!  I have cooked puff balls, but they always need something to jazz them up a bit as they haven’t the flavour of field mushrooms.

“Several species may be confused with Agaricus campestris. Amanita virosa and similar, closely related species, are morbidly toxic. Agaricus xanthodermus (“the yellow stainer”) causes gastrointestinal problems. Agaricus arvensis, the horse mushroom, is an excellent edible. White Clitocybe species that also grow on lawns, and in grassy places may be dangerous to eat.”  (Wiki)

We do get a lot of inkcaps in the manure heap in particular, but I cannot say I have fancied eating them – have you?

I have frozen field mushrooms before now,  quite useful for a casserole,  but  mainly it is just another thing that gets to the bottom of the freezer, forgotten!

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The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants:

The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants –

At Evening, it is not

At Morning, in a Truffled Hut

It stop opon a Spot

As if it tarried always

And yet it’s whole Career

Is shorter than a Snake’s Delay –

And fleeter than a Tare –

’Tis Vegetation’s Juggler –

The Germ of Alibi –

Doth like a Bubble antedate

And like a Bubble, hie –

I feel as if the Grass was pleased

To have it intermit –

This surreptitious Scion

Of Summer’s circumspect.

Had Nature any supple Face

Or could she one contemn –

Had Nature an Apostate –

That Mushroom – it is Him!

I did find a really nice recipe last week which gave me this idea:

Take large field mushrooms, stuff the hollows with cooked, chopped spinach and top with Stilton Cheese.  Pop under the grill until the mushrooms are cooked.  This is absolutely delicious . . . . . .