Mushroom of the Month - August 2009

What a brilliant start to the summer. No... we haven't emigrated; we are still suffering the worst of British weather. We say this merely as a reference to the emergence of fungi and not a comment on the almost incessant rain and wind that have ruined so many holidays already... unless of course you are a fungus fanatic.

Fanatical we certainly are, at least when it comes to searching out the very best edible mushrooms, and August has started with some wonderful finds. We have seen quite few field mushrooms and plenty of wood mushrooms (Agaricus campestris and Agaricus arvensis), but we rarely bother to collect when the subject of this posting is available... Summer Chanterelles! This year they are appearing in West Wales in probably ten times the usual quantity; the weather must suit them (meaning perhaps that the mycelium is in danger of drowning and is doing all that it can to secure a future for the species: producing spore-distributing fruitbodies).

Here is an example of the quality of summer chanterelles that we have found in the first few days of August:

In five minutes we gathered a kilo or so. Sue makes the most wonderful chanterelle sauces to go with pork chops, and she has lots of other recipes for these most superb mushrooms. Some of these will apear in Pat's new book on fungi, due out next spring. More details in due course...

Happy hunting!