All rather quiet on the mushrooming front at the moment. February does have one important and frequent fungus though, the beautiful Scarlet Elf Cup, Sarcocornia austriaca, pictured below. It is found frequently in mixed woodland, occasionally forming a patchy “red carpet”. A Dorset friend of mine said that he and his friends used to collect it together with snowdrops as a posy for their mothers. You can eat it though 1. it is too pretty to pick, 2. it has a tough, unchewable outer membrane, 3. it doesn’t taste of anything.

I am very grateful to my good friend Alan Hills for sending me some news on the genus Paxillus. He has now identified four species of Paxillus in the UK. It appears that some we have been naming P. involutus for many years could in fact be other species. See the News page for Alan’s photographs and descriptions.

Updated 27thy February 2009

Foray dates for 2009 are now all posted!

Sorry about this commercial break! But:

The River Cottage Mushroom Handbook was published on the 3rd September 2007. If you would like a signed copy it is available from the River Cottage web site. There is also a DVD available to go with the book and an online mushroom course.

And, not quite so mushroomy (though they do make an appearance) - is my new River Cottage Handbook to the Edible Seashore, due out on the 4th May.

Now back to the fungi.

Welcome to this web site which supports my various mushroom forays and other fungal activities.

I run many forays each year in and around Dorset. In general each foray consists of a walk over what we hope will be fungi rich ground with each species named and described as we go (or, often, just collected for identification back at base). All the collected fungi are laid out on a table with their names attached and I talk through each one. Species are discussed and collected without regard to their edibility - if we find something nice to eat that’s great, if not - well maybe next time.

Full details of how you can join me on one of these forays are available on the Forays page. In addition to those held at River Cottage HQ, Kingcombe, Holton Lee and elsewhere, I also hope to run one or two private forays that will be limited to just a handful of people; take a look at John’s Forays for details.
If you come on one of my forays do check here for any photographs of the day and (sometimes) lists of the fungi found.

The fungi on this page are, from left to right, Hygrocybe psittacina,Chroogomphus rutilus, Boletus calopus, Aleuria aurantiaca and Lepista saeva.

Warning: Eating wild fungi can be a wonderful way of enjoying the fruits of nature, but if you get it wrong you may kill yourself. Before you eat anything please read this.