Category Archives: Fungi

All things fungi and mycological

New Mushroom Log Workshop

Posted on by April 22, 2014

Having fortuitously secured some newly cut oak from a not very secret location I’m now in the position to run some mushroom log inoculation workshops In this practical workshop  location you will learn how to grow exotic mushrooms on hardwood logs. You will learn about how to select and prepare logs and how to inoculate them with Shiitake mushroom spawn. You will also learn how to care for your inoculated logs and how to encourage and maintain fruiting logs for many years. For the price of the workshop you will also get to take home your own freshly inoculated oak … read more

October Walk

Posted on by October 24, 2012
A little violet purple mushroom growing of a rotten log

After an unscheduled and over extended summer break Edible Landscape finally got out with a fungi focused walk last Sunday. Having bemoaned the general lack of fruits a fungal flush creped up on me and forced a last minute call for participants. In Parish and Old hill woods we found the best avoided Magpie Ink cap, Clouded Agaric, and honey fungus, as well as a bunch of unidentified numbers. The Amethyst Deceiver, despite it’s slightly ominous sounding name is good to eat if you can find enough of the often small deep purple mushrooms. I include a photo of the … read more

Winter Fruits

Oyster mushrooms

The very late fruiting season goes on. It was not until the 24th January that I spotted these fine fruits on a fallen ash in Oldhills wood, but according to another sharp eyed walker they had already been there a couple of weeks. I have always been a bit wary of Oyster mushrooms that fruit in the middle of winter. Although the text books do state that Pleurotus ostreatus can be found throughout the year, in my experience they are much more likely to be found in summer or early autumn. But my wariness comes from the fact that there … read more

The Fungal Year

Posted on by September 19, 2012

It’s been a strange year for fungi. First the usually faithful St. Georges, (Calocybe gambosa, (formally Tricholoma gambosum (don’t ask me why))), did not appear at all due to the complete lack of rain in April.  But then, just when I’d given up on any spring crop at all, Morels (Morchella esulenta), one of the most sort after wild mushrooms in mycophile Europe, started appearing all up and down the valley. A dry late summer and early autumn again led to disappointing no shows of other favourites like Ceps (Boletus edulis) and Hedgehog fungi (hydnum repandum) in my usual locations. … read more