Out for a walk the other day without my camera, or even my phone, there, at the edge of the woods I spotted – a ring of shaggy inkcaps*. Some had ‘gone over’, but about seven were still young and begging to be picked for lunch. I hurried home with my bounty: inkcaps famously dequilesce into a horrid black inky mess if not cooked immediately.
I sauted a small onion in butter with garlic, added the chopped inkcaps, and – voilà – mushrooms on toast for our lunch. An unexpected treat.
* Coprinus Comatus: also known as Shaggy Mane or Lawyer’s Wig Mushroom.
For Becky’s Seven for September.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
Mushroom hunting season is upon us
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Hooray! It’s simply not a thing here. People think I’m weird. Or foolhardy. Or both.
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I go with a friend who knows his mushrooms but equally I could take them into my local pharmacy for deciphering.
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Our local pharmacy in France would no longer do that. They feared legal action if they got it wrong and were respnsible for an upset tummy – or worse.
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The woman who runs ours is a local “expert”
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👍
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Hmm lucky you. I am guessing you had a lovely lunch and free as well.
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Free apart from the butter, onion, garlic, toast, cooking fuel!
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This sounds such a treat, and they’re a lovely shape, too. I love mushrooms on toast even made with the commercially grown variety. I usually chuck in some dry sherry.
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Now there’s a thought! Thanks.
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Amazing genetic. They all look the same
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I know. Astonishing , isn’t it?
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There’s no end to your resoucefulness, woman! We are currently having the tiles knocked off our front wall and the wall repainted so there’s scaffolding outside the door. I had to limbo out to feed the cat!
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I’ve met similar looking things, but with mushrooms I don’t know whether “similar” is something you can use.
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Margaret, what a great walk you must’ve had. I don’t know very much about mushrooms at all. But finding lunch in the woods and enjoying it on toast sounds heavenly. Here in the states, my wife will search for morels in the spring. But I have never heard of her searching for mushrooms in the fall. What a find. Have a wonderful week.
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Ah, here in Europe, autumn is prime mushroom foraging time. I’ve never found morels. How yummy!
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You can always make ink for writing your Christmas cards if they turn too quickly!
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Messy!
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I know nothing about mushrooms, would be scared to eat something I found, but I bet they were good!
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They ARE good, and these are not really like any others, so easily identified.
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I’ve never had one but I checked and it was the “mushroom of the year” in Germany. If you go to the German wikipedia article ( either go to the English one, click on different languages and pick German/Deutsch or follow this link: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schopf-Tintling) scroll down a bit and there is a wonderful series of two inkcaps on four consecutive days.
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Thanks for that. They don’t make attractive corpses, do they? But they are good eating so – have a go. They’re not easily confused with anything else.
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ooh I can see a foraging expedition coming up in October
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👍
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I would never have the confidence to cook mushrooms I find in the wild, much as I love them. I know I don’t know enough to be sure they were safe! Yours sound delicious however, and make for stylish squares too 😃
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Honestly, shaggy ink caps are about as safe as it gets. They don’t look like anything else.
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I’ll bear that in mind, although you don’t see many growing around these parts!
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They quite often appear in urban settings. I know a great spot in Leeds, fairly near a dual carriageway! And in Harrogate, near one of the bigger roundabouts.
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Delicious, what great luck that you know your mushrooms and found these!
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Honestly, I don’t know many, and if in doubt, I don’t ….
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I just returned from the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, where the mushroom hunting season is well underway. How exciting to be able to have such a delicious treat, Margaret.
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I know! I’m On the Case now, Rebecca.
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Ooh, they can be eaten!
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Indeed! I don’t know – are the Spanish as fixated on fungi as the French. Where we lived, most people were at it, gathering away in all their favourite spots whose location they would share with nobody – no, not their brother, not their closest friend.
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Indeed and think our finca used to be invaded at mushroom time but I never find many! Very expensive in the restaurants too.
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Same everywhere I think!
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Your photos and meal description sounded very yummy.
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They were yummy!
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Seven shaggy ink caps? Or one photographed seven times? They are identical. I accept that you are an expert mushroom forager. I won’t be trying them.
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I’m not an expert, but these are so recognisable. And I’m still here. Yup, same one 7 times. I forgot to photograph until I’d almost done prepping them.
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🤣🤣
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I have never seen or heard of these. Thank you for posting!
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Perhaps they’re not known over your way?
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Lucky find Margaret, I would be too nervous to eat mushrooms from the wild.
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Everyone’s saying that! If a big wimp like me can do it, anyone can!
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I would not be brave enough to eat these either. I’m glad you ‘know your mushrooms’ and thank you for the lesson 🙂
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I don’t know many Kay. And I won’t touch anything I’m not rock-solid certain about.
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It’s Ken actually, Margaret. My ‘pen name’, Kayrpea is my phonetic attempt at my initials, by which I am known to a few mates (KRP). Further trivia for you, 61 is my school leaving year (Aussie equivalent of A levels).
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Aagh, so sorry Ken! I see you left school some four years before me, which makes you venerable indeed.
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These all looked the same to me and I see you confessed to Jude! Like others, I wouldn’t have known whether they were edible.
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Well, you all know different now and I expect you to have tried eating them before the season’s out. You will find them. Yes, even in central Glasgow.
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Oh, I have seen them growing at garden gates!
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👍
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oh, aren’t thy brilliant!
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Yes. In every way.
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Nice treat, Margret! Love these mushroom photos.
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Gosh I always thought they were deadly! Don’t worry, I won’t try your recipe, perhaps ours are of the dangerous kind.
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Oh, in the interests of science, don’t you think you should?? 😉
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We recently had a case here where a woman bumped off the in laws with beef stroganoff. The mere mention of mushies sends Victorians into sniggers nowadays.
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That case made it into the news here. It was quite a sensation. You’d be quite safe with me. I’m extremely circumspect.
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🤞
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This mushroom is new to me. How nice to find wild mushrooms one is certain are edible. I sure they must be more tasty than commercially grown mushrooms.
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They ARE tasty. What a shame you don’t have them too. I’ve just looked. Asia and Africa miss out.
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Oh thanks for checking on my behalf!
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