Foraging, 2023
Nature provides.
Contains 276 photos, the last of which were added 11 months, 2 days, 3 hours, 48 minutes, and 3 seconds ago.
The sun finally came out, so we went for a rummage through the local woods where we found winter oysters last year. The tree that R climbed to get oysters a year ago has since blown down, making access much easier.. and it's just starting to fruit. Back in a couple of weeks.
Did go home with lots of beautiful condition jelly ear though.
Sneaky winter oysters are emerging... Back in a couple of weeks!
Absolute ton of jelly ear out at the moment, in really good condition. Also some winter oysters were ready, so they got fried.
St George's mushrooms out bang on schedule. Dryad's starting. Fairy ring champignon in the secret cemetery?
Dryads!
An early parasol in Ravenscraig Park. Oyster mushrooms in Ravenscraig too, though none yet in the oyster woods. Chicken of the woods in the oyster woods doesn't seem to be growing, so we're leaving it alone.
Someone found these growing on the compost at Greener Kirkcaldy! Gorgeous. (I was consulted to see if they're edible!)
Oodles (1.4kg) of chicken of the woods at [redacted] on the south fife coast.. so much that we had to abandon our hike early to bring it home.
Back in Kirkcaldy, the oyster mushrooms are flushing... right on schedule.
The season is really kicking off in the oyster woods. Got several kilos. All in perfect condition, barely needed cleaning. Little rain means they've not been splashed with dirt, and also they're not so full of water that they turn to soup when cooked, but fry up perfectly!
More oyster mushroom runs, closer to home.
Found another chicken of the woods in a well hidden but accessible-once-you-know it nearby location. Waiting to see if it grows more; will be a good haul if so.
Also found a deer shield, a small inkcap I haven't seen before, and some interesting weird grey growths on a fallen log.
Took R for oyster mushrooms
Yet more oyster mushrooms
A trip to the local chanterelle woods, where lots of patches were ready (including some new to us) and lots more still to come. Also loads of russulas, but very chewed up by slugs and time. A few brown birch and red cracked boletes, but only a couple worth taking home.
Oyster mushrooms in Ravenscraig Park - just enough for dinner.
A ramble after work to look for chanterelles. Found plenty, along with lots of other interesting fungi.
R dropped off about 5kg of chanterelles for me to "deal with".
Prince coming up in Ravenscraig Park, but the slugs got them before I could. A little flush of oysters in the oyster woods, in defiance of dryness and heatweave.
Grabbed some puffballs from the park on the way into the community kitchen, and did an ad-hoc puffball ID and cooking demo for the volunteers. Battered and deep fried, of course.
Picked lots of apples from the community orchards, chopped, pulped, pressed, bottled. A year's supply of apple juice.
Went for a rainy walk in Ravenscraig park and found several times more enormous shaggy parasols than last year, and in more locations too! Some were old and wormy, but many were great. Also puffballs and many cute unidentified wee things. And a stinkhorn!
Went for more parasols. Also to the chanterelle woods for chanterelles and a few boletes.
Many more chanterelles, and a decent showing of ceps in the chanterelle wood (they're so late!) but still not anything like last year. Also lots of really good condition fly agaric... "may cause gastric upset"... I risked it, they were delicious!
Finally it's shaggy inkcaps time! My joint favourite with chicken of the woods, depending on what mood I'm in. The tree in Ravenscraig Park where I found lots last year did not fail to disappoint again, with several flushes.
Blewits have started too.
Still some blewits and cloud agraric and a few agaricus around.
