I have been busy of late, so I havent had much of an opportunity to go looking for any mushrooms for #FungiFriday for the Fungi Lovers Community.
Fortunately the Fungi Gods were smiling on me today, and they decided to bring them to me instead!
It all started earlier today. With a couple of days of consistent sunshine and increasing temperatures, I finally had an opportunity to cut the grass on the front lawn. The back garden is kept fairly rough and wild, but to keep up appearances I try to keep the front one reasonably neat and tidy.
So I drag the lawnmower out of the shed and take round to the front of the house, and I plug it in and turn it on. Quite literally 30 seconds into mowing the lawn, I notice these large white mushroom in amongst the long grass.
Of course I have to stop immediately. I wrote this post about some mushrooms I found on my lawn last autumn, and straight away I recognised that these were different.
I picked one to have a look at, and noticed the chunky stem...
and the tightly packed white gills underneath.
I am a member of 'UK mushroom' group on facebook, and there have been several posts in recent days by other members. This meant I already had a good idea of the ID for this - a St.George's Mushroom (Calocybe gambosa).
The next step was to consult the 'bible' - 'Mushrooms' by Roger Phillips
I found the page with the entry for this species, and the pictures looked similar (always a good start!)
Reading the entry, all the details seemed to match: White flesh, thick stem, crowded narrow gills.
The smell is said to be 'mealy' but I don't know what that is. I gave a sniff to a couple of the 'shrooms and they both smelt very damp and 'earthy' which I think is close enough.
Everything else matched regarding habitat etc, and the time of year was close as well.
I posted these images to the facebook group that I am amember of to double check, and 3 members (1 was admin) all confirmed I was correct.
Success!
Another new species to add to the Garden List, and as a bonus I could actually eat these as well.
I was going to write about the dish we put them in (thanks to my partner) but I forgot and promptly eat it all, sorry!
It was a pasta type thing (with mushroom, ham and orzo pasta in a white sauce). It was incredibly tasty, but I don't have any pictures so you will just have to trust me.
Disclaimer:
I was happy my ID was correct before eating these, always make sure you ID any mushrooms you find before trying them, and if at any point you are unsure,
please DO NOT EAT THEM!
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