Field Mushrooms and Their 'Friends'

Just about the only edible mushroom that has popped up this autumn so far is the Field Mushroom Agaricus campestris (Fr. Rosé-des-prés). It's a close relative of the button mushrooms you can buy in the supermarket (Agaricus bisporus), and like many Agaricus species, is good to eat. You do have to be careful though, as the most abundant Agaricus in the Touraine is the toxic lookalike, the Yellow Stainer A. xanthodermus (Fr. Agaric jaunissant).

Field Mushroom in the grass verge of one of the carparks in the Foret de Preuilly.

Agaricus species in general are easy to recognise as they have salmon pink gills, which turn brown with age. This means you should be able to avoid poisoning yourself with any of the much more dangerous pale capped white gilled mushrooms even with beginner skills. The worst that will happen is a trip to hospital with severe gastric problems if you mistakenly eat pink or brown gilled Yellow Stainers. Painful and deeply unpleasant, but you will recover. On the other hand, my advice is never eat a white gilled mushroom. Some of them can kill you.

Young Field Mushroom. Note lack of staining except for a very faint blush on the stem or where the flesh has been broken.

There are nearly a hundred species of Agaricus in France, they all look very similar, and some of them are toxic, so unfortunately it isn't just a matter of merrily eating any mushroom with a pale cap and flesh, and pink gills. The Yellow Stainer is responsible for the most poisonings of any mushroom in France, because of its resemblance to Field Mushrooms and because foragers often don't check diligently enough. Usually the telltale yellowing will quickly appear on any part of the mushroom if you scratch a Yellow Stainer, but sometimes the yellow staining is only present in the base of the stem, which is a bit that inexperienced foragers often leave in the ground. Yellow Stainers don't smell nice and mushroomy like Field Mushrooms either. They smell of phenol or iodine, and it should be obvious when you cook them, even if it wasn't in the field.

Field Mushrooms in perfect condition. Note pointed stem and salmon pink gills on the inverted one, and the silky white cap of the one still in the ground.

It is worth remembering that while most other species of Agaricus are not toxic, Yellow Stainers are not the only Field Mushroom lookalike that you need to beware of. Field Mushrooms are by no means as easy to accurately identify as many foragers believe.

Field Mushroom.

As the name suggests Field Mushrooms grow in fields, gardens, pastures and grasslands in lowland France, especially those where cattle or horses graze. But so does their toxic lookalike. The caps of Field Mushrooms are whitish, between 4 and 10 centimetres across. They start off hemispherical, and stay convex for several days then become flat after a time. With age the entire mushroom goes browner. The stem is white and tapers to a point. There is a stem ring but it is fragile and may disintegrate quite quickly. Where you find one Field Mushroom you will normally find others as they grow together in small groups. The species is present worldwide. Its main growing period is August to November, but you can sometimes find them in the spring.

Field Mushroom.

There are four important criteria for determining Agaricus species: 

• Cap - what does it look or feel like eg smooth? scaly?
• Stem ring - fragile? thin? thick? skirt-like? tooth-edged? 
• Stem shape - bulbous? coming to a point? cylindrical?
• Odour - mushroom? aniseed? bitter almonds? phenol? iodine?

Field Mushroom. Note the thin broken stem ring.

If your mushroom does not meet every one of the characters required (smooth capped, fragile stem ring, stem that comes to a point, mushroom odour) then it is not a Field Mushroom but one of the other Agaricus species. For example, Yellow Stainers have smooth white caps, but their stem ring is persistent and a bit fluffy and flappy, their stem is tree trunk shaped and tends to flare out at the bottom and their odour is an off-putting phenol smell.

Scaly Wood Mushroom Agaricus langei (Fr. Psalliote sanguinolente). Note the strong blush where I've deliberately scraped the stem, the brown scales on the cap, the columnar stem and the more robust stem ring. Grows near hedgerows and on the edges of woodlands. It's not toxic, but not worth eating.

The Field Mushrooms shown in these photos, taken by me last week, were growing with another lookalike species, White Dapperling Leucocoprinus leucothites (Fr. Lepiote pudique). From the top they look just the same and it wasn't until I picked a couple and saw the white gills I realised they were different. In this case the lookalike is not toxic, but they are not tasty enough to bother eating, and in any case, belong to a group of mushrooms that I am very wary of in general.

Yellow Stainer.

An Agaricus I never managed to identify to species level. Not a Field Mushroom anyway, but one of the other species. Obviously you should not eat a Agaricus when you are not of its identity.

This Agaricus may be a Snowy Mushroom A. osecanus, known as the Boule de neige in French. But again, don't eat it if you are not confident of the identification.

Yellow Stainers.

Yellow Stainers. Note the bright yellow appearing where the cap has been deliberately cut, and where the stem has been handled.

Yellow Stainer. Note the bright yellow where the cap has been deliberately cut.

My dear friend and mushroom guru Jean holding an Agaricus sp and regaling us with a story of spending a night on the toilet after having eaten an Agaricus that looked just like this, when he was young and reckless.

Wood Mushroom Agaricus silvicola (Fr. Agaric des bois) is a good edible species. Found in woodland, you need to check it for its strong aniseed scent.

Now Thats What I Call a Door!

This is the main door to Wartburg Schloss, the castle above Eisenach. Susan and I like old doors.

Lunch at l'Image

On Tuesday I went walking with Dotty: just a gentle stroll around town. It was pretty warm, but trying to drizzle. Consequently, it was sweaty - very nasty. 

We called into l'Image for a coffee (and a couple of glasses of water) and I realised that Susan and I hadn't eaten at l'Image for ages. I called her up, and twenty minutes later she joined me.

A meal is always accompanied by bread

Oysters. Something I don't eat often enough

Sausages and crushed and pan crisped potatoes 

Apricot cheesecake 

As ever, the food was excellent. I came home and may have had a little sleep.

 

Roofers at the Abbaye

For a while now, the roof over a side chapel of the Abbey has been letting the rain in.

Work is now happening to fix the problem.

The Annual Sausage Walk

The annual Sausage Walk was in Paris on Sunday 4 October. I made it for the tail end. The event raises money for Dachshund (Fr. Teckel) welfare. There was merch, so I bought some. The exorbitant price (25 euros for a printed canvas bag) means that lots goes to the dogs charities. I used to be godmother to a pair of mini dachshunds so I am very fond of the breed.

For the first time it was held along the Champs Elysee, which is pedestrianised on the first Sunday of the month. Anyone can attend and profits go to l'Association Teckels sans doux foyer (Dachshunds without a loving home). The charity takes care of abandoned or mistreated dachshunds.

Everyone attending is warned that they may be photographed, so don't go if you are allergic to social media.

How to Cook Fresh Wild Mushrooms

Foraging for wild mushrooms is madly popular in France. You are allowed to gather 5 kg per person per day, for personal use and if you have the landowner's permission. Most people who gather this sort of quantity these days have a dehydrator and process most of their mushrooms this way. Note that the law forbids you from giving any of your mushrooms away (in case you inadvertently poison a friend), and you are certainly not allowed to sell any that are excess to requirements directly, although you may, in some circumstances pass them on to a licenced forager. I don't gather anywhere near this quantity, but I like to have a couple of foraging outings in a season, to keep my eye in. I don't gather more than a kilo over a season. I don't own a dehydrator and cook my mushroom bounty fresh as an occasional treat. 

 

Hedgehog mushrooms (Fr. Pieds de moutons) and a few Ashen Chanterelles (Fr. Chanterelles cendrées), foraged in the Foret de Preuilly.

There are relatively few mushrooms in the forest which are both edible, and worth eating. Make sure you can accurately identify them, because it's fairly easy to make yourself sick, even if you manage to avoid killing yourself. To be able to safely identify the edibles you need to be able to confidently identify their toxic lookalikes too. Make sure your basket is not full of a mixture of crumbling mushroom species. That's a common way of accidentally poisoning yourself, when there is a small piece of something highly toxic mixed in with your edibles.

 

Hedgehog mushrooms prepared for cooking.

 

These instructions are good for ceps (porcini), chanterelles, girolles, black trumpets, hedgehog mushrooms, oysters and wood blewits.

 

The liquid produced in the first cooking, ready to be drained off.

 

1. Only choose mushrooms in perfect condition. Any mushroom may become toxic with age, so don't eat any that are past their best. Prepare and cook wild mushrooms within hours of foraging, and no longer than 24 hours after picking.
   
2. Cut off the dirty stem ends and discard.
3. Brush the tops and check for invertebrates and dirt underneath, brush delicately if necessary. Be thorough because gritty mushrooms aren't nice.
   
4. For ceps and hedgehogs gently rub off the sponge (ceps) or needles (hedgehogs).
5. Slice or chop the mushrooms as desired.
6. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and add the mushrooms.
7. Cook on medium high heat for 2 minutes, stirring and turning occasionally. The mushrooms will release a lot of liquid.
8. Carefully pour off the liquid.
9. Add some more butter to the mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring and turning, for a further 5 minutes.
10. Serve immediately.

 

Giving the mushrooms their second cooking after draining the liquid.

Don't feed wild mushrooms to children under seven years old, and don't eat them yourself more than once a week. This is to avoid over exposure to either natural toxins or toxins the mushrooms may sequester or accumulate.

 

 Wild mushrooms served with white fish and potatoes.