Mushroom Magic
The first time I saw a bright red mushroom with white spots I thought I might be hallucinating. Prior to this I assumed this image was the figment of some children’s book illustrator’s imagination. After seeing it in the flesh I realised there was more to mushrooms than the ones collected from the fields in the early morning. I bought a book on the subject and learned there was a whole new world to be discovered out there.
The mushroom I had seen did not have an elf sitting on it, but I might well have seen one if I had eaten some of it. Commonly known as Fly Agaric (its scientific name is Amanita muscaria) it has been recognised for centuries as one of the most hallucinogenic mushrooms known to man. It stimulates the nerves and causes convulsions and twitching, after which the person falls into a heavy sleep. Laplanders have observed reindeer being similarly affected and have learned that by harvesting and drinking the urine a milder intoxicating effect takes place. Small wonder their folk lore features a man in a red suit flying through the sky on a sleigh pulled by reindeer.
Every year when the season starts around September the press will run a feature about wild mushrooms if news is short. Headlines range from ‘Bumper harvest expected for mushroom gourmets’ from the more sophisticated papers to ones like ‘Four die in death cap stew horror’ from the tabloids.
People’s fascination probably stems from the prospect of free food, the element of danger and the mysterious nature surrounding the whole mushroom thing. It is steeped in folklore, magic, witchcraft, shamanism, and old wives’ tales. Even the colloquial names for them have a ring of the old country ways: Plums and custard, Poison pie, Slippery Jack, The Sickener, Destroying angel.
As I have found out foraging can become addictive. I think there is still something left over from our hunter gatherer evolution that can still excite us. But something strange must have happened years ago because whereas our Continental neighbours will be out foraging at the first sniff of autumn we Brits are strangely reticent about it. In France you can take your finds to the local Pharmacie and an expert will advise you as to the edibility or not of what you have collected. In Britain people are more likely to avoid anything other than supermarket mushrooms or the normal field mushroom. Some suggest it could have been the Druids, policing anything that might make the populous enjoy themselves or cause them to step out of line. Many of the old wives’ tales could have stemmed from this and in turn could lead to serious mistakes because they are mostly rubbish: Toadstools are poisonous, mushrooms are edible – tosh. Mushrooms that grow in the forest rather than pasture are poisonous – tommyrot. If it smells mushroomy it’s OK to eat – bullshit.
A lot of mushrooms are neither edible nor poisonous. Out of the poisonous ones even fewer are deadly. But be advised; if you are ever tempted to sample a mushroom you are not sure about just read how a Death Cap will kill you (and it almost certainly will) and you won’t take any chances, especially as there is no known antidote.
The first rule if you go out collecting mushrooms is to get a good field guide. Roger Phillip’s guides are the most comprehensive and best ones with good colour photographs and in depth descriptions. The second rule is don’t collect too many different species in one forage as it can be very confusing. Rule three, only collect perfect specimens as they are more difficult to identify when they are past their best. Identification gets easier as you get used to seeing the more common ones. Rule four, there are two species of mushroom that are easy to identify. One group is the Hydnum species, easily identified as it has spines rather than gills. Because of this one of the most common ones is called the Hedgehog fungus (the French call them Pied de mouton). There are no known poisonous ones in this group and the Hedgehog is one of the best for eating. The other group is the Boletus species. This is also easy to identify as it has tubes instead of gills which make the underside look spongy. There are only a couple of poisonous ones in this group. One is called Satan’s Boletus and is ochre coloured underneath and quite rare.
Boletus edulis, cep, porcini or Penny bun is one of the best edible mushrooms you can find and once you find one you will be hooked on foraging for the rest of your life while you can still pull on a pair of wellingtons. This was the first species I collected, identified and ate. Good specimens have a white flesh, a wonderfully firm and nutty texture and when cooked gently in butter the texture turns into something similar to omelette. I fried mine like this with just some salt, freshly ground black pepper, and some slivers of garlic and then spooned them on to a piece of toast. The flavour is fantastic, like tasting mushrooms again for the first time, although the experience was probably heightened by the slight frisson of fear that I might have made some terrible mistake in the identification process.
I have now tried a lot of the edible mushrooms but this is still my favourite. Some varieties although edible aren’t, to my mind, worth the effort, such as puffballs which I think are quite insipid and beefsteak fungus which is a bracket fungus that grows on trees and is a bit chewy and fibrous. You can buy dried Boletus in supermarkets or dry your own if you have a surplus. They develop a flavour during the drying process that gives them an intensity and depth that lends a deep savouriness to soups and stews – almost like mushroom marmite.
In the weird and wonderful world of fungi nature has had a field day. Film makers need look no further for inspiration for the next horror or alien movie, or even porn if you consider the Stinkhorn, or to give it its Latin tag Phallus impudicus. This lives up to both its names. How it mimics an erect male organ is quite extraordinary and the smell it gives off makes it quite noticeable before you have even seen it. The smell is to attract flies, which is how it spreads its spore. There are also the jelly fungi that grow out of trees making them look like they have sprouted so many ears. Earth stars start life as round balls that then open, the outside peeling back in a star shape to reveal the spore sac, reminiscent of the ‘eggs’ in the original Alien film.
In medieval times when peasants were short of proper wheat to make bread they would gather other seeds and grasses with which to make some form of alternative. Often this would contain elements that were toxic and because of strange effects visited on the populace was even given the name ‘crazy bread’. One of these was probably another fungus that grows mainly in rye called ergot. This had other alarming symptoms as well as hallucinations including convulsions, gangrene and psychotic behaviour. Lack of analysis and understanding led people to believe it was divine retribution on sinners. Twentieth century examination of ergot shows it contains many powerful toxins some similar to LSD.