Each month, Rachel Lambert of South West Wild Walks will be writing a blog post for us, reflecting on the changing seasons and observations on nature and landscape around us. Rosyansow is the Cornish word for wanderings or ramblings, and for the month of October, she has written for us about mushrooms.
Puffballs, velvet shank, oyster, chanterelle, elf cup, chicken of the woods, death cap…Mushrooms come with weird and wonderful names, in all shapes and sizes and on a scale from delicious to deadly.
Here at the Gardeners’ House, Daisy has started to grow some edible fungi from kits in a toilet roll
We thought it looked like a birthday cake, with all those little pink oyster mushrooms starting to ‘pin’ and sprout. Fingers crossed that they will continue to grow and then they’ll be available to eat on the Film and Food night – Fungi: The Web of Life on Friday 31 October.
There are also around 60 varieties of fungi that create ‘fairy rings’, maybe you have seen evidence of these? Photo courtesy of Sam Webster
The book Fern Seed & Fairy Rings by Rupert White (currently in the Gardeners’ House archive) talks of ‘the small folk’ as those who create these renowned rings of mushrooms that appear overnight. In a story of the St Levan fairies:
‘… the green outside the gate at the end of Trezidder Lane was a favourite place with the Small Folks on which to hold their fairs. One might often see the ring in the grass which they made in dancing, where they footed.’
So now you know that these fungi rings are created by Cornish piskies, and are not simply the fruiting from the mycelium – the root structure of fungus.
Talking to Genie, a volunteer at Gardeners’ House, she tells me how growing up in Poland meant she’s never felt fearful about mushrooms. Her favourites are Slippery Jacks, Ceps, Chestnuts and Chanterelles – all of which she’s found locally in Cornwall. She leans in to share what she believes to be the queen of mushrooms; a dark brown cep, creamy underneath with a fawn and cream speckled stem. Yum!
Photos (left to right) courtesy of Elspeth Fimpel and Rachel Abbott
What mushrooms do you know?
Puffballs are a fun place to start. They look like white balls and there are several varieties, – all with white flesh (except the brown puffball) and varying in size.
Looking through the archive, the book Fern Seed & Fairy Rings comes up trumps again with puff-ball stories. This fungus, is also known as Devil’s snuffbox (Bovista nigresecens), the brown puff-ball.
William Paynter writing in the Cornish times (1934) says:
the writer has heard of cases in which puff-balls have been successfully used to stop bleeding, and the fungus has astringent properties, while the flesh of the giant puff-ball, which is firm, white and edible.
Photos (left to right) courtesy of Amy Rankine and Elspeth Fimpel
If you are interested in getting to know the vast range of fungi here in Cornwall, do look out for our fungi-themed events here at the Gardeners’ House. You might want to check out Cornwall Fungus Recording Group and even join them on fungi forays.
Disclaimer: Some mushrooms and fungus can cause illness or even death, do not pick or eat unless you know exactly what you are picking.