Fruits of the forest

The fungi are fruiting early this year.

Fun guys

Left it late for a ramble today, the light was fading (which is how I'm going to excuse my crap photo) and an eerie silence muffled the stands, silent except for the occasional alighting bird disturbing the canopy and odd sounds of movement    It's only just first harvest and already it feels like autumn, and has done for a while now, that's not right. All over, fungi have taken advantage of the warm dank weather to stake their claim to the land, a bit previous if you ask me, still. I've seen dozens of types about, including parasols, boletus (a couple of types) and a whole plethora of others whose names I don't know. Though by far the most numerous are Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius), you see them all over the place. Hey, I'm not complaining or ought, they're very tasty. 

Chanterelles

Another mushroom doing well this season and which is commonly seen amongst the Beech stands at the moment is the Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius). The Chanterelle is a much sought after mushroom for its fine eating qualities, rich aromas and taste. So sources suggest they're 'the' best mushroom for flavour. Luckily they're quite easy to spot, usually growing in small groups they're a uniform egg yolk yellow colour and have distinctive ridge like wrinkles instead of gills. I mentioned the uniform egg yolk yellow colour as there is the False Chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) which is commonly confused withe true Chanterelle.  False Chanterelles are a darker yellow orange colour, with the colour becoming darker towards the center; they have a more uniform and rounded cap edge when young and the gills underneath, although looking similar to the true Chanterelles wrinkles, are gills. The false one wont do for you, but will give a gippy stomach. On a wild fooder tip, Chanterelles are also good driers, which is always a bonus with a mushroom.