Chicken of the woods

Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) is popping up on trunks across Burley Old enclosure, its' near florescent orange easy to spot against the verdance of spring growth. This is a perfect example of a young mushroom here on a hulk of truncated Beech.

A trio of ceps

 

Well, it would be rude not to.

Chicken dinner

Someone has grabbed themselves some tasty fungi for dinner, a lovely fresh bracket of Chicken of the Woods. It looks like it's been harvested fairly recently  allowing a good look at the flesh, and it's easy to see how it got its' name. Remember, always 110% on identification, and they can cause gastric upset to some.  

Chuck

Even at a distance it's easy to spot a clump of Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) off amongst the stands. This year they've been both particularly numerous and particularly beautiful, their yellowy creams through to bright oranges definitely adding a splash of colour to the woods. When young and fresh like this they do look good enough to eat, and are. Remember though, although classed edible good, Chicken of the Woods can cause mild, though quite unpleasant, reactions in some. If you do collect some, only collect young and fresh as above, cook well, try a little at first, and you should always be 110% with your identification.

Malus

 

It's been a bumper year so far for apples, both domestic and wild forms. Unusually as yet there doesn't appear to have been a significant, if any, June drop, with most trees sharing an abundance of smallish fruits. How many of them will survive until harvest is yet to seen. Hopeful though.

Cobnuts

I've got high hopes for our cobnuts this year.

Mast

 

It's looking a good year for Mast, the forests' Beech (Fagus sylvatica) are putting on a good show; of course, time will tell. Though fiddly and time consuming to process, 'beechnuts' are potentially a valuable wild food resource. Found in prehistoric contexts beechnuts have a long history of use; traditionally they're dry pan toasted, crushed and roasted for a coffee substitute, pressed for oil, and more. Come autumn the pigs at pannage love them too. 

Haws

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) appears to be having a good year so far, trees covered in blossom at Beltane are now heavy with burgeoning haws as the Solstice approaches.

Oysters

It doesn't matter what the season, nor where you go in the forest, after the rain you'll commonly find Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus), mostly on the trunks of fallen beeches. 

Elderflower

Right on time the Elder (Sambucus nigra) are coming into flower. Broad umbels of tiny creamy white flowers with a distinctive heady floral scent; soon the hedgerows and woodland fringes will be full to bursting with them.

Moody's Gore

 Ramsons in Moody’s Gore.

Ramsons

 

Ramson (Allium ursinum) shoots started poking through a few week ago, the early birds now sporting well developed leaves, and today I spotted my first flower buds forming. Ramsons really come into their own towards end of April into May, when they'll carpet woodland for as far as the eye can see. It's a beautiful sight. If you've ever stood in a ramson filled wood on a sunny spring day you'll know what I mean, it's magical; and if you haven't you really should. We live a country full of small wonders which for the most part goes unseen or ignored, most certainly not valued as it should be.

Aw nuts.

Well, the results are in, and it's decisive. It's been a shit year for sweet chestnuts. I'd called it wrong last year, so tried to give this year the benefit of the doubt, but no, the nuts this year really have been poor. Of course, that may not be universal, but about our roams it was a case of lots of early droppers little more than sacks, followed by a weak crop of below average size nuts, and few and far between. Could just be a bad year? Maybe. It has been poor across the board, I can’t think of a wild food that's had a particularly good year, neither fruit, nut or fungi.

Hedgies

 

One of the mushrooms that appears to be doing well, so far, this very disappointing mushroom season are Hedgehogs (Hydnum repandum). It's one of my favourites too. Common throughout the forest, usually abundant, very easy to identify and damn tasty to boot. Obviously, never collect anything unless you're 110% certain on identity.

Fruitless

Less than a week ago we celebrated second harvest, the fruit harvest, though out in the forest that harvest has been poor. On my roams, at least anyway. Usually at this time of year the fruiting shrubs are well served with fruit. Not this year though. With hardly a Sloe to be seen, naked Hawthorns as the norm, unripe Blackberries and a Crab Apple tree still holding its' fruit a rare sight, the forest is a disappointment for forager and wildlife alike.

Noice!

I've spotted the odd Cep (beletus edulis) on our recent roams, for the most part nibbled or gone over. Though this morning was my first opportunity to gather some, a tidy little haul, enough for a handful of breakfasts, and from exactly the sites I'd expect. As with all the resources you gather out, there are those spots that you'll check first in a season, and with good reason too, they almost always deliver.

The Christmas nut.

 

Why is Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) the Christmas nut? You always see them roasting in snowy scenes in Christmas films and seasonal adverts, they've become synonymous with the festival in the public's eyes. Although in my experience they ripen and fall long before Christmas, and I've found them difficult to store (of course that could be me). Anyhoos, a good number of the forests' sweet chestnut trees are well laden with small fruits. Last year I predicted a poor harvest at this point of the cycle, the fruits were small then too, and I was wrong, at worst the harvest was patchy. I'm fast coming to the conclusion that speculation on such matters is futile anyway, too many known and unknown variables, our natural plant lore is becoming redundant in our changing world.

Oysters

 

As if they've just been waiting to burst out with the first signs of significant rain, which of course they have, young Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) explode in to life. Fungus is crazy Shit, man, older than the hills, they've seen out epochs and the inhabitants there of, their mycelium networks stretching over miles as well as time, they're the grid into which our woodlands are intrinsically connected. I'm hoping for a grand mushroom season, the signs are looking good. Or are they? We've been tricked before, eh.

Chuck

 

There's been a flush of Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) about the forest of late, good sized fresh specimens too. Although within it's recognised season, it's not common for me to see so many handsome clumps at this time of year. We've been seeing them everywhere we've roamed. 

Fungi

 

A little reminder of the potential seasonal bounty to come, a young Beefsteak fungus (Fistulina hepatica) errupts from a ancient beech trunk. Soon throughout the stands and amongst the woodland fringes the fungi realm will reign. It's a fascinating world, and one we've yet to fully understand, though we know enough to know they're essential to the whole damn thing. Plenty are edible too, several classified as edible good, though just as many are not, and if you're not 110% certain, leave well alone, some mushrooms are fatal. And as for Beefsteak fungus? Well, it's an edible, and I've eaten it on a couple of occassions in the past and will pass on eating it again in the future; bitter, rubbery, weird, would all be appropriate adjectives to employ. It looks a wrongun too.