Mushrooms are weird

[nickdub]

I've got about 1/2 an acre of garden which is mostly fairly over-grown, with some woodland on a bank below me. I grow some fruit trees, bushes and have a grassy patch which could be a lawn, if I mowed it a bit more often.

This year I have had about 4 flushes of a few mushrooms - not the field sort, though they taste similar - all from roughly the same place. Their chosen spot is a bit of highly compacted dirt and gravel, very dry and shady, next to the drive where we park our cars, about 30 feet from the road.

I've never seen any mushrooms like these in my garden or surrounds before (I moved here in 1983) and I've no idea how they got there - its a bit like magic.

[bramble]

Hi Nick. You must be braver than me..I wouldnt want to taste mushrooms until I was very sure of the variety.

[Scarlet]

We have had loads of mushrooms in the garden this year too - I thought it was due to the lack of mowing, but maybe it's just the weather?
I picked mushrooms as a kid with my Dad but if you don't know what they are I wouldn't take a chance on eating them.

[Baldy]

'Magic' and mushrooms - sure a mod will be along soon...

^^^ oh look, just me then - naughty thoughts

[burnie]

All mushrooms are weird, a bit like people who eat them, ugh!!(My wife loves them, I bought one of the kits in a polystyrene box and grew a few, few being the operative word).

[Zelenina]

Mushroom hinting is a very popular pastime here in Slovakia, and they eat a much bigger variety of them than most British people would. But of course you need someone knowledgeable to identify them. I've though of trying to grow some in my garden but haven't tried it yet.

[Darthcider]

Mushrooms are my favourite "veg".

[nickdub]

My wife is from Lithuania, so I have seen a little of the hunting season :-)

I have a friend who lives near Windsor and apparently Windsor Great Park is a popular place to go for fungi hunts for the many Eastern Europeans people who live in the area.

[nickdub]

Probably I'm more stupid than you, rather than braver - still although these are not classic mushroom shape they have the same colour and smell as field mushrooms, so I decided to try them - I ate a very little bit first, just in case of adverse reactions :-)

[Jimmy]

Wouldn't touch a foraged mushroom.
The death cap for example, apparently tastes quite nice.
But you immediately fall ill with nausea etc. Often you recover after a few days but you are a walking dead person due to liver damage.
As per the old Chinese proverb:
All mushrooms are edible, but some only once.
Be very wary
Jimmy

[nickdub]

I certainly wouldn't advise anyone-else to copy me - still I reckon I can rule out the poisonous mushrooms in the UK based on shape and colour. I had about 10 of the ones from the garden yesterday - v tasty :-)

[TrixC]

Can you post a picture of them? May be able to help with ID.

[nickdub]

If any more come up I'll get a photo - I'd describe them as chunkier and more bulbous but a lot smaller than a field mushroom with concave tops, but a similar colour including the gills - tasted about the same too.