URBAN FARMER:Picking mushrooms in the wild feels a bit like Russian roulette – but experts can help

IN THE SPIRIT of legendary foragers Richard Mabey and Roger Phillips, this week’s column is about wild food rather than the cultivated kind – and in particular about Ireland’s wild edible mushrooms. But being a pathetically faint-hearted kind of forager when it comes to most kinds of wild fungi (names like Death Cap, Destroying Angel and Beechwood Sickener bring out the toxiphobic in me), I though it wise to enlist the help of the highly respected, edible-mushroom expert, Louis Smith in my foray in the woodlands last week.

An award-winning Irish chef who has spent the last 30 years working with wild edible mushrooms both here and in Europe, and who has co-authored a book on the subject of Ireland’s forest fungi, is not, I reasoned with myself, likely to confuse a False Chanterelle (poisonous and hallucinogenic) with a true Chanterelle (a deliciously edible mushroom prized by cooks).

And so last Saturday I was one of a very small group of wannabe foragers who assembled by the edge of a mature and secluded mixed woodland on the slopes of the west Wicklow Mountains with Louis as our guide.

By a truly bizarre but very happy coincidence, we’d only just emerged from our cars when Louis happened to spot his friend and fellow mushroom forager, chef Patrick McLarnon of Dublin’s Brooks Hotel, strolling along the road behind us, a stash of recently picked mushrooms in hand. “I don’t believe it,” roared Smith, laughing with astonishment as he greeted this fellow member of the Irish Mycological Society.

“What the f*** are you doing here?” McLarnon, it turned out, had beaten us to it as far as that particular patch of woodland was concerned. In fact, he’d beaten us to it as regards not just one but quite a few west Wicklow woodlands that we’d planned on visiting that day.

“You can forget going to any forest that Patrick’s already visited – he’ll have been over every inch of it,” said Louis.

“Very true,” confirmed McLarnon with a grin. The upside was that Smith’s protégé was happy to join our group and I (very reassuringly) was now in the company of not just one but two mushroom experts.

Better again, McLarnon's freshly picked haul of mushrooms included some Parasol mushrooms ( Macrolepiota procera) and a fine example of a Penny Bun ( Boletus edulis), also known as the cep, porcini or steinpilze, and which Smith describes in his book as "a deliciously edible mushroom, prized throughout the world".

Just one kilo of fresh Penny Bun mushrooms, Smith and Patrick told us, would fetch about €40-€50.

Sadly, although we went on to scour several nearby woodlands that day for edible mushrooms, we found no more of these highly prized Penny Buns. We did, however, manage to find a small but interesting selection of edible mushrooms that included several dozen golden Chanterelles growing along the sandy edge of a mountain stream and beneath some ancient beech trees. We added to these a handful of common Funnel Caps ( Clitocybe infundibulformis), Bay bolete ( Boletus badius), Yellow Larch Bolete ( Suillus grevillei) and puffballs. Not bad, I thought to myself, for a few hours' work. We also found quite a few unidentifiable fungi as well as poisonous or inedible types including the aforementioned Beechwood Sickener ( Russula mairei), a red-capped mushroom whose white flesh smells of coconut.

So how do you learn how to forage for edible mushrooms in Ireland? According to Smith, the first thing is timing. “The main mushroom season runs from early July through to November, with occasional lulls in between, but they’re most plentiful from September onwards. A dry spell followed by rain and then warmth will generally bring a good flush of growth.

“The second is habitat. Mixed broadleaf woodlands are always good places to search but you can also find mushrooms growing in young coniferous plantations, in fields, in parks or even in garden driveways. Different mushrooms are associated with certain trees: the Spruce Saffron Milk Cap, for example, is typically found growing in young spruce plantations while Chanterelles usually grow near beech, birch, oak or Scots pine and in acid soil. So you really have to get to know your local woods.

“But most important of all is correct identification. I always say that it’s only a mushroom and it’s not worth risking poisoning yourself if you’re in any way unsure. So when you first start out mushroom hunting, it’s important to get some training from an expert. Learn to study the habitat that the mushrooms are growing in and carefully examine their general shape and smell, the colour and texture of the cuticle/skin on the cap, the shape, spacing and colour of the gills or tubes, even the length and shape of the stem. Is it fibrous, rubbery, brittle or bulbous? These are all ways in which you slowly learn to correctly identify the different species.”

Both Smith and McLarnon carry sharp pocket knives that they use to carefully harvest any mushrooms, slicing the stems just above ground level and placing them gently into a wicker basket or a wooden box after checking them for possible larval infestation. Both men also say you must keep the different fungi separate after picking. “It’s important to keep unidentified fungi separate from those you know are edible, to avoid possible contamination,” explains Smith, adding that edible mushrooms can be cooked straight away or dried under very low heat in a fan-oven or even blanched and then frozen for later use.

So would I now feel confident enough to go mushroom foraging on my own and without an expert at hand? Despite Smith’s repeated reassurances and both men’s obvious passion and knowledge of their subject, I’m ashamed to say that I remain as lily-livered as ever. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. According to Smith, a popular saying among mushroom hunters is that, “there are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters”. Yikes. But at least I can say that I know a place where wild chanterelles grow.

Forest Fungi In Ireland

, by Paul Dowding and Louis Smith, is published by Coford

For a guide to mushroom identification, see Roger Phillips’s website at rogersmushrooms.com

What to: Sow, plant and do now

Sow: outdoors in pots or modules, for planting in the tunnel or greenhouse when it's free – or direct sow in there now if not too hot: cabbages; carrots; kale; lettuces; lambs lettuce; peas (for pea shoots); rocket; oriental greens; mustards; summer spinach; leafy salad mixes, Cover while outdoors with a fine mesh-covered frame or cloche to protect young seedlings from pests, strong winds or heavy rain. Be careful with watering and ventilation of seedlings now, in the autumn damp autumn air.

Outdoors: sow in modules, in a seedbed for transplanting, or where they are to crop, possibly to cover with cloches or frames later in autumn: early summer cauliflowers for next year; early carrots for a late autumn crop; cabbages; lamb's lettuce; rocket; oriental greens and fast-maturing salad leaf mixes. Sow green manures such as alfalfa, red clover, mustard (a brassica so watch rotations) winter tares, field beans, fenugreek, phacelia and Hungarian grazing rye, to improve soil, lock-up carbon and feed worms (digging them in later after the first frosts, then covering to protect soil, preventing nutrient loss and possible pollution), on any empty patches of ground cleared of crops that won't be used over winter.

Do: continue hand-weeding, hoeing, watering young module/container plants, continue to plant up polytunnel with winter crops, plant out well-established, module-raised plants, prune out old, fruited canes of summer raspberries and tie in foliage to supports.