Sunday 18 October 2009

Food for Free

Every year, two types of fungus appear on our lawn - they look similar from above, but one has gills and the other has pores.
The former is apparently poisonous but the latter (similar to a penny-bun) makes good eating, in this case with a side dish of freshly-picked sea beet, and a few roast chestnuts to follow.
A stroll in the autumn sunshine produced a comma, a few swallows still, half-a-dozen crossbills, a singing skylark and two twitched jack snipe, showing relatively well for the species and bobbing up and down constantly.While waiting for them to appear from the reeds, it was noted that the adjacent reed buntings have similar markings on their backs, giving a similar camouflage effect.

5 comments:

Warren Baker said...

you didn't really eat them did you ? I wouldn't trust my fungi ID!!

Kingsdowner said...

Warren, I'm quite careful, and made sure it wasn't one of the bad kind - it did give me a slight fizzing on the palate and a light-headed feeling, but that's a bonus!

Anonymous said...

Steve,

Well done on the Jack snipe but like Warren I'll stick to buying my fungi!
Steve

Mary said...

I'm glad you have the nerve to know which ones to eat. I saw some great mushrooms last week, but would not know if they were edible or not. Morels are the only kind we have eaten when picked wild...and some puffballs, I think.

Jessica Winder said...

Great pictures of the fungus, especially the close-up of the pores on the underside. We get a lot of that kind near where I live. As they disappear very quickly, I think someone is eating them - brave, confident soul.