Thursday, July 16, 2009

My first edible wild mushroom






I found this single mushroom, not in some forest but on my neighbour's lawn while I was taking Memphis out for a walk. After we returned, I carefully removed it from the ground. The cap was perhaps 4 inches across. There was no visible vulva on the base of the stem. There was a ring with the remnants of a veil. It had gills that were brown and close and not attached to the stem. I tried to bruise the cap and saw no evidence of bruising of any colour. I sliced a bit off the bottom of the stem and there was no bleeding or any yellow. It smelled, well, mushroomy, with a hint of anise. I took a spore print, which you see in the picture. My brother the trout, Salvelinas Fontinalis, helped me go through the identification process.

This mushroom appears to be an Agaricus, but I'm not sure which of the many varieties it is. My guess was Agaricus campestris, the meadow mushroom.

Tonight I made a mushroom omelette as follows:
I chopped up the mushroom and gently sauteed it in salted butter. Then I beat up two eggs with a fork and dropped them into a hot buttered pan, moving the pan around to spread the eggs. As the omelette solidified, I added the sauteed mushrooms to the middle, and folded the two sides over the middle. A little salt and pepper and it was ready. I enjoyed it with a cold beer.

The mushroom was very tasty, sort of like a concentration of white mushrooms. Very nice.

6 comments:

Wandering Coyote said...

That is so cool! Another blogger I know just started to grow her own shiitakes, which is also very cool!

Radmila said...

those grow under a tree in our backyard like no ones business..it's good to know that they're edible.

mister anchovy said...

Radmila, please be very careful about identifying any mushroom before eating it. There are poisonous ones that look similar.

Candy Minx said...

Radmila, there are poisonous mushrooms that look IDENTICAL to that mushroom in the photo. I would not recommend eating any mushrooms you find alone until you've been mushroom picking (with a mentor) for a couple of years. I've been picking mushrooms for decades...and I am very very rigorous. I will throw away a beautiful mushroom if it gives me any doubt.

Geez Mister Anchovy...you've got lots of pets and you're picking mushrooms like a hunter-gatherer...my god! You're turning into me!!!!

Watch out...Next you'll be taking public transit and advocating vertical farming in urban centers!

:)

Radmila said...

Thanks guys...I wasn't planning on eating them anytime soon because I'm paranoid.

sp said...

What a find.