Foraging in the Yorkshire Dales, Summer 2023
(Poisonous) Yellow stainer, Agaricus xanthodermus
(Poisonous) Yellow stainers, Agaricus xanthodermus
(Edible) Bay bolete, Imleria badia
(Edible, Caution) Young Blusher, Amanita rubescens
(Edible, Caution) Cross section of a Blusher, Amanita rubescens
This summer has seen a rise in the number of traditionally autumnal fungi popping up earlier than expected. I’m in a few mushroom identification and spotting groups on Facebook (I can recommend Mushroom Spotters UK and Mushroom Identification UK) and have noticed an increase in the number of people finding prized autumnal fungi such as Penny buns and Chanterelles. I have personally not had much luck with these culinary ones but have nonetheless found a huge amount of mushrooms, allowing me to brush up on my identification skills and get familiar with inedible and poisonous species. I’ve moved out of my uni flat in the centre of Leeds (I miss it already) and now live in Guiseley. It’s been lovely to find new places to forage; I’ve been to Esholt Woods, home to Skipton and even finding some around and about town on my walks to the shops.
There is certainly a ton of Yellow stainers around at this time of year which is always disappointing for a forager looking for Field mushrooms or Horse mushrooms which look incredibly similar but a small scratch test reveals yellow staining (hence the name). I’ve been able to familiarise myself with edible plants along the way too and found an abundance of Wood sorrel which is delicious in salads but I tend to just pick and eat it on my walks - it tastes a lot like Granny Smith apples and there are many other edible plants that have this same taste such as Common sorrel.
I have come across a huge range of boletes this year. My advice for identification is to always take photos of different angles of the mushroom and take a cross section to allow for the inside colour or any staining to be visible. I never leave the house on a walk without my trusty foraging knife that my partner bought me last Christmas - it’s shaped that way to allow you to take a cross section easily as well as helping scrape and clean the mushroom. My knife doesn’t have a brush behind the handle but I may consider getting one with a brush because it is ideal for dusting mushrooms and removing the soil easily. Whenever I cut a find in half, it never fails to amaze me at the red of colours that can appear either in a matter of seconds or after a few minutes. The most vibrant at this time of year are the boletes that stain bright blue such as Bay and Ink stain boletes which helps with identification. I am yet to find enough bay boletes that aren’t nibbled by slugs to be able to actually eat them yet but I am secretly holding out for Penny buns this year, hoping that I may actually be able to visit a coniferous forest in Northumberland to find a stash. I’ve had a tip off from a friend about a possible location and am hoping that I may be able to take a trip within the month - pity I can’t drive yet!
There are also a lot of Amanitas, a fungi family that includes some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide, as well as some well-regarded edible species. You do have to be extremeley careful when identifying this family as misidentification could (at its worst) lead to death. This article on the Wild Food UK website is a good introduction to the Amanitas but all good field guides should have a section about them too. I have found a lot of Blushers this yearly suprisingly, they seemed to pop up almost overnight in a field near my parents house. They have light brown caps with off-white to grey spots and ‘blushing’ red when bruised or exposed to air. This is usually most apparent on the stem when cut in half but I often see redness around where a slug has nibbled which makes it super easy to idenify for me! The Blusher can be confused with the deadly Panthercap (Amanita pantherina) but the main difference is that the Blusher has lines or striations on its skirt running from the stem out, the Panthercap skirt is smooth. Other differences are the Blusher has a lighter cap, the scales on the cap are off-white to grey rather than white, and the Blusher stem is bulbous at the bottom while the Panthercap grows from a volval sack (Source). As I found so many Blushers and had their identification confirmed in one of the Facebook groups, I decided it was time to give them a try. They must be well cooked before eating as they contain a toxin that is destroyed when heated. To my disappointment, they tasted… well… of nothing. It was like having a normal mushroom but with a slimier texture and no flavour? Maybe I should have added some flavouring to them but the texture alone was enough to put me off.
I found a lot of Snakeskin grisettes on a small walk around Guiseley to my suprise which was my first time ever finding these. They very much had a snakeskin pattern on the caps and some of the maturer ones’ stems and I was disappointed to find out that their edibility is unclear as there were so many in this one place! There’s no doubt that they could be confused with the Panthercap (Amanita pantherina) but the Snakeskin grissette does not have a skirt or bright white spots which are the main distinctions. Either way, I was not taking my chances and left them be, happy that I was able to learn more about them.
I am looking forward to all of the trips I’m going to be taking this Autumn, exploring the new area I live in and finding more species of mushrooms that I’ve never seen before. I took a group out to Golden Acre Park a few weeks ago and I’ll be making a blog post about this trip soon!
(Edible) Wood sorrel, Oxalis acetosella
(Edible) Red cracking bolete, Xerocomellus chrysenteron
(Inedible) Ink stain bolete Cyanoboletus pulverulentus
(Edible, Caution) Mature Blusher, Amanita rubescens
(Ediblity unclear) Snakeskin grisettes, Amanita ceciliae
