# Edible wild mushrooms



## truthseeker (6 Sep 2012)

Anyone got any good locations to recommend as edible mushroom hunting sites (or even non edible, identification is half the fun anyway)?


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## delgirl (6 Sep 2012)

I've just booked a hunt will Bill O'Dea at Avondale House in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow [broken link removed] - there are 2 hunts on Saturday, 29th September and Saturday, 6th October. I know someone who went last year and really enjoyed it. There's a wood open to the public in the vale of Clara near Avondale House where it should be good to find a few and that's where I'm going to try after the guided hunt.

Also going to the Irish Mushroom Festival at [broken link removed] in County Leitrim in October.

I want to go with someone who knows what they are looking for initially as some of the mushrooms will literally kill you if you eat them! 

Went with my sister-in-law who's been collecting for around 20 years and was surprised that some of the fungi I picked up thinking they were Chanterelles, were actually poisonious!

My other half is a chef, so I think I'll try whatever I find out on him first! 

“There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters!"


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## truthseeker (6 Sep 2012)

Yeah I was thinking of doing one of those hunts with Bill O Dea - pricey though.

I know what you mean, Id be very wary myself, more into it from the side of identification tbh, I remember a neighbour coming across a Giant Puffball in a nearby field as a child and the wonder of it all!! She was very interested in wild mushrooms and showed me a few edibles but that was long ago.

I was in Waterford towards the end of September last year, at a wedding in Waterford Castle which is on its own island and I saw tons of different varieties of mushrooms growing all over the place so got interested all over again.

Thanks for the links, never even knew there was a festival!


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## delgirl (7 Sep 2012)

truthseeker said:


> Yeah I was thinking of doing one of those hunts with Bill O Dea - pricey though.


Yes, I couldn't afford to go last year, but made sure I can this year.  The price also includes coffee/tea and scones in the morning and sandwiches etc. after the hunt.

There's another group in the north that do organised hunts for free, am hoping to go to the Silent Valley hunt in the Mourne Mountains in November.

We use a lot of wild mushrooms at home in sauces, soups etc., wild mushroom risotto made with Chanterelles or Yellow Boletus is to die for. We buy them dried in mainland Europe when we're visiting there and re-generate them, but I'm hoping to find some fresh ones here.

Favourite one is the Morel, which is apparently available in Ireland, a kilo costs around €100.


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## delgirl (7 Sep 2012)

Other locations for organised wild mushroom hunts are:-


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## truthseeker (7 Sep 2012)

Thanks delgirl, I found [broken link removed] place in Roscommon too -and they do a wild food forage in May (not just Mushies!).

Ive ordered a lovely Opinel mushroom knife on amazon


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## delgirl (7 Sep 2012)

Also ordered the Opinel knife on Amazon yesterday, the professional looking one with the brush on the end! 

At least I'll look the part, even if I haven't much of a clue yet what I picking up.


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## Firefly (7 Sep 2012)

This thread is bringing back a lovely memory I have of myself and my dad going for a big long walk on a summer's evening when I was about 6 years old. We came across a gigantic (to a 6 year old boy) mushroom. Dad is into all this kind of thing and was overcome with excitement. I carried it all the way home and we took it out to the garden and Dad took some cool photos of it. Thanks for this thread!
Firefly.


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## truthseeker (7 Sep 2012)

delgirl said:


> Also ordered the Opinel knife on Amazon yesterday, the professional looking one with the brush on the end!
> 
> At least I'll look the part, even if I haven't much of a clue yet what I picking up.



Yeah thats the one I ordered too. The right costume and accessories is half the battle lol!!

Firefly - thats exactly the kinds of memories I have from an old neighbour. Where I grew up was all farmers fields, we were the last estate before the countryside started. Of course these days its all been built up but Ive never lost the wonder at nature that I developed in childhood.


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## Firefly (7 Sep 2012)

truthseeker said:


> Firefly - thats exactly the kinds of memories I have from an old neighbour. Where I grew up was all farmers fields, we were the last estate before the countryside started. Of course these days its all been built up but Ive never lost the wonder at nature that I developed in childhood.



Sounds like where I grew up too. Scouting for tadpoles was another favourite passtime of mine along with capturing (and releasing) bees in a jam jar, playing glassy-alleys (marbles), and chessies (chestnuts on a string). Think I might go up into the loft later on and try and find a few photos


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## Sue Ellen (7 Sep 2012)

Firefly said:


> Think I might go up into the loft later on



Phew, was worried there for a moment in case you said you were growing something up there


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## truthseeker (7 Sep 2012)

Firefly said:


> Sounds like where I grew up too. Scouting for tadpoles was another favourite passtime of mine along with capturing (and releasing) bees in a jam jar, playing glassy-alleys (marbles), and chessies (chestnuts on a string). Think I might go up into the loft later on and try and find a few photos



We had a stream nearby, so we used to catch sticklebacks and keep them in a jar for a few days. Watching the life cycle of frog spawn was another favourite, amazing. We used to get a lot of butterfly chrysalis's on our back window ledge for some reason and one wonderful summer morning I had the pleasure of watching a butterfly emerge for the first time. There was a farmers field behind our road where there was a stout post that was as smooth as anything from cows rubbing their heads on it, that was my first introduction to cows actually, theres ones in a field behind where I live now and its very nostalgic for me when the moo-ing gets going lol. 

For a while as a kid I got interested in classification of plants, trees etc but I didnt keep it up which is a pity, never too late to indulge my interest again though.


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## SoylentGreen (8 Sep 2012)

Incidentally Delgirl. I enjoyed the talk on foraging in Powerscourt thanks to your tip off. I need to take this to a new level with some sort of field trip though.


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## truthseeker (8 Sep 2012)

SoylentGreen said:


> Incidentally Delgirl. I enjoyed the talk on foraging in Powerscourt thanks to your tip off. I need to take this to a new level with some sort of field trip though.



The place I linked to in Roscommon does foraging field trips - on the link I gave they did one in May.


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## delgirl (10 Sep 2012)

SoylentGreen said:


> Incidentally Delgirl. I enjoyed the talk on foraging in Powerscourt thanks to your tip off. I need to take this to a new level with some sort of field trip though.


The talk on foraging was ok and you can't really complain as it was free.

It would have been great if he had brought some samples with him to pass around - he said that some of the plants he talked about were found in abundance in the local area.

Considering it was his first talk, he did very well.

Very much looking forward to the fungi hunt at Avondale on 6th October and hope the weather's not too miserable!

Darina Allen does general foraging courses at Ballymaloe.


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## Laramie (10 Sep 2012)

delgirl said:


> Very much looking forward to the fungi hunt at Avondale on 6th October and hope the weather's not too miserable!


 
I am having difficulty booking this through the website. I have also emailed Bill about this but no reply. Also trying to book a local B&B for a night. Again no reply.
They are not making it easy.


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## truthseeker (10 Sep 2012)

Laramie said:


> I am having difficulty booking this through the website. I have also emailed Bill about this but no reply. Also trying to book a local B&B for a night. Again no reply.
> They are not making it easy.



I agree! I emailed too and didnt get a reply for a couple of days. They DO reply though. Im booked now.

I emailed freda@mushroomstuff.com but the reply came (written by Freda) from bill@mushroomstuff.com - she included a phone number 087 2632750 - if that helps.


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## Laramie (10 Sep 2012)

That's good. However I need to tie up a B&B with either the 29th Sept or 6th. October. No point in booking accommodation if the hunt is booked out on either date.


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## truthseeker (10 Sep 2012)

It wasnt booked out for the 6th at 8pm yesterday evening and the email said to let her know if it was more than just me so she could give names to the person at the door - so there were definitely places.


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## Laramie (29 Sep 2012)

I would be interested to hear how today's hunt went from anybody who went on it.


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## truthseeker (8 Oct 2012)

I went on Saturdays Hunt and found it very enjoyable. The weather was fantastic which was great. Pricey at 65 euro though, dont think it was worth that much. But it was fun and it has encouraged me to go mushroom hunting myself.


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## SlurrySlump (8 Oct 2012)

Two of us wanted to go but €130 was a bit steep for us. We also wanted to stay overnight in a local Bed and Breakfast in Rathdrum but the price for the Friday night stay increased to €70 from €60 for Thursday night. In a way I am sorry I didn't go but it just looked a bit expensive overall.


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## truthseeker (8 Oct 2012)

SlurrySlump said:


> Two of us wanted to go but €130 was a bit steep for us. We also wanted to stay overnight in a local Bed and Breakfast in Rathdrum but the price for the Friday night stay increased to €70 from €60 for Thursday night. In a way I am sorry I didn't go but it just looked a bit expensive overall.



A number of people on it mentioned that it was very expensive for what it was.

The day ran as follows:
9.30am-10am - meet up and tea/coffee/pastries

10am-11am - Presentation slideshow with Bill O Dea talking about mushrooms - a lot of it was very interesting but it was a bit information overload and honestly I think it would have been more useful after we had been collecting.

11am-1pm - we were set free in the grounds to mushroom hunt. A few people mentioned they were surprised that Bill or his wife didnt come with the group - but there were too many people for that. People went off in 1s and 2s and while it was nice, they didnt give you a map so although Bill mentioned good spots to hunt, none of us knew where or how to get to those spots.

1pm - 2.30pm - back to house to taste cooked mushrooms, Bill and his wife and another mushroom expert had a look at what was collected and took out some good stuff for cooking, meanwhile there was a chef cooking some that they had brought along outdoors. It was nice and chilled out, then into the house for lunch. Lunch was nice. But for the price I thought it could have been better. It was sandwiches (very nice gourmet sandwiches but sandwiches none the less!), mushroom soup and profiterole dessert. 

2.30pm - 3.30pm - mushroom identification, we all laid out our finds on tables and books were produced and the experts went around identifying things. There was too many people for it to be truly comfortable, people were gathering in big bunches around the experts so it was easy to get left out on the edge and not be able to see or hear properly. But it was fun interacting with the other people and trying to identify things yourself.

So yeah, it was good, but yeah, it was pricey.


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## delgirl (9 Oct 2012)

Enjoyed the day out, but as Truthseeker said, it would have been better with a map and a shorter introductory talk to allow more time for hunting.

We thought the price was reasonable considering what was on offer.  The normal entrance fee to Avondale House is €7.50 for an adult.

I'm sure Bill had to pay to hire the hall for the talk - breakfast was also provided and there were 2 or 3 people involved in the prep and serving who, I assume, would have been paid.

The two chefs preparing the mushrooms outside would have had to be paid as well and then the lunch, although quite rustic, was good.

Not sure if the other mushroom expert(s) were also paid, probably or at least their expenses.  The English guy wasn't that great - at the end of his evaluation of our 'find', we still weren't sure if some of them were edible or not.  

I have to say that Bill's fungi knowledge was excellent and that, along with the above, was worth €65.


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## truthseeker (9 Oct 2012)

Delgirl, Ill be interested to go on one of the cheaper ones next year and compare, one of the ones I mentioned earlier on the thread is only 30 euro and much the same format (talk, hunt, lunch, identification).

Im not sure if you mean 7.50 euro to visit the house itself as well as parking? The cost of entering the forest park is 5 euro per car. I didnt do the tour of the house at the end because I was tired at that stage (not much interest either).

They definitely need to provide a map - Id advise anyone doing it to print the map from coillte ourdoors.

Im heading back there this week for a wander, will do a small bit of mushroom hunting - just for identification purposes.


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## delgirl (9 Oct 2012)

Yes, it's good to compare - I'm going to the Mushroom Festival in Killegar next weekend - it's €60 per person and it'll be interesting to compare the experience.

The forays are guided by an expert, which should hopefully lead us to more edibles this time! We ended up with 1  and when we got it home to 'the chef', he didn't recognise it and wouldn't cook it!

Also hoping to do the free one in the Silent Valley, Mourne Mountains in November - weather permitting.


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## dereko1969 (9 Oct 2012)

Did anyone think the pieces in the paper over the last few days warning of the dangers of mushroom picking was OTT? 

Seemed to me that they were basically saying don't eat anything you find outdoors, obviously if you don't know what it is you've found that makes sense but it you know what you're doing it should be fine.

Actually the FSAI press release makes that point but that seems to have been ignored in the press items I read.

[broken link removed]


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## SlurrySlump (9 Oct 2012)

Thanks Truthseeker for your review of the day out. It would be nice to get a few like minded people together to have a wander and get together and share a picnic while discussing finds. But for free!
Incidentally did you stay over in Rathdrum or was it an early start from Dublin?


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## truthseeker (9 Oct 2012)

@SlurrySlump - I drove in from D24 - so less than an hours drive which was grand.

I was running in Marlay Park this morning and I noticed a lot of mushrooms, some edibles too!! I brought a puffball home and put it out the back in the hope the spores spread and I get them growing right outside.

@dereko1969 - totally OTT!

@delgirl, Id be delighted if you could review the Mushroom Festival for us here afterwards?


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## delgirl (9 Oct 2012)

truthseeker said:


> @delgirl, Id be delighted if you could review the Mushroom Festival for us here afterwards?


Will do. 

dereko1969, it's a dangerous passtime, my father was very ill after eating what he thought were field mushrooms. It's crucial to be 100% sure of the identity of the mushroom before eating it.

Even one of the 'experts' who was at the hunt on Saturday at Avondale wasn't sure if we had 10 yellow stainers or 'something else' and advised us not to eat them.


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## truthseeker (9 Oct 2012)

delgirl said:


> it's a dangerous passtime, my father was very ill after eating what he thought were field mushrooms. It's crucial to be 100% sure of the identity of the mushroom before eating it.



+1000 - unfortunately some of the more hysterical news reports were insinuating that there were no safe mushrooms growing wild - at all.


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## IsleOfMan (25 Oct 2012)

There is a great programme on TG4 on Thursdays at 10.p.m. called Dul i bhFiain. It's about two lads foraging their way across Ireland. You can catch the first two episodes on the TG4 player if you have missed them. The show is on tonight.


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## truthseeker (25 Oct 2012)

ParkLane said:


> There is a great programme on TG4 on Thursdays at 10.p.m. called Dul i bhFiain. It's about two lads foraging their way across Ireland. You can catch the first two episodes on the TG4 player if you have missed them. The show is on tonight.



Thanks for that.

@delgirl, how was the mushroom festival?


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## delgirl (26 Oct 2012)

truthseeker said:


> @delgirl, how was the mushroom festival?


I haven't posted about the festival as I don't want to be negative about a fundraising effort to save Killegar House, which is in a dreadful state of disrepair. 

This was the timetable for the event. There were no _guided_ forays on the Saturday as stated on the timetable.

To concentrate on the positives, we went on the Saturday and the weather was great. Bill O'Dea was there and did his talk and slideshow, same as the one at Avondale, then we went off on the hunt.

As the house is on private land, unlike Avondale which is open to the public, there were hundreds of mushrooms to be found in the grounds. We returned to the house after about 40 minutes as the basket was full. 

Found quite a few edibles, loads of puffballs, deceivers and amethyst deceivers and lots of charcoal burners which we took home and cooked on Sunday. Also found the beautiful Fly Agaric.

Food was provided - soup and sandwiches, mini savoury pies and biscuits.

Brian McDermott, with a stage, mircophone and big screen, did a good cookery demonstration of various ways to prepare wild mushrooms and a few samples were passed around. 

The Fungi, forestry and trees walk with Diarmuid McAree was very informative focusing on the identification of trees, the symbiotic relationship between fungi and trees, and which fungi that can be found near which species of tree, extremely useful if you're targeting a particular mushroom. 

The American Lesliejo Meyerhoff also gave an interesting talk on the facts, myths and legends of fungi. 

We enjoyed the day, but won't be going back next year.


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## truthseeker (26 Oct 2012)

It actually sounds great! (I have a vision of a big carpet of mushrooms a la willy wonkas chocolate room!!)

Id be interested to know what the negatives were (besides no guided forays), if you dont want to post them on thread maybe you could pm me? 

It was something I was considering doing next year, but Id like a balanced review before I decide.


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