Monday 1 September 2008

Giant mushroom is the world’s largest living organism.

The world’s largest fungus covers 2,200 acres or the same as 1,665 football pitches and is in America, in the Malheur national forest in Oregon.

American scientists discovered the giant fungus after trees began to die in the forest, and began testing mushroom samples from various locations in the national park. They discovered that all the samples where part of one organism.

Officially known as Armillaria ostoyae or the honey mushroom, the fungus lives three feet underground and the only visible signs are small mushrooms on the surface.

Experts estimate that the giant mushroom is at least 2,400 years old, but could be as old as 7,200 years.

The largest fungus in Europe is in a Swiss National Forest, near the eastern town of Ofenpass.

Spanning 86 acres, the mostly underground fungus is believed to be 1,000 years old and is once again a Honey mushroom.

Tuesday 26 August 2008

Mushroom forces plane to make emergency landing

A Ryanair flight from Budapest to Dublin had to make an emergency landing in Germany after mushroom soup in a passenger’s bag spilled out and leaked onto another passenger. The passenger suffered a severe allergic reaction to the mushroom soup causing him to experience swelling and breathing difficulties.

The pilot and air crew made the decision that the man needed immediate medical treatment and the Boeing 737 was forced to divert to Frankfurt Hahn Airport where the man received medical treatment.

The plane was delayed for two hours before being allowed to continue its journey to Dublin.

The owner of the mushroom soup has not been identified and is yet to come forward.

Monday 18 August 2008

Unearthing gold

A tree surgeon struck the garden equivalent of gold when he dug up truffles in a garden in Plymouth. Chris Hunt a 47 year old gardener and tree surgeon was working on the garden of Elaine Keith-Hill when he unearthed the delicacy.

Mr Hunt was clearing undergrowth around mature beech and oak trees at Mrs Keith-Hill's property when he unearthed the truffles.

Truffles are normally found in France and Italy and are gathered between November and May, using specially-trained dogs or boars who locate the fungi by smell. They grow around tree roots - normally oak - by providing and taking vital nutrients from the roots.

In total Chris found 10 truffles weighing about 2 kilos and thought to be worth about £1,000, the honest gardener handed them over to the gardens owner who is now considering selling them.

Monday 11 August 2008

Giant puffball

A giant puffball mushroom has been found growing in the garden of a bar in Woonsocket, America. The giant mushroom measuring 1.3 feet tall and 10 inches wide was found by the bar owners son, growing underneath an oak tree.

The bars owner Judy Pelletier said “She was shocked by the size of the mushroom specially considering that this is the first mushroom she has every seen growing in her garden.”

The mushroom is proving something of a hit with patrons and visitors alike who are flocking to the small bar to see the mushroom.


All members of the puffball mushroom family are edible but the bars owner has no plans to eat the mushroom commenting “I will probably throw it out after everyone has looked at it.”

Puffball mushrooms grow to an average of 4 to 28 inches in diameter and can reach diameters of nearly four feet. They can be found growing in meadows and forests in late summer and autumn.

Monday 4 August 2008

Foraging for wild mushrooms

I get a lot of e-mails from people new to mushroom foraging asking for advice on how to go about it. So I thought it was about time I put something up on the blog. So here we go.


Wild mushrooms grow throughout the year, but autumn offers the most abundant and varied seasonal eating. From late summer until the first frost, you can gather the likes of penny buns, chanterelles, field mushrooms and dozens of other varieties.

It is only a minority of mushrooms that are good to eat, and there are several varieties that are potentially deadly. Some of the most deadly to be found in the UK are among the Amanita genus with names like “death cap” and “destroying angel” and these can easily be confused for edible varieties.

When collecting fungi, avoid using plastic bags; the lack of air will accelerate the decomposition process and make the mushrooms mushy. Use a basket instead.
Never eat any fungus that you are not absolutely certain has been identified correctly.

When trying any fungus for the first time, only eat it in small amounts to make sure the body can cope with it.

Use a good field guide, but don't rely absolutely on pictures in books - differences between fungi can be difficult to spot. Go out with an experienced guide.

Keep a small fresh portion of any mushroom you eat in the fridge. That way, if there is a reaction, you can easily identify the source.

Monday 28 July 2008

Australia could produce 10 times as many truffles

Australian truffle production could grow by as much as 10 times its current level by 2013, but market development and further research will be needed to ensure the industry has a long-term future.

Truffles are unique underground mushrooms that grow on the roots of trees which either naturally host the fungi or have been inoculated with truffle spores..
Despite being a relatively new crop to Australia, truffles are one of the most highly sought after and valued foods in the world, with Australian truffles currently selling for between $2000 and $3000 per kg. Despite being highly sought after by many chefs, it is not used often due to the considerable cost of purchase.

The cost is so high due to the difficulties with creating the right environment for the truffles to grow.

The most ever paid for a truffle is $330,000 by a casino owner from Macau for a 1.5kg white truffle last year, which Works out to $220,000 per kg.

Monday 21 July 2008

Death Angels claim another life

A 61 year old woman has died after eating poisonous wild mushrooms nicknamed death angels that she found growing near a highway rest stop just outside New York City.

Westchester County's health department says Zoila Tapia found the pure-white mushrooms on July 6, in a wooded area along Interstate 684 in Bedford, a town about half an hour north of Manhattan.

The 61-year-old White Plains resident was hospitalised after eating the mushrooms and died 4 days later. The mushrooms are among the prettiest but deadliest in the world.

Westchester County Medical Examiner Dr. Millard Hyland said that by the time Tapia sought medical help, her kidney and liver functions were compromised and her chances for survival were quickly declining.

Wednesday 9 July 2008

Healthy Shiitake

The health benefits of shiitake mushrooms have been exposed recently by an American study.

Scientists in America found that Shiitake mushrooms contain high levels of high molecular weight polyaccharides (HMWP) which is known to improve the human immune system. They also discovered that eritadenine found in shiitake mushrooms may help lower cholesterol levels.

The researchers inoculated logs with spores from three different shiitake varieties and compared the yield with shiitake yields grown on commercial substrates.

They found that the log-grown shiitakes had HMWP levels as much as 70 percent higher than the substrate-grown shiitakes. The team also observed that shiitakes grown on red and white oak logs had higher levels of HMWP than shiitakes grown on sweet gum logs.

In 2004-2005, producers harvested approximately 9 million pounds of shiitake mushrooms, which sold for an average price of $3.21 per pound.

Monday 30 June 2008

Deadly morels

Authorities in America have warned people of the dangers of eating raw or under cooked morels after a "significant increase" in the number of poisioning cases.

Eating raw, under cooked & consuming alcohol with morels can cause excessive vomiting within minutes of consumption.


The mushrooms are thriving in the wake of last summer's devastating forest fires, with hundreds of mushroom-pickers camping in the national forests to harvest the mushrooms.

Marilyn Shaw mycologist for the RMPDC said "This is a significant increase over the usual number of reported poisonings due to morel consumption. We want to make sure that all mycophagists are aware of the dangers of eating raw or partially cooked morels, or consuming alcoholic beverages with either raw or cooked morels."

Monday 23 June 2008

Forest fires are not all bad news

Professional mushroom pickers have flocked to the Cascade and the Boise National Forest`s in North America this month. Almost 1,000 pickers are camped out to hunt full-time for the morels sprouting in areas burned by last year’s devastating forest fires.

The pickers who come from all over America watch the news and the Internet to see where the picking is best. Many of them travel all year round in search of mushrooms with an experienced mushroom hunter being able to earn $50 - $80 dollars a day.

“It’s hard work,” said a picker named Tony — he declined to give his last name — as he sat around a campfire Sunday near Warm Lake, surrounded by buckets of morels. His tent was pitched beside dozens of others, tied to trees in a burned-out clearing. Blue tarps formed a vast sheltered space where tired pickers rested and chatted around fires.

“But it’s fun and good exercise,” said Koy Chounlabout, a spokeswoman of sorts for the picking community who gives her home as Oregon’s Willamette Valley. “It clears your mind.”

Mark Loseke, who is coordinating the Forest Service’s response to the influx, has never seen this many pickers —not even in the 1980s, when hundreds poured in after forest fires. As of Monday, his office in Cascade had issued 950 commercial permits costing $20 a week, and he expects the applications to keep coming.

Tuesday 17 June 2008

Giant morel found

American Charley Robinson has found a giant morel measuring 17 inches in girth and weighing 1.25 pounds, he said.

''I have been trying to find out what the records are for morels, but so far have struck out. I have found references to some around a pound, but none as large as mine, though I don't doubt that there are some.''

Mr Robinson 61 has been searching for morels for more than three decades near his home in Sanford and couldn't believe his eyes when they focused on the giant fungi near his cabin. Robinson let the mushroom grow for 10 days before picking it confident that know one else would find it.

''I have learned not to pick them until they feel a little dry,'' Robinson said. ''That is when they quit growing. It was still growing when I picked it. But I didn't want to risk someone else finding it.''


''It sure dwarfed the others that grew in the same area, even though they were all above average size,'' Robinson said.

Robinson said the exact location where he found the mushroom is ''classified.''

''I have hunted morels most of my life and have it down to a science,'' Robinson said. ''I have always found them in areas that had been burned over.

Monday 9 June 2008

Unidentified Giant Mushroom Mystery

A Suffolk gardener has discovered a giant mushroom measuring 2-3 inches in diameter growing against a tree in her garden in Langham near Bury.

The surprised nature lover Cilia Simms and her husband Peter first noticed the giant mushroom at the weekend and have been trying unsuccessfully every since to identify the giant mushroom.

Cilla Simms explains “When I saw how big it was, it gave me goosebumps. We have had two or three mushrooms against the tree but I have never seen anything like this before. I think my garden was once a meadow as it has always been a bit wild. But this is a mystery and it is really fascinating.”

If you can help Mrs Simms identify the giant mushroom then please leave a comment.

Monday 2 June 2008

Mushrooms - the great insulator?

Mushrooms could soon be used to insulate homes. That's right. An American company has invented a pioneering product called (not very inventively) "Greensulation".

The product is currently undergoing testing, but its makers say it could potentially hit the market as soon as 2010.
These chaps have produced an insulator using our friend the mushroom - plus rice hulls and recycled paper. When mixed together with water and hydrogen peroxide, placed in plastic containers and put in a dark place it then literally grows into shape.

So now not only can you insulate yourself against the cold with a piping hot bowl of wild mushroom soup - you can put the stuff into your homes and keep the whole family warm!

Tuesday 27 May 2008

Another four down!

Four more people have died and six others are in hospital in the Central Highlands of Vietnam after eating poisonous mushrooms.

A woman in the family, Y Vung, said she had picked white and tasty-looking mushrooms in the mountain believing they were edible.

When will these people ever learn? To be really safe, I suggest you buy your wild mushrooms from our friends at Wild about Mushrooms?

Monday 14 April 2008

A Morel dilema?

A man out foraging in the good old US of A struck gold when he stumbled upon a giant Morel crop.

"I've been mushroom hunting since I was a kid," he said. "I've found some big mushrooms before, but nothing like this." said the gob-smacked yank.

The largest specimen measured more than 12 inches long with a three-inch diameter base. Morel mushrooms are a prized commodity, selling at his local farmer's markets for as much as $35 to $40 per pound.

But like any good mushroom hunter the bloke refused to cash in on his crop - and ate them instead!

Well what else could he do?

Friday 28 March 2008

Into war - against pollution!

In the war against ocean pollution, environmentalists have turned to the humble mushroom. Mushrooms have a unique ability to take dead things and make them pretty again by turning decomposed matter into nutrients. In fact, they’re so adept at tearing down and rebuilding chemical compounds that even oil spills are no match for their natural abilities.

In November 2007, when an oil tanker sprang a leak in San Francisco Bay, 58,000 gallons of oil seeped into the water and beaches. A group of local activists decided to take the clean-up into their own hands, using a technique originally developed to dispose of used motor oil. They headed for the shore and laid out mats made of human hair that were covered in oyster mushrooms. The hair quickly soaked up all the oil, while the mushrooms digested the dangerous chemicals. Within 12 weeks, only harmless compost remained.

The process is so simple and cost-effective that grass roots organizations and local governments are now calling for it to be recognised as a way to clean up contaminated soil on old factory sites.

Monday 24 March 2008

Mushrooms help prevent breast cancer?

We hear much about the healthy properties of our humble mushroom - and we're always wary about broadcasting food advice based on its value to medical science - but now we hear that mushrooms are being promoted as one of eight ingredients that can help prevent breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, accounting for one in three of all women cancer cases diagnosed. While age (over 65) and family history are unchangeable factors associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, there are other factors that can be controlled.

One of the ingredients reputed to assist prevention is Vitamin D3. This vitamin helps control cellular growth and inhibit the growth of cancer cells. According to holistic healing and natural health author Donald R. Yance Jr., "Vitamin D3 may also inhibit the activity of hormones such as estrogen in breast cancer, thereby decreasing its spread."

A University of Birmingham study also found that vitamin D3 encourages healthy breast cell growth while making cells more resistant to toxins.

One way to get vitamin D3 is through sun exposure--one study found that safely exposing your skin to the sun reduced the risk of breast cancer by 30 to 40 percent. If that is not possible, you can get vitamin D3 in salmon, tuna, cod fish, cod liver oil, egg yolks, shrimp and some wild mushrooms.

Saturday 22 March 2008

March Recipe of the Month

Check out our delicious new recipe of the month - see right.

Don't forget too to check out our archive of recipes here..

Threat to Cumbria's last mushroom farm

Cumbria's last mushroom farm is on the brink of closure because of cheap imports and rising costs. Brindle Farm, near Carlisle, was started 30 years ago but low prices and high input costs forced him to get a full-time job four days a week in to subsidise the farm.

A major decline in the last five years has seen the number of mushroom farms in the UK drop to around 60.

And the problem?

Yes, you've guessed it Polish mushrooms!

Tuesday 18 March 2008

Mushroom tells us spring has arrived!

A mushroom that isn't usually seen in Britain for months has emerged in February for the first time on record. Half a dozen Shaggy Inkcaps have burst forth in South Devon after days of sunshine.

Professor Alan Gange, an expert on fungi from the University of London, said: "I am quite astonished by their appearance now and can only assume it is because of the extraordinarily warm weather.

"I have checked our database of 58 years' worth of data and this is the first report of this species fruiting in the spring.

"In our data, the earliest recorded date for the species is June 11."

So, spring is here is it?

Have they looked out of the window??

Monday 3 March 2008

Is nothing sacred????

Two highly distinctive ornaments have been stolen from a garden in the Midlands Two 3ft-high stone mushrooms!

Police say the mushrooms, which are quite heavy (no!! really?), were bought from a company in the south of England when the owners were on holiday and are not known to be made in the Midlands.

For goodness sake – where are they?

They must be found!

Tuesday 26 February 2008

No comment required

Sometimes ... just sometimes, I come across a wild mushroom story that takes my breath away.

I found this on You Tube.

And I'm just speechless.

And before you ask - no, it isn't me!!

Monday 18 February 2008

When will they learn?

Spanish mushroom collector Jose Manuel Hidalgo got into a disagreement with locals in regards to the lethality of wild mushrooms, as he displayed his recently collected mushrooms at a village open day in Fuentes de Leon.

He argued that it was permissible to eat 20 grams of poisonous mushrooms without suffering fatal consequences, a claim disputed by fellow locals and posters on the walls.

Mr Hidalgo proceeded to take bites out of the fungi before displaying symptoms of alcohol inebriation.

The mushroom enthusiast only agreed to be taken by ambulance to hospital after he turned yellow and began to vomit, the publication reports.

Prat.

Tuesday 29 January 2008

Underwater mushies?

Yep - its true.

A new species of mushroom has been recently discovered by scientists in the Rogue Valley, Oregon.

The new species of mushroom grows underwater and is believed to be the only species of its kind.
Being scientists, of course, they had to give it a snappy title - so they called it Psathyrella aquatica.

I'm more excited by the notion of ready to drink mushroom soup!!

Thursday 24 January 2008

Keep yourself warm this winter with mushrooms!

We all know that insulation is key to keeping your house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It's important to insulate well in order to reduce the amount of energy you use.

Traditional fibreglass used in insulation batting can irritate your skin, eyes and airways amd foam plastic insulation contains petrochemicals. But now the humble mushroom is poised to come to the rescue!

A new insulating product is set to enter the insulation market within the next two years. The product, called Greensulate, is fire-retardant, biodegradable and requires no petrochemicals for its production - because it is grown from Mycelia, the roots of mushrooms.

Is there no end to the number of benefits to be gained from our fungi friends??

Monday 7 January 2008

Wild mushrooms fight prostate cancer

Israeli scientists claim that a wild mushroom, used in traditional Chinese medicine for a century, could treat prostate cancer.

Researchers at the university in northern Israel said they found molecules in the Ganoderma lucidum mushroom, commonly known as the reishi, which help supress some mechanisms involved in the progression of prostate cancer.

"We already knew the mushroom could impede the development of cancer by affecting the immune system. The in-vitro trials we have done show that it attacks the cancer cells directly," chief researcher Ben Zion Zaidman said."These results give rise to hope about developing medication to treat prostate cancer," he said of research carried out to date only in Petri dishes. The research still has to be tested on animals.

The reishi is found only in remote, wild areas, preferring a habitat of rotting plum tree trunks, sometimes oak trees, in heavily forested mountain areas.The Chinese have tried to grow reishi mushrooms for centuries, but it was only in the early 1970s that Japanese experts managed to cultivate them.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer among men, with more than 543,000 cases diagnosed worldwide each year.

Thursday 3 January 2008

Black mushrooms - the new thin?

Black-coloured foods are now all the rage in places like Japan. That's because they are thought to have anti-inflammatory properties and perhaps even help protect against heart disease and cancer.

You may have thought about eating black beans, but what about black rice, or black mushrooms?

At Asian groceries, you can even get things like black sesame oil; black vinegar and black soybeans to complement your meals.

So what's the big deal? Well some say these ebony colored foods have more health benefits, and others say they have deeper, more intense flavours.

What next?

Pink foods make you smile? Brown foods make you taller?

Just keep eating my mushrooms - black ones, yellow ones, grey ones ....

Mind how you go now Cobber!

Australian health authorities have issued a warning against eating death cap mushrooms after two people were rushed to hospital after eating them.

The death cap mushroom is a particularly nasty 'shroom and apparently it is responsible for 90 per cent of all mushroom-related deaths.

An unseasonably mild and wet November and December has led to an upsurge in Death Caps and now authorities have been forced to issue warnings. Two people have died and about a dozen others have been poisoned as a result of eating Death Caps in Australia in the past 12 years.

Commonly found near oak trees, Death Caps (left) are 40-160mm wide and usually pale green or yellow in colour. Symptoms of death cap poisoning include violent stomach pains, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Just thought you might to know that - so mind how you go.

And if you are in any doubt about whether the Death Cap is the mushroom for you - there's a clue in the title!