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.

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?

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 ....

Don't say you weren't warned!

We all know that mushrooms are the finest food in the world - but we also know that you need to be extremely careful about eating fungus.

Especially if you're unsure of the variety.

And even more especially if you're told the fungus is poisonous!

I found this report from the Spanish press:

A 45 year old man from Fuentes de León in Badajoz, José Manuel Hidalgo, ate some mushrooms to show they were not poisonous, and ended up in intensive care.

It happened last Sunday during an open day being held in the village, which had been proceeded by a day of mushroom collecting and display.

The victim got into an argument with other locals as to how lethal wild mushrooms could be, with a poster warning that as little as 20 grams could be fatal. José Manuel did not believe it, and suddenly to prove his point, started to eat the ‘amanita phalloides’ mushroom. On the second bite he showed symptoms of being drunk, and continued to claim the mushroom was not fatal.

An ambulance was called but it took considerable argument before the patient finally agreed to be taken to hospital in Zafra, Badajoz. By this time he had turned yellow and started to vomit.

He spent two days in the intensive care unit, and finally was allowed out onto the ward on Tuesday afternoon amid concerns that his liver may have suffered permanent damage.

So there you go - if your pals say 'No!' they're probably right!

It's official!

You know it and I know it.

But now it's official. Mushrooms are officially very good for you.

According to scientists, there are five foods that should have a place in your diet. Now, OK, the first four are slightly off the wall and very American - but, hey, nobody ever went bust by underestimating the taste of our friends from across the pond! The first four are - wait for it - peanut butter, eggs, coffee and avocados. But there at number 5 is our fave - the humble mushroom!

The misconception is that mushrooms are a low-calorie food with little nutritional benefit. But whilst they may be 90 percent water and have only 18 calories per cup, mushrooms are now getting serious scientific attention. Laboratory reports and animal studies show that compounds in mushrooms may do everything from bolster immune function to suppress breast and prostate cancers to decrease tumor size. And now, American researchers find that mushrooms, from the humble button to the giant portobello, harbour large amounts of an antioxidant called L-ergothioneine. The scientific buzz is that fungi, for the moment, are the only foods that contain this compound.

While scientists work to figure out how these findings will translate to dietary advice, there are plenty of reasons to enjoy mushrooms. Clare Hasler, Ph.D., a well-known expert in functional foods and executive director of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis, points out that mushrooms offer a healthy helping of the blood pressure-lowering mineral potassium. "Most people might be surprised to learn that while orange juice is touted as one of the highest potassium foods, one medium portobello mushroom actually has more potassium," she says. "And five white button mushrooms have more potassium than an orange".

So there you go - it must be true!!