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St Paddy was the name of a race horse also the name of a Deltic diesel locomotive

Rog

Happy Georges day btw

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I suppose St Patrick went to America too, ................Well they have bigger parties on March 17th there than they do in most of Ireland !

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  • 6 years later...

Why did Edward III pick St George as Patron Saint of England he never set foot on English soil?

 

Nottstalgia Choir ….. Altogether now "And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England's mountains green …...

 

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Today is by tradition the day that St George's Mushroom (Calocybe Gambosa) appears in the UK.  One of few mushrooms to appear this early and even fewer to be good eating.


It is edible and rather good. 

 

234px-Calocybe_gambosa_080420wa.jpg

 

However, to the uninitiated it is also superficially similar to Amanita Verna  the Spring Amanita.. which is deadly.

 

Lets be careful out there!!!

Amanita_verna.jpg

 

Col

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We used to have an old lady own our lane who was a self acknowledged expert on mushrooms. She looked the part, black floppy hat, black cape. I remember her being carted off in an ambulance after one misadventure. Mushrooms can be very nasty things. Always take advice from a proper expert. Even then, ignore it and don't eat them unless bought from a reliable source.

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Phil, there are several thousand species of Mushrooms /Fungi in this country.  The vast majority are harmless but inedible because they don't taste nice, are too tough, too bitter or whatever.  Others are toxic or sometimes hallucinogenic, but not deadly.

 

Then there are a much smaller number of edible fungi, or 'esculents'. General advice even with these is to be cautious, as some people have allergic reactions even though the species is not actually toxic.

 

Among edibles, the 'Field Mushroom' and it's close relatives are maybe most popular.. but also pretty easy to get wrong, for the same sort of reasons as the two I compared above. They are both white and both have persistently white caps, stems flesh and gills.  Field mushrooms and other Agarics have pinkish gills which darken with age, but there are a couple of poisonous Agarics.. easily identified if you know what you are doing. However, even to an amateur like me it's difficult to miss the fact that A.Verna has a clear ring on the stem.. which is also bulbous at the base, and when properly developed it follows the classic Amanita 'form' which is easily recognisable. I can also tell you from experience that C.Gambosa has a distinctive and strong 'mealy' sort of smell.  There are many other differences which become almost second nature.. a bit like recognising a familiar face.

 

The other major group are the Boletus.  B. Edulis, the Cepe, or Penny Bun is easy to recognise and only really able to be confused with Tylopilus Felleus, the Bitter Bolete, which I have never seen, but would know from the clear differences. Either way.. it is apparently overwhelmingly bitter but otherwise harmless. There are a couple of poisonous Boletes which are rare, grow on Limestone substrates and are well documented. I doubt you'd see them and want to eat them.

 

Bottom line.. if you apply yourself you learn to recognise the good stuff and if in any doubt whatever, you leave it alone.

These days I only tend to pick Cepes and one or two other Boletes, nice Blewitts, Oysters..and Chicken of the Woods if I catch it while still young and fresh.

 

If you know your limits, there's no need to be scared of Fungi.  One article I read said that on a statistical basis, ten randomly picked plants from the hedgerow are far more likely to include something deadly, than ten randomly picked fungi.  However.. that's only a statistic and I wouldn't recommend trying it.  :wacko:

 

 

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59 minutes ago, loppylugs said:

What I want to know is, how did anybody get to know and live to tell about it?  You can only be wrong once..  ;)

 

I have many books on Fungi.  One quotes some really useful advice from some Medieval Know All:

 

"There be two kinds of Musherons..Them that maketh good meat.... and them that be dedly"

 

So that's OK then....:laugh:

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I'm sitting in my library now and I can see a few books on fungi on the shelf which I must confess to not having read. I know library sounds rather grand but it's a room with bookshelves so what else can I call it? I shall peruse them straight away and become a leading authority!

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