Walked: 26 April 2009
One of my favourite routes - alongside foremark reservoir, Calke Abbey, Ticknall, back by Scaddows Farm. By Foremark reservoir I saw my first may blossom, not particularly early this year.
The hunter-gatherer in me is really strong, I found this mushroom, which I felt sure was teh cultivated or field type, but it didn't quite match the descriptions in my pocket guide, which takes care to warn you not to eat anything unless it does fit a description perfectly. This one has white gills and no ring. All of the similar ones in the book had brown or pink gills and ring around the stem. I resisted eating it and carried it with me for a bit. When I stopped to crack open my flask, I had another look through the book and found it! The St George mushroom is creamy white, slightly brown top and no ring. So named because it pops up around St George's day, which was a few days ago. So I enjoyed it with my coffee! It has a slightly stronger taste than your usual cultivated mushroom, and I'll look out for these every spring now.
Perhaps the hunter in me is less strong than the gatherer. When I saw this little fella, I could only think 'Aaaahhh'. I did wonder whether it had mixy as it let me stand quite close and didn't seem bothered. But happily not. I tried to switch my camera to 'movie' but he casually hopped away before I got there.
Ash coming out in flower? Not quite, this is Rowan or Mountain Ash, I think, which is similar but unrelated. And flowers much earlier.
And these were my first bluebells, just after leaving the Calke estate to cross the fields to Ticknall.
1 comment:
Ooooh, yummy, Pea!
You really are the undisputed queen of wild food gatherers. I'll have to hunt for some of those, too.
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