05 December 2014

Champignons

Mushrooms have been a major feature of our yard and the vineyard for the past month or two. In one of the places Callie and I like to walk when we go out in the morning — on a leaf-covered gravel path on the edge of the vineyard — there was a major bloom last month. Here's what it looked like.



This fungus, called the coprin chevelu in French, seems to be a very common one, but I don't think I'd ever noticed it before. In English it goes by the names shaggy ink cap, lawyer's wig, and shaggy mane. Its cap can turn black and dissolve into an inky mess in just a few hours, especially after it is picked.



They say the coprin chevelu (Coprinus comatus) is an excellent edible mushroom if it is picked young and cooked within a few minutes or hours. Otherwise, the "autodigestion" process starts and the cap dissolves. I don't believe the Latin name comatus has anything to do with going comatose after eating them.

15 comments:

  1. Ken, this is one of my favourite mushrooms....
    very easily identified...
    and very, very different from the smooth-capped Common Inkcap...
    which, if eaten....
    with alcohol being served at the same meal...
    will make you tea-total for the rest of your days.

    I either serve it gently fried... on buttered toast...
    or use it in a vegetarian "chicken" risotto.
    If put in the fridge once picked, it will slow drastically the ageing process.
    When cooking it, it tends to dissolve...
    autodeliquess... a lovely word....
    so I give them a quick, very hot fry and put to one side while I make the rissotto...
    breaking them up into strips and adding them just at the end to warm through.
    Before they turn black, they go an attractive, fleshy shade of pink....
    and I usually cut off any tendancy toward black at this margin.
    They have a meaty texture as well, which helps.

    They are meant to like frequently mown areas...
    and like playing fields especially...
    so your mowing regime must suit them...
    but I've seen them regularly around here in ploughed fields.

    For obvious reasons, I've tried to get them to grow here...
    but either the soil...
    or my mowing regime...
    isn't right!!

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    1. Tim, I read about commercial cultivation of these mushrooms in China, so they are obviously edible. Glad you like them.

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    2. When "Le Champion" Mushroom was a going concern in Loches, they were also cultivated there...
      we blogged about it, many moons back, on Touraine Flint...
      http://flint-tools-in-touraine.blogspot.fr/2010/11/more-about-jim-champignion-champion.html
      A friend, Jim the "Mushroom Man" from Leeds Farmers Market....
      learnt his craft with Phillipe Gillard in the Champion caves.
      And then came back to help Phillipe set up the organic business now running there.
      Phillipe has now expanded the business to include a museum about "Le Champion"...
      but on the post linked above...
      there is a photograph from the 1980s that shows an old picking basket...
      its modern "straight to market" substitute...
      and a cornucopia of the mushrooms they produced....
      which includes a "Shaggy Inkcap".....

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    3. I've just noticed that it isn't your path...
      but a vineyard one.
      Susan regularly points out that fungi are bio-accumulators...
      and as these are out in the vineyard...
      a non-organic vineyard...
      they'll best be well avoided.
      I wouldn't eat the ones I find in the ploughed fields for the same reasons...
      but I'll keep picking those to sqidge into the ground here!
      One day I might get some to establish....

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  2. I only recognize morels. I am afraid of all other mushrooms. I would have to have a "taster" before I ate any others. :)

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    1. There were morels growing in our back yard here in Saint-Aignan 10 or 11 years ago, when we first moved in. They disappeared again after two or three years and haven't come back.

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  3. Very nice photos, full of useful detail for a myco.

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  4. A photo of this mushroom is the cover art on the Larousse Champignons book (which is a translation of a UK title, as it turns out).

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  5. Must proof read better, take two. I don't eat mushrooms, but I used to pick them and I like the look of them, but yours is not one I would pick to be eaten.

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  6. Wow, I've certainly not ever seen this 'shroom before. Very interesting!

    p.s. I made my turkey Shepherd's Pie... though not much at all like Shepherd's Pie *LOL*. I'm watching starchy carbs, so I couldn't put in peas or carrots (green beans, onion, celery, red bell pepper, and thinly-sliced kale, instead). Couldn't put potato on top for the same reason. I remembered that I had leftover turkey gravy, and a box of turkey broth, so I used those, and planned to add cream... all to a thickness of creamy mush, but I forgot to buy the cream when I stopped at the store (always check your darn list!!;) ). I couldn't put in flour to thicken it, either, so it was rather like a very full soup :) Quite good, though! Thanks for the inspiration.

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    Replies
    1. I actually put kale in my Shepherd's pie too — not much, but just a little I had left over in the fridge. Carrots, by the way, contain almost no starch. Same with turnips. So you could include those in the hash. Less liquid would make a hash, and more makes, as you say, a hearty soup. Either can be really good.

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  7. Ken! chm! Thank you! I can watch and listen to Telematin in French and even get subtitles in French (though if they're anything like the captioning on TV in the US, they'll be more a source of humor than information).

    I've picked out next year's wardrobe from the Karl Lagerfeld segment. Won't I be stylish at the local supermarket?

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    1. Carolyn, you're welcome!

      With the Francetvinfo app on my iPad, I can watch the "replay" of Journal télévisé whether it is 8:00 am, 13:00 pm or 20;00 pm, as well as the Des Racines et des Ailes documentaries. There is no such app for my MacBook.

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    2. I knew I could watch videos on pluzz.fr, but I wasn't sure you could watch them on that site outside of France. Tant mieux. There are a lot of U.S. media sites that won't let me in with my French IP address, supposedly for copyright reasons.

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  8. I like picking and eating mushrooms

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