CEP WARS!

[Chris Head]

We'd always been told our neighbours would never be truthful about the good locations of the ceps and it finally twigged last week when I was pointed to one area of woodland and came up with virtually nothing.

RIGHT I thought, let's be a little cleverer about this so I spent a couple of days surreptitiously 'observing' the movements of my two farmer neighbours and managed to narrow it down to three main blocks of woodland, perhaps 80-100 acre of mostly deciduous semi-mature growth, both of them tended to head toward woodland with a high degree of Birch, which isn't overly common here. GOTCHA!

Next problem is to enter the woodland unseen so I choose an area that had been clear felled three years before and stretches to the edge of my target area, it's all coppice Chestnut and a mass of bramble so out with the machete and hack through (as quietly as possible!) 1k to the woods all the time expecting to be mistaken for a wild boar and dodging bullets at any second, but there's alot of pride at stake so I figure it's worth it!

A fair bit of sweat, swearing and blood later & I'm in, and there they are! After an hour I couldn't carry any more Bolets, it was just incredible! I'm back there early tommorrow to get some more.

The best bit is the look on Jean Pierres and Christophes faces when I give to them what they've tried to guard so zealously ! I was as vague as they had been when asked where I found them! I know they were highly irritated but they got the message.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v609/chrishead/DSC01105.jpg[/IMG]

That's about 2 kilos worth, I gave them both about the same. The're in the freezer already....country life eh....now how to get me a Sanglier! 

 

[Cassis]

Very nice - cèpes de bordeaux, my favourite type.  We tend to get loads more cèpes baie round here.  Taste just as nice but the blue bruising tends to put some people off who take it as a sign of poison!  That goes when you cook them, though.

I hope you removed the mousse first ....

[TWINKLE]

Very crafty Chris! 

Have you noticed how the locals are very secretive about where they fish for their trout?

[Chris Head]

Aren't they just. I've got that one covered too!

[Bob T]

The chesnut is the thing to look out for. I collected around 8 kilos and cooked loads and froze the rest. If you cook them with a couple of onions, 2 kilos of cepes and a bottle of white wine for about an hour and a half in a casserole dish in the oven, they are wonderful. I also have pictures on the blog.

I went out today and they have just about ended here now, every other type of mushroom is growing though, Jude complained as the digital camera only holds around 200  pictures and she filled it up.

[saddie]

I always thought that ceps had much fatter "stems" we have some fungus that look like that in our garden - no gills but a sort of mousse under the cap. I could take some down to the pharmacie I suppose but we are SO English when it comes to such things. The previous owners of our place said that we had out own cepes Are they really worth it?

[Chris Head]

Yes Saddie they're worth it, as are the freshly gathered chestnuts, the dubiously caught trout, the fallen apples, the wet walnuts...and BOY those plump cherries, not to mention the naughtily caught wild duck, perhaps roasted with the glorious wild plums and the wild garlic....hopefully followed by a beautiful cut of illegally taken boar or venison? Perhaps I just like country life too much?

[saddie]

No problems with the other things. it's just this thing about possibly poisening ourselves. By the way I read that to keep chestnuts (anyone with a spare wheelbarrow is welcome) you must soak them in salt water for a week and then dry them well.

[Dick Smith]

Our neighbours told us there are no mushrooms in any of the fields he keeps cows in...  yeah, right.

I want to go looking next week - what are my 'rights to roam'? I think I read somewhere that national and regional parks are now out of bounds, and there are no real woodlands around Mortain/St Hilaire du Harcouët (at least, not outside of the Parc Regional).

Where can I go?

[chris pp]

If you are taking game illegally, Chris, be very careful. I was talking to an officer from the ONCFS on Saturday, these are smart people who move about in the environment with more stealth than me,and they have very powerful optical equipment. I also receive a regular list of the convictions for bracconage in France, it's frequently a prison term.

So, I hope it's just bravado on your part, this is after all a public space for the entire world to view.

Chris xx

 

[Unknown]

Chris pp

We are lucky enough to have forest either side of where we live, its beautiful for walks and good for bird spotting.  We have the chasse take part on Mondays and Thursdays, but what I don't know is what are they chasing?

Any ideas?

Dotty

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="chris pp"]

If you are taking game illegally, Chris, be

very careful. I was talking to an officer from the ONCFS on Saturday,

these are smart people who move about in the environment with more

stealth than me,and they have very powerful optical equipment. I also

receive a regular list of the convictions for bracconage in France,

it's frequently a prison term.

So, I hope it's just bravado on your part, this is after all a public space for the entire world to view.

Chris xx

 [/quote]

Interesting. Out on the marais last Tuesday, the dog (she's a

Gorden setter and coming along quite nicely - I'm hoping to rent her

out next season. Or get a gun - one of the two. I seem to see far more

game than the "proper" hunters I know, but they are incredibly noisy,

and their dogs seem to hate them, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised)

got very excited in her quiet way about some undergrowth. She has (so

far) unearthed a complete range of feathered game, a selection of

hares, two deer and once to my considerable alarm a group of wild boar.

But this was a bloke in camoflage without a gun. I assumed he was just

a common-or-garden pervert, but perhaps he was one of "those". We

exchanged pleasentries, but he seemed loath to talk and watched until

we were out of sight in a somewhat unnerving manner.

[Missy]

[quote user="saddie"] ...... By the way I read that to keep chestnuts (anyone with a spare wheelbarrow is welcome) you must soak them in salt water for a week and then dry them well.[/quote]

Never heard that one before......  When we gathered chestnuts my parents used to spread them out on racks (sort of cake cooling trays type thing) and left them out to dry by the boiler in the cellar which was the dryest/warmest place in the house. Then if my Mother wanted some for cooking she would just rehydrate them by soaking them overnight and then follow whatever her recipe was......

[Cassis]

[quote user="Dotty Trois"]

Chris pp

We are lucky enough to have forest either side of where we live, its beautiful for walks and good for bird spotting.  We have the chasse take part on Mondays and Thursdays, but what I don't know is what are they chasing?

Any ideas?

Dotty

[/quote]

Don't know about your neck of the woods (sorry!) but here it's deer and boar.  If all else fails then hare or rabbit.  The hunters were out in force yesterday when we were mushrooming in the forest.

Coullemelles (sp.?) are another nice, tasty and common mushroom.  We used to call them parasol mushrooms in the UK.

Re earlier posting - all members of the boletus, suillus and xerocomus mushy families have mousse rather than gills.  None are poisonous apart from boletus pulchrotinctus (bolet aux belles couleurs) boletus lupinus (bolet de loup) and boletus satanas (bolet satan) though some others don't taste very nice.  The best eaters are boletus edulis (cèpe de bordeaux, the one most people are talking about here), boletus pinophilus (cèpe des pins), xerocomus badius (bolet bai) and boletus xanthocyaneus (bolet bouton d'or).    Not all cèpes have fat bases.

If you can't positively identify any mushroom and there's no-one local whose advice you trust then take it to the pharmacy - you should take one with the foot intact - for identification.  I would be very wary of eating one I was not totally sure of identifying.  But then I'm not keen on renal, coronary or liver failure.

If as you collect mushrooms you put them upright in a straw basket or similar it gives some of the spores a chance to fall to the ground and spread as you're walking.  Best not to use a plastic bag - makes them sweat and go off quicker as well as stopping them sporing.

[Unknown]

Thanks Phil

I've never eaten cepes, what do they taste like, comparable to?

[Chris Head]

No Chris it's not 'bravado' at all. I'm a lover of woodland and all that it can yield, always have been. I completely repect your viewpoint but not all of us carry the country code rulebook when we step out. I was looking at the regeneration is this particular woodland yesterday and there is quite significant damage to Oak and Birch saplings, most probably deer. Also I've never seen such a concentration of Fly Agaric in my life, the colours are quite fantastic.

I'm with you Jon, it's a wonder the 'hunters' ever get anything at all, you could see and hear them coming a mile away, whilst I respect it's a tradition going back a long way and probably serves quite well to 'bond' a group of people who wouldn't otherwise meet it's not my thing at all. You're right also about what you can see if you move quietly around, also the smells and sounds are just wonderful and occasionally one likes to enjoy the tastes too.

I guess they're looking for anything they can find Dotty, most often boar and deer with our lot. I wouldn't want to be with them though as the aperos feature quite heartily before they've even picked up a firearm!

 

 

[Missy]

Watch out Chris!! Found this on a thread in the forum next door. The person who published it, on October 11th, lives in West Dordogne.

From today's paper:

War is raging in the usually sleepy French countryside. And all because of the humble mushroom. Violent battles have erupted across south-west France since the beginning of the mushroom season in August. In the blue corner, there are hundreds of pickers who leave the cities every day to collect chanterelles, ceps and other delicacies in the forest. In the red corner, there are farmers who defend what belongs to them by right, as it is illegal to pick mushrooms in the woods they own.

"This year, I have been insulted, slapped, punched and beaten with sticks. Last year, I was beaten up by four pickers," says Martin Hospital, 55, a farmer from the picturesque village of Macaye in the French Basque country. "What is it coming to? Next year, people will use guns."

Hospital reckons hundreds of people have shown up on his land since August. "Twenty-five to 30 cars come every day. You see one car, you turn around to take a pee and there's another one coming. Some understand it when you explain to them that they can't pick mushrooms, but most don't. And then it's war," he says.

"We are fed up, fed up, fed up," adds Pierre Dulong, the mayor of Ligardes, a village of 259 souls in the Gers region, the home of foie gras. "In the past, we have had 400-600 cars coming a day. It would be fine if the people were respectful, but they are not. They have insulted and attacked landowners. They take the mushrooms with rakes, which destroys the flora, and then they resell them at local markets.

"One farmer I know went to the local market and spotted three guys he saw on his land the day before," recalls the mayor with a chuckle. "They were selling his mushrooms. They did not recognise him, so he asked to have all the boxes delivered to his car. Once they were locked safely, he told them who he was, and he just left."

The mushroom wars have become so bad that many municipalities, like Ligardes, are employing guards to patrol the forests. "This year, about a dozen of us cover the region, and we are more and more in demand," explains one guard, Erick Cusson, who founded a private security firm five years ago. "I've seen two pickers fight for one mushroom. At €15-€25 (£10-£16) the kilo, they can be very lucrative. I know a guy who bought himself a car thanks to that."

Ligardes joined forces with seven other villages to create a licensing system. The owners of Ligardes' woods pay €10 for the right to collect mushrooms and can invite their friends to do so. Residents pay €20 for the privilege, but cannot invite friends from other areas. Everybody else, if caught, will be fined €300. Since the system was set up four years ago, peace has returned to the woods. As Dulong says, "To pick mushrooms is about walking alone in the forest, breathing it in"

 

[Cassis]

[quote user="Dotty Trois"]

Thanks Phil

I've never eaten cepes, what do they taste like, comparable to?

[/quote]

They taste not dissimilar to a common field mushroom but stronger and,

I think, with a slight hazelnutty hint.  The flesh is very firm, gets

softer with age.  You can eat both the cap (remove the spongy 'mousse'

first) and the stem, sliced.

The bordeaux cep is quite an easy one to identify; it starts shaped like a big round topped champagne cork then the cap spreads out to form a fairly regular upturned bowl shape. Cap colour is light to mid brown, lighter at the edge of the cap.  The flesh is white.  Hence the English name "penny bun".  Mature cap 10-25cm across.

The mousse or tubes under the cap are white at first then gradually turn yellow-green as they age.  The tube pores are very fine.  The mousse does not discolour when pressed - many others turn green or blue.  Neither does the cap flesh turn blue when cut, which some other do. 

The stem is bulbous but becomes elongated with age, light buff at the top and white at the base, with white veins on the top two thirds of its length.

The pine cep is similar in shape and form and colour except that the cap tends to be irregular, not rounded like the  bordeaux cep, and the stem is pale reddish-brown.

The bolet bai, the other main edible one you are likely to find, looks like the bordeaux cep, but the mousse turns rapidly blue when bruised; its stem tends not to be so bulbous and is veined pale brown all its length; and the flesh turns slightly blue when cut or exposed to air.  It is also smaller - typically up to 15cm across, though I've seen odd ones up to 20cm.

[Chris Head]

<<<As Dulong says, "To pick mushrooms is about walking alone in the forest, breathing it in>>>

That about sums it up Missy,

Great descriptions Cass, it's difficult to describe the flavours accurately.

[chris pp]

"No Chris it's not 'bravado' at all. I'm a lover of woodland and all that it can yield, always have been. I completely respect your viewpoint but not all of us carry the country code rulebook when we step out."

Maybe I wasn't clear, nothing to do with the Country Code, it's illegal, as in breaking the law, and it does carry a prison sentence. This is of course your look out, just like theft or any other crime, but I'm slightly surprised that as a person with children in tow you consider breaking the law to be OK and a good example to set.

It's your life, Chris

 

 

[Cat]

Often pharmacists err too far on the side of caution, even though have been trained to identify edible muchrooms.  Ours tends to dismiss everything except cepes, couremelles, girolles and mourelles as inedible.

We have loads of different mushrooms in our woods, and I've been trying to identify which are which.  One website I've found unbeatable is http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/  .  This is by far the best mushroom identification site, and is written by Roger Phillips, the same guy who writes the mushroom identification books.  It has a very useful Visual Key and Easy Key mushroom identification tool.

Perhaps the very best thing that anyone interested in eating mushrooms they have collected can do however, is to make certain that they are able to identify the death-cap (Amanita phalloides) http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5556.asp .  This is the most deadly mushroom known, and if eaten results in a 50 to 90% death rate!  It's quite common in France, and there is no known antidote.

 

 

[Meg]

[quote user="Cat 46"]

Often pharmacists err too far on the side of caution, even though have been trained to identify edible muchrooms.  Ours tends to dismiss everything except cepes, couremelles, girolles and mourelles as inedible.

[/quote]

I was allowed into the inner realm last week and was invited to the woods mushroom hunting with my neighbour and her hubby. This is exactly her attitude towards mushrooms.

Didn't find ceps (she's been bagging all of them for the last few weeks) Just  some couremelles (which she gave to me) oh and a  black trumpet, 'Trompette des Morts' which she kept. There were quite a lot of others types that were dismissed, as you mention cat as 'inedible.'

Louise

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Cat 46"]

Perhaps the very best thing that anyone

interested in eating mushrooms they have collected can do however, is

to make certain that they are able to identify the death-cap (Amanita

phalloides) http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~5556.asp . 

This is the most deadly mushroom known, and if eaten results in a 50 to

90% death rate!  It's quite common in France, and there is no

known antidote.

 

 [/quote]

I beg to differ. There are antidotes to poisoning by death caps. The

most effective is a modified extract from the milk thistle called

silibinin-something-or-other which considerably boosts liver

functioning in cases of death-cap poisoning - death usually results

from liver failure. The problem arises that the symptoms of poisoning

do not emerge for some hours after eating the mushroom and by this time

irreversable liver damage can have occurred. I only know this

spectatularly useless piece of information because a friend of mine at

university was doing her research project around the mechanism of

action of the dozen or so toxins in the mushroom.

I'm not sure that the existence of an antidote is a good reason to try and find out what they taste like though.

What is interesting is the increasing level of scientific evidence

for the long-held belief that taking a supplement of milk thistle in

the diet is good for the liver. I used to take it when I was drinking

on a professional basis.

[Cassis]

[quote user="Cat 46"]

Often pharmacists err too far on the side of caution, even though have been trained to identify edible muchrooms.  Ours tends to dismiss everything except cepes, couremelles, girolles and mourelles as inedible.

We have loads of different mushrooms in our woods, and I've been trying to identify which are which.  One website I've found unbeatable is http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/  . 

[/quote]

Great site, Cat.  Recipes as well - that's a bonus.

I guess they pharmacists only identify the ones they see commonly out of fear of making a mistake and poisoning someone. So a lot of less common but perfectly edible ones get rejected.

Apart from the various ceps and bolets and the coulemelle, another very common one often in groups is the shaggy inkcap.  Looks most unappetising once it has opened and starts to disintegrate, oozing black inky stuff from the rim, but young ones are delicious and they are dead easy to spot, often in big groups in the grass by pathways and roadsides.  Picked a bunch today for yet another omelette. 

I can tell I'm going to go off mushrooms soon but good fun while it lasts.

[Bob T]

Thanks for the link Cat 46, it is one of the best that I have read so far. The only trouble that I find identiying mushrooms is that none of the ones that I find look like anything in the books. I have just posted a few pictures of pretty ones on my blog and can only identify on, and that is because it is green. I am open to suggestions on the others, but won't necesarily eat what anybody says are edible unless you want to come and try them with us!