Just posted this to a few of my American friends on Facebook ,yes I did manage to find my way around. (with a little help from my friends)
Thought I would share

Autumn is in full swing and on Saturday the clocks went back an hour.The downside of course, is it now gets dark at about five o'clock in the afternoon and the heating has been switched on.
The upside?The beautiful Autumnal colours, frosty mornings and loading the wood burner with logs.

There is however one other delight that autumn brings, namely “mushrooms.”

By this time of year I have normally been collecting Parasol mushrooms (wonderful battered, and deep fried). They have been in woeful short supply this year, and I suspect it may have something to do with the lack of rain here in the East of England over the summer period.
Over the last few weeks however, we have had a decent amount of wet weather, and joy of joys the fairy ring champignon’s have made their appearance.
Care must be taken not to confuse the champignon’s with the poisonous “ sweating mushroom,” or also known as” fools funnel “ fortunately it is pretty easy to identify which is which. Try bending the stalk, the poisonous ones will snap, the edible ones will not, also the structure of the gills is different.

I will shortly be going out to collect this bountiful harvest, threading them on strings and drying them in the airing cupboard to give us a plentiful supply for the winter months.
They go well with beef, and are brilliant in soups and casseroles. Not many people here in England collect wild mushrooms, which is a shame. But I suppose on the upside it leaves more for me :-)

I think you need to be quite expert to collect mushrooms : I know I'd be terrified of picking a death cap mushroom or something like that...

Have fun mushroom collecting David!

You are right of course Barry
I have been collecting mushrooms for years and only pick what I am certain of.
Best to get a good field guide .
In France you can pick them and take them to the local shop to be identified.

My thoughts exactly - but it must be satisfying to pick them yourself! I'd love to try it one day...


That's handy! You should start a mushroom shop, David

I wish I knew more about them I only really know about 6 types I would pick with confidence. I really aught to learn more

David

That's 6 more than me!...

I know the red mushrooms with white spots are inadvisable to eat...

As well as the one that Alice eats from...!

Yep, that one too...

I believe the red/white mushrooms are called Fly Agaric...

I can recognise shaggy ink caps, but that's it...

All mushrooms are edible - some only once!

Just in case anyone is looking for a mushroom shop in France I thought I had better say that you actually take them to the chemist for identification.

The chemists around here decorate their shop windows with fallen leaves and mushrooms and other autumny things. Very pretty.

You are absolutely right, can't believe I didn't say the chemist. Thank you for pointing that out Aquarelle.
Also in case anybody is interested one of the best books for identifying edible mushrooms is;

Collins "Need to know? Mushroom Hunting. ISBN 0-00-721507-X

I have several, but IMHO this is the best one, and no I am not one of the Collins family members

We have a Russian friend who goes off mushroom hunting. I wouldn't have the confidence to eat any that I found myself just in case my identification was a bit dodgy. We usually have quite a few inkcaps in the garden but they haven't appeared yet this year.

A different type of autumn harvest.

For the first time ever I am making sloe gin as it has been a good year for berries. I started it off about a fortnight ago and it has gone a beautiful magenta shade already. It's not too late if you want to prepare some for Christmas or New Year - you can get the recipe from www.sloe.biz.

And apparently when it is ready you can............wait for it..........making boozy chocolates with the leftovers.

Hmmmm... I don't drink alcohol, but I love it in chocolates! I'm in the mood for licquer chocs now...

Although in this episode of the BBC Learning Zone's Ma France programme, the pharmacist has to rely on the superior mycological knowledge of her straight-out-of-university assistant!

Isn't there an edible mushroom called a giant puffball? That should be fairly easy to spot...

Morning mate

Giant Puffballs and their cousins the smaller grassland Puffball are both good to eat when they are young.
They should be white and heavy.
When cut in half the flesh should not be yellow or soft, they should be ideally eaten a few hours after picking. They can be fried in butter, or dipped in an egg batter and fried.
Without the batter they can absorb a lot of butter.

Some people find puffballs difficult to digests, so on the first occasion only sample a small amount.

Puffballs can be found often in the same spot year after year. I am not really sure if there's much else in the fungi world that they can be confused with.

Once again, if in doubt leave well alone


AlisonS
I love slow gin. The problem is keeping it in the bottle long enough for Christmas.

This year we also collected about six pounds of blackberries. I put them in the freezer on baking trays until they're frozen, and then pack them into freezer bags. That way they stay loose and can be added to fruit pies and crumbles.
We also had about 12 pounds of plums from a neighbour. These have now been turned into jam. Lovely on freshly baked bread.

A neighbour of mine has got a large conference pear tree, and they are beginning to fall. Not sure what I'm going to turn them into yet, but I'm looking forward to collecting them.

Best part of autumn.

David

Oh good, I thought I was imagining it! Thanks for that David

Oh good, I thought I was imagining it! Thanks for that David
[/quote]

you are welcome Barry

Puffballs can become massive, I know once I mistook one for a football.
I remember as a child with some friends, kicking one around the playing field and watching the spores flying everywhere. A huge fun.

On a lighter note
I remember a long time ago, a friend of mine giving me a pamphlet (illegal at the time) on Magic mushrooms, AKA hallucinogenic fungi.
I noticed today that they are well documented and you will find them in any good book on the subject.
Magic mushrooms like drungs, are something I had never tried. Fortunately, my kicks from life with no additives.

My mother-in-law, always one for a bargain, rang to ask me if she could eat the white mushrooms growing in her lawn. Given that I hadn't seen them and some of the most poisonous mushrooms are pure white I told her to leave them alone and not to even think of eating them. She rang back the next day to say they were delicious...

Lol
Did she look like this

How about some perry? To go with the bread and jam? Yum.

May preserve some in jars.
Talking about bread and jam Susie. I had mashed bananas on bread the other day,it was wonderful.

Very nice : if you add a bit of lemon juice to that, it's even better!

Bananas work rather well in a bacon sandwich. As does crab-apple jelly.

That doesn't sound very appetising to me! But I guess if you can have pineapple on gammon...

off topic but.....

Bananas in caramel sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1 cup superfine sugar
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
4 bananas, peeled and halved lengthwise

Directions
In a large, heavy skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in sugar and cook, stirring, until sugar is melted and light brown. Slowly stir in the cream (mixture will bubble up). Let boil 1 minute, then reduce heat to low. Place the bananas in the pan spoon over sauce and cook until heated through, 2 minutes. Serve hot.