I was anxious travelling around Germany in magnificent autumn coloured forests, racing from one client to the next and not being able to stop to look for mushrooms.
The most exquisite wine tasting venue was Schloss Erbach (Erbach Palace) in Odenwald- a castle with one of the best preserved collections of the middle ages war armour and also a place where you are not supposed to take photos, but we did!
The last afternoon before leaving Germany, I managed to convince some friends we need to go to the forest…and this is what we found!
Wood blewits, or are they? This is how we checked to see if they were real wood blewits:
We took a piece of black paper and white paper and placed a mushroom across the two sheets. This is used to see the spore print; if it is white/light pinkish it is a wood blewit and edible. If the spore print is brown then it is not edible. Placing a glass over the mushroom prevents the spores from being blown away.
12 hours later this is what we found on the papers- a white/light pinkish spore print. A real wood blewit and it is delicious to eat!
So we live to learn more and enjoy a greater range of mushrooms! Never try a mushroom you are not 100% sure is edible.
Remember to join us for our annual Mushroom Forage in June /July where we share our stories and learn more about mushrooms.
Nora Sperling-Thiel