 right I've come out for a little mooch there's no camping or anything because we're on lockdown pheasant wood ears and they're frozen these are frozen look at that you having that look at that looks like a lug done it so yeah that's our first stuff we've got these wood ears they're a bit frozen but I can we can thaw them out we can thaw a herd we can thaw the thunderer we can Ronnie thaw I'll show you what to do with them when I get back to the fungarian but we'll carry on mooching around these woods and see what else we can find pop them in sandwich box some lovely specimens wonderful I've seen a few juvenile little baby ones of these these are more what I'm looking for a lovely winter mushroom these are what I was looking for the velvet shank so let's see if I can find a few more we'll put them with the wood ears pop them in here I'll never stop doing that I don't think I'll take it back to the fungarium and do some further studies uh both my collogy called all the learn culinary culinary studies on it well let's see if we can find a few more oh yes mate what a lovely crop of oysters they're frozen solid as you can here but that is a lovely crop show you knife because to be honest mate every time I get chance to show this knife I'm gonna is it overkill to bring out for mushroom foraging no it isn't because it brings me great joy I'll have some of these but as many as we can really oysters the gills go all the way to the the root there and these don't grow on the tree they've actually got the roots that go into the tree running out of room running out of shroom in my uh my little tupperware box so they're gonna have to go you're gonna have to bear back them into sexual my little notebook look yeah it's pink but I'm comfortable with it I am comfortable with it enjoy it in fact so that's good isn't it look at us go lads look at us go I'm just gonna put these in bag just straight up have them man straight up have them because these are great eating we'll put them in the bag I can sort them out later he's having them all he's having them all cheers mother nature tell you what we'll have a feast bag's nearly full welcome to the fungarium anyway this is the what we call the mushroom uh it's just got mushroom art it's got all my mushroom foraging books dried mushrooms on there but we'll talk about that in a bit and it's even got my whale spine I don't know if you can see down there um that's my whale spine that's another story altogether let's have a look what we've got from today's expedition look at that they're frozen but they'll thaw out thaw come in wise also there's if you're never gonna not do that look that just tell me that don't look like a lug look at that another one to be found on the trees and then so we've got quite a few of them I'll show you what to do with these and then we've got the the velvet shanks you can see there see I know these are velvet shanks because I've foraged them and eaten them before but for those that are new to the game and that are foraging um just be careful these do have some deadly uh deadly lookalikes the only the good thing is that they're not out in they don't come out in winter so that's how I know that these are what I'm looking for you want to look out for the funeral bell which is it looks pretty similar to that I'll put some pictures up now you could be mistaken for the sulfur tough but that has like olive green gills underneath and these are the white when they're young I found with some young ones today and then they're changing to this sort of this yellowy color if you bring them home and you're not 100 sure you can do a spa test with it take off the stems then what you want to do is you want to drop a little bit of water on top of the mushroom pop it on your paper or whatever you've got to go at which is a good one let's find a good specimen that's a good one with the glass over the top and we're going to leave that there and we'll come back and we'll check that tomorrow with the wood ears I would not recommend frying these if you're going to cook them I would dry them out so and I'll show you how we do that here thread them all thread them all onto a piece of cotton or string or whatever um a little bit like um universal soldier with ears around neck and then just hanging by your fireplace or above your radiator or put them on on newspaper on top of your radiator somewhere warm where they're going to dry out and lose all that moisture I've got some here that that I just um I did a while ago actually and you can see you can hear how dry they are brilliant and they do wonders in sort of like I know like a Japanese broth or a soup ramen anything like that it can also be used as like a gelatin sort of thickening agent vegan a lot of people cover them in chocolate a boozy chocolate and have them as sort of a desserty thing this is oyster and hedgehogs so oh it smells delicious as well and this is one of the oysters that has dried out so that's what it did look like and this is what it looks like now solid but you pop that in some water um it'll rehydrate it and it makes an amazing stock the flavor is intensified and there we have a hedgehog mushroom right it's the next day let's check this spore print and see what color it is we're hoping for white and that's what you want um from your velvet shank so let's have a look remember we just dropped a little bit of water on pop the glass over the top and popped it on here so let's have a see what we're looking for is this that's the spore print of the velvet shank and as you can see it is white which is a a thumbs up and that's all it spores that is dropped over just left it overnight you can leave it sometimes just up to two hours and they can vary in colors and you can make nice artwork with it um different colored backgrounds with different mushrooms but let's be honest it looks like a ghost's ass doesn't it it looks like you know if if an ass died that's its ghost and that's that's just a fact so we know that that is 100% of velvet shank and good eating these are the jelly ears from yesterday which were huge and they've shrunk down you can hear them and there you go I'd just like to let me show you but I'd just like to put on the label the date and where they were foraged which little words I got them from or or whatever so then I know you know just for future reference it's quite nice while we're on this mushroom tip some charger which is a bracket fungus which has all sorts of health properties and you can just shave a little bit off mix it with your coffee and yeah you're good to go with that wonderful stuff and these and these pictures that my granddad drew with a pencil my late granddad drew with a pencil of Whitby where I was where I was brought up so they're pretty cool right so just to finalize so this is the winter foraging so these are free mushrooms that you can get when you go winter foraging they're easily identifiable the the velvet shanks you're not going to get much like this this time of year any other time of year just be just tread with caution double check triple check some good books three that I use the Roger Phillips one Collins gem which is good for uh come focus that's a good for your field notes I take that one out with me and then this one which is the river cottage handbook which I just love I just I think it's just it's just wonderfully written there's a lot of personality that comes through on this one and it's got some pretty cool recipes in it as well so if ever I find a mushroom I'm not sure on it you can just bring it back home and just have a little read through your books and make some notes on it let's go outside it's actually just snored so we'll go outside in the snow I'll set up my little stove and we'll cook up all three of these mushrooms and we'll see what they're like and we'll try cook up some fresh wood ears and just to see why you shouldn't cook them or fry them out in snow mate I'm decking why not right in the go these are the these the wood ears first out the old spalted birch spatula that I made at spoon fest even though it's round upon to make anything other than spoons at spoon fest I went off piece mate I went rogue sort of volatile at first man a cat if you cook them indoors you have to stand well back and be prepared for for fat to go everywhere get this egg in a real egg mate put colour on that it's even got eggshit on it eggshit it's even got birch on it so it's the real deal how bright the yolk is and the bread is just some buttered bread with a bit of brown sauce on it give that in the snow to cool look at that for an egg banjo still the yolk's coming out look at that I don't know if you've heard them being called egg banjos before but I grew up with them being called egg banjos I never really knew why but apparently it's because um wouldn't work my knees to have them or however yeah wouldn't work my knees to have them and it's spill all egg on the the egg had run down the go like that and it looked like they'd be playing a banjo apparently right let's get tucked in oh man I'm fasting as well at moments this is breaking my fast so it's extra tasty so much more earthy and mushroomy than a shockboat mushroom obviously and something that you can do you know if you're on lockdown you can do it you you can go on your hike or you walk just find a dead bit of wood they grow outside a decking or park benches anywhere there's a bit of scrub land or anything pick a few off makes a little snack something to do during lockdown I hope you're all okay and still fighting the good fight and I'll see you soon ciao for now