St George's Mushrooms Arrive

In a break from my garden posts, here is one about wild mushrooms - St George's mushrooms.

St George's is one of my favourite wild mushrooms, partly because its arrival heralds the arrival of warmer weather and the opening of the mushroom season. The mushroom gets its name from the fact that it appears around St George's day (23rd April). They disappear when the weather starts to get hot in June. The best indicator of when to start looking for it is just as the bluebells start to flower. I often find it among bluebells and wild garlic. It often grows in grass alongside paths and even roads. I have even found them under a tree in a National Trust car park, but my special place for them is a traditional parkland.

They are a comparatively good mushroom for beginners, as they come at a time of year when there are few mushrooms around. If St George's grew in summer or autumn even I would think twice about picking them, as the white form of the death cap and the destroying angel (both deadly) are also white with white gills. If you want to learn how to forage for mushrooms, even St George's, go with an experienced forager.

One of the best ways of identifying them is by their smell. This is often described as mealy, before I picked them I was not sure what that means, however their smell is distinctive and now I know it I can sometimes smell the mushrooms before I see them. Once I find one I look for others, as this is a mushroom that grows in rings. I like them small, as they are now, but they can grow up to five inches across. However the larger they grow the more likely they are to be wormy, so April/early May is when I pick them.

My favourite recipe for St George's is a simple one. Simply fry them slowly in butter or olive oil and eat with scrambled eggs and wild garlic. I add the wild garlic to the mushrooms while cooking. Delicious!