In search of St George

23rd April 2013

Happy St George’s day. In honour of the patron saint I decided to have a hunt for a mushroom named because it is traditionally out on St George’s day,  St. George’s mushroom diflucan price Calocybe gambosa.

In reality it can be found from April until June but peaks in May, but with the delayed spring and lack of rain in this part of the country for the last few weeks I wasn’t overly optimistic.  It can generally by found in pasture land, hedgerows, roadsides in amongst the spring flowers and tends to be commoner on alkaline or chalky soils. It is white through to pale tan, up to 12cm across and almost as tall. The gills are a similar colour to the cap and dip in as they meet the stem creating the effect of a little moat around the stem when viewed upside down. The stem is thick, often widening near the base and the same colour. They have what is described as a mealy smell.

Needless to say I didn’t manage to find any! However, the time wasn’t wasted. The Wild Clematis Clematis vitalba shoots which we saw just appearing about 5 weeks ago remained like that for the next three weeks as the cold weather lingered, but with the warm weather of the last couple of weeks they have suddenly sprung into life and are now at the ideal time for picking.  As this is a climbing plant just make sure you are picking the shoots off of the right plant, lots of hedgerow plants are putting out new growth at the moment and the young shoots can all look similar.  The shoots of Bramble and Dog Rose won’t do you any harm but other plants like Elder and Honeysuckle are toxic.

As mentioned in the earlier blog, the shoots can be pickled or like here, simply fried in olive oil and butter and dressed with parmesan, balsamic vinegar and black pepper. Delicious…..would have been even better with some fried St George’s Mushroom as well!

Kev Palmer