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One of the pleasures of spending so much time walking in the Scottish Highlands is discovering that there is considerably more to the landscape than what you can see from the path.
At different times of year there are wild berries, herbs, leaves and, particularly towards the end of summer and into autumn, an astonishing variety of fungi.
Foraging gives you another reason to slow down and pay attention when you’re out walking. Once you start looking, you see things you might previously have walked straight past: a cluster of chanterelles beneath the trees, bilberries ripening on the hillside or a large cauliflower fungus hiding amongst the woodland floor.
We’ve been lucky enough to collect quite a few different edible fungi over the years, particularly in the Cairngorms. Some years are considerably better than others, depending on the weather, but a good autumn can produce an impressive harvest.
The combination of rain, warmth and the gradual change towards cooler autumn weather can produce excellent conditions for fungi.
Some years the woods seem to be full of mushrooms. In others, you can walk for miles and find very little. That’s part of the appeal: there is no guarantee of what you’ll discover.
Autumn also brings berries and other wild foods. Bilberries, raspberries and rowan berries are all part of the seasonal landscape, although we’re certainly not the only ones interested in them. The birds usually get to the rowan berries in impressive numbers.
For anyone who enjoys being outdoors, foraging adds another dimension to a walk. You become more observant and start to recognise the relationship between the plants, trees, weather and landscape around you.
Ceps, or Boletus edulis, are among our favourite finds.
In a good year, they can seem to appear everywhere. We’ve had seasons when it was almost impossible to walk through the woods without coming back with several mushrooms.
Ceps have a firm texture and rich flavour and are particularly good for drying. At one point we had accumulated such a quantity of dried ceps that our larder was rather overloaded.
Fortunately, they keep extremely well and can be used throughout the winter in soups, sauces, risottos and casseroles.
If you’re collecting fungi, make sure you know what you are doing before you start. There are poisonous species which can look similar to edible ones, and a mushroom should never be eaten simply because it looks familiar.
Scottish Wildlife Trust – details on how to identify and where to find the Cep
Further details and intro to “Fascinated by Fungi”
Chanterelles are another favourite and tend to be one of the more reliable edible mushrooms we find.
They have a distinctive yellow colour and can appear in woodland from summer into autumn, depending on conditions. Once you’ve learned to recognise them, finding your first crop can be very satisfying.
We use them fresh in soups and risottos and also freeze them for use later in the year. Freezing makes them a little more watery, but they still work well in cooked dishes and retain much of their texture.
There is also a false chanterelle in the Cairngorms, so this is a good example of why identification matters. We’ve had guests return from a walk with a whole collection of false chanterelles, convinced they had found the real thing!
Learning from someone who knows their fungi is by far the best way to develop your confidence.
Cauliflower fungus is one of our absolute favourites, although we don’t find it every year.
It is an impressive-looking fungus, forming a large, tangled mass rather like a cauliflower. Unlike many mushrooms, it can be substantial enough to provide several meals.
The flavour is relatively mild but the texture is excellent – firm and quite unlike the mushrooms you buy in a supermarket.
It works particularly well in mushroom soup, risotto and mushroom pie, and is also excellent added to a venison or beef casserole.
The main drawback is cleaning it. All those folds provide plenty of hiding places for insects and bits of woodland debris! It helps to give it a good shake upside down before bringing it home.
Hedgehog fungus is another edible species we occasionally find in the Cairngorms.
It’s a firm mushroom with distinctive spines underneath the cap rather than the familiar gills found on many other species. We don’t come across it as often as we’d like, but it is another good one to know.
And, as with all wild fungi, identification is crucial. If you aren’t completely certain what you’ve found, leave it where it is.
Further details and help with identification
The best thing about foraging isn’t necessarily how much you take home.
It changes the way you experience the landscape.
When we’re walking, we’re normally thinking about the route, the weather, the terrain and what’s ahead. Foraging makes you stop and look more closely. Suddenly the woodland floor becomes interesting. You notice which trees the fungi are growing beneath and start recognising plants and berries that you’ve previously ignored.
It’s also a good way of connecting the landscape with food. Finding something growing wild and then using it in dinner is a very satisfying part of being in the Highlands.
Foraging can be particularly good with children too. It turns a walk into a treasure hunt and encourages them to look closely at what is around them.
But safety comes first. Children – and adults – need to understand that not everything growing in the wild is edible. Wild foods should only be eaten when they have been positively identified by someone who knows what they are doing.
If you’d like to learn more about foraging, a guided day with someone who knows the local plants and fungi is a good place to start.
You don’t need to become an expert in hundreds of species. Learning to confidently identify a handful of edible species, understanding their habitat and knowing which similar-looking species to avoid is much more useful.
And once you start learning, you’ll find yourself looking for them whenever you’re out walking.
For us, that’s one of the pleasures of spending so much time in the Cairngorms. The landscape keeps offering up new things to discover, whether we’re high on the mountains, walking through ancient woodland or simply following a path we’ve used many times before.
If you’d like to combine walking in the Cairngorms with an introduction to foraging, get in touch with us to discuss what might be possible as part of a Scottish walking holiday.
Please remember that fungi and other wild foods should only be collected and eaten when you are completely confident of their identification. Foraging should also be carried out responsibly, with consideration for wildlife, habitats and other people’s enjoyment of the countryside.
For me, the arrival of the false Morel is the first notable event in the fungal calendar. This is one fungi which can easily be overlooked. It might seem odd to include the fungi kingdom in a scottish wildlife feature but the fungi in the woodlands are a vital part of the ecosystem. Here in the Cairngorms they can’t be ignored.
At a glance the False Morel might appear as some nasty dog mess at the side of the hiking trail. However, with further investigation they are an interesting mushroom. Usually appearing sometime in April they often occur in pine woods, on sandy soil. Much of the Cairngorms National park is covered in woodland on sandy soil so they can be quite a common sight. Unlike other edible Morels with their honeycomb structure, the False Morel has a highly convoluted cap. This can vary from yellow brown to dark reddish brown with its stalk being an off white colour.
The False Morel has been described as the “puffer fish” of the fungal world and one most definitely to avoid, that is, unless you’re very brave. This is why. Gyromitrin, a chemical in the fungi, reacts with the stomach acid to form mono methyl-hydrazine, other wise known as rocket fuel! The symptoms of poisoning follow the same protracted path as those of ingesting the Death Cap, the most toxic of all fungi. The first stage is a 6 to 12 hour latent period. This is followed by up to 6 days of unpleasant “gastrointestinal disturbances” which can also be accompanied by seizures.
Next comes an apparent period of recovery but by this time liver damage has occurred. In serious cases this is followed by delirium, coma and possibly death. There are large variations in the way individuals react to the toxin which seem to be down to genetic makeup. Despite this, it is still regarded as a delicacy. In some European countries, especially Bulgaria, it is still collected in quantity. Repeated parboiling in fresh water is the tradition way of dealing with the toxins but this doesn’t completely do the job. Should you be preparing any quantity of them, beware of the vapours. Your kitchen could fill up with rocket fuel vapour! Not surprisingly an increased number of countries are banning its sale.
So as not to be confused, we’ve added below an example of an edible morel mushroom.
Fortunately the false morel fruits outside the main shrooming period in the Highlands. Most foragers come from July onwards. They search the woods of chanterelle and cep mushrooms. Bounty beyond belief can be found in the woods. You must always be aware of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and pay close attention to the Scottish Wild Mushroom Code
For an introduction to safe and responsible foraging contact us for details of our Fruits of the Forest weekends (September and October).
July and August are the height of our season and this year we’ve been busier than ever, which does of course have its plus points; the down side being that we have had very little time together and time to get our heads together to plan for the autumn etc. Still we are well stocked with mushrooms (see below) and will be adding some top chanterelle mushroom recipes to the blog, just in case anyone else has been equally blessed.
Slightly less well-blessed on the weather front this year which has also meant that the fruit bushes have suffered. For the first time ever, our worcesterberries have not overwhelmed us in quantity and we probably won’t be able to restock with wine this year and will have to conserve all the fruit for jam making.
Our jam and marmelade skills have been in constant use since May as the downside to making your own jam is that people seem to eat enormous quantities of it with their breakfast.
Below if a selection of the activities and scenery we’ve been lucky enough to experience this month. We’ve saved all the wildlife and flora pictures for a seperate post. Look out for some very impressive reindeer antlers and some amazing wild flower shots to come shortly.
Always happy to hear any comments.
Nature’s bounty – chanterelles galore in the Cairngorms
Photo caption: Mushrooming in the Cairngorms – August 2015 is the month of the chanterelle; obviously a cool, wet summer does them a lot of good. So glad there are some benefits to this summer’s weather. (The photo above proved a popular Facebook post.)
Photo caption: what a lot of snow for August. Looks like it will be one of those years in which the snow will survive until the next winter season. Many more of them and we’ll see glaciers back here.
Photo caption: this might not be resort skiing but if you’re keen …
Photo caption: Hiking through the heather with Andrew Bateman of Scot Mountain Holidays to experience the hidden delights of the Cairngorms National Park. This route is part of the Complete Cairngorms itinerary.
Photo caption: Snow bridge which has developped in the Cairngorms. It makes for quite a dramatic photo.
Photo caption: dinner by candlelit is not a problem in August as we still have a fair bit a light streaming in from outside. This is our Mountains and Malts group sitting down to a revised dinner menu. Impromptu revision forced on us as we had a power cut just as our dinner was due to go in the oven. Fortunately the courgette rolls didn’t need any cooking preparation.
The Cairngorms is an amazing destination for biking. Be it road biking or mountain biking, there really is something for everyone. Not only are we surrounded by purpose built trail centres, but we also have miles of natural tracks throughout the forests and up on to the hills. There is more than enough to do for repeated visits or at least a week.
Hiking vacations:across Scotland
Mountain biking breaks: self-guided biking adventures
Family Adventures: a taste of everything for groups or families
Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland
Visit Scotland: about cycling
Visit Cairngorms: about cycling
Glenlivet Bike Trails
Laggan Bike Trails
Monster Moray bike trails
Grantown bike park
Inverness bike park
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