There are many rings all over our property.Fanciers of mushrooms, we were keen to find out if these were edible. When experimenting with wild mushrooms great care must be taken to really know if what you picked isn't poisonous. We researched these mushrooms to identify exactly what species they were. Yet pictures can be subjective and mistakes may still occur. If brave enough - a self experimentation must follow. After identifying the mushroom, we went ahead and picked some mushrooms from a few fairy rings - making sure gills and caps of mushrooms were of same colour and consistency.
We removed the stem of one mushroom and cleaned the gills of the cap:
There are many minute live insects lodged within the gills and I found the best way to coax them out was with running water:
Hmmm...if the bugs were found alive does that count for nonpoisonous? No. We still needed to cook one to see how we react to it.One mushroom cap was tossed in hot oil, salted and shared between ourselves.
We waited one day to see if either of us felt queasy, out of sorts or hallucinated visions of god-like creatures. Sadly no new gods were discovered and we felt fine.
The experiment worked and fairy rings were our first home-grown crop and designated for morning breakfast. The recipe follows.
Ingredients:
2 leaves fresh sage - chopped
1 sprig thyme
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
1 clove of diced/crushed garlic
Fairy ring mushrooms - a handful of cleaned caps; stems removed
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
Soak, wash and pat dry caps:
If caps are large slice them lengthwise:
Heat one tbsp of oil and fry garlic for 1 minute.
Then throw in diced mushroom caps and saute for 3 minutes or until water starts to come out and mushrooms appear soft:
Throw in fresh herbs and salt:
Serve as a side as I have for breakfast:
The mushrooms did not possess a strong flavour thus the garlic and herbs came through and were a lovely addition. The texture of these mushrooms were soft and smooth. So there! Free, healthy vegetables, growing wild on our farm, organic with no chemical fertilizers, low in calories and more importantly... we lived to tell about it!