Wild in the Kitchen: a blog by forager Will Newitt

This is one of a series of bi-monthly blogs by Dorset-based forager, Will Newitt, owner of Down to Earth Bushcraft.

It’s turning out to be a glorious autumn down here and the mushroom basket has become a perpetual walking companion.

After ceps, the subject of my last post, one of my favourite mushrooms is the rather noble looking parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera).

The flesh is chunky with a beautiful smell of warm milk and it’s not unusual to find them growing to the size of dinner plates.

That said, they are at their most tender when quite young and just coming out of their drumstick stage (as the name suggests, this fungi opens out as it matures).

This is also the stage when they cry out for a good stuffing- let your imagination go wild but anything with tomatoes, garlic and herbs is a good start.

With the more mature specimens, I like to keep it simple and grill them with a good olive oil drizzled over the top.

Antonio Carluccio, in his ‘complete mushroom book’ also dispenses with the frills- coating them in an egg and breadcrumb batter before gently frying until golden brown.

Please note: the shaggy parasol (Macrolepiota rhacodes), a closely related species, can cause stomach upsets in some people.

Will is a wild food obsessive. He is a forager based in Dorset, where he runs a fledgling bushcraft business, specialising in introducing people to the edible pleasures of woodland and hedgerow. More info can be found at www.downtoearthbushcraft.com