In Season Now

A horse mushroom in its prime is a thing of great beauty and superb flavour. It also has the curious dual distinction of being commonly misidentified and widely underrated.

Common hogweed is a startlingly delicious vegetable and an amazingly versatile wild spice – my favourite of all edible wild plants in fact. But getting to know and safely eat it is not as straightforward as many other plants on this website

In bleak midwinter, when mycophogists start to look hungry and haunted by the paucity of pickings, velvet shank (Flamunilla velutipes) can put a glint back in their eye. It grows between November and March, when, in Scotland, there aren’t so many other mushrooms about…

Wood blewits generally do not appear until there has been at least a light frost. This makes them doubly appealing as other top gourmet mushrooms can become scarce at this point in the season. And make no mistake – these are right up the top tier of the finest edible fungi.

The funeral bell contains the same toxins as the death cap, and will kill you with similar sadistic efficiency if you give it the chance…