A week or so after the first rains, I leapt aboard my trusty steed and cycled down to one of my favourite foraging haunts, Tiddenfoot Lake. Here I was blessed enough to find two black poplar tree stumps with fruiting Poplar Field Mushrooms.

This mushroom, Cyclocybe aegerita/cylindracea, has been foraged, grown and cooked since Greek and Roman times. It’s well known as a tasty edible in Central and Southern Europe, but is a rare find in the UK. All thanks to global warming, I guess, we have what Italians call ‘Pioppino’ here in windy, rainy Blighty!

What a find!

Before you race to the recipes, absorb the following I.D details carefully.

• Scientific Name: Cyclocybe aegerita/cylindracea
• Common Names: Poplar Field Mushroom, Chestnut Mushroom, Velvet Pioppino
• Cap: 4-10cm diameter, starts hemispherical and goes flat, wavy margin, cracks in dry weather. Pale tan edges fades to rich mid brown centre. Separates from stem.
• Gills: adnate to slightly decurrent, cream to grey brown to mid brown, crowded. This means they run very slightly down the stem or are attached to the stem.
• Stem/stipe: 5-10cm long, 1-1.5cm diameter, fibrous, solid when young, strong delicious mushroomy scent. Skirt/single ring high up.
• Habitat: embedded in rotting Poplar or Willow wood (saprophytic). Also found in wood chips. Often NOT in fields but woodland edges!
• Habit: Clumps/tufts, fruit bodies crowded together.
• Season: July-Oct in UK, until Jan in Southern Europe.
• Spore print: tobacco brown
• Scent: strong, mushroomy, delicious

The main lookalike is Agrocybe praecox, which is also edible but not very tasty, being bitter.

Poplar Fieldcap was grouped in the Agrocybe genus for a while before being moved. Before that, it was grouped as a Pholiota, so it has a long and confusing taxonomic history!

Above is a spore print I did overnight on some kitchen towel. (Yes, yes, I know, purists – kitchen towel is not ‘proper’.) As you see, the spores are tobacco brown.

A word of warning re Fungi identification apps. These can be useful, but they can also easily be wrong. An app cannot smell or feel the texture of a mushroom, dig into its substrate, make a spore print, or see the trees around a fungi.

Talking of trees – this is what Poplar looks like. Left are a row of Black Poplars. Right is a leaf of Lombardy Poplar. Poplars make a lovely rustling noise as their leaves flutter in the wind. Hence “the wind in the poplars”.

One of the better I.D. apps, despite its naive name, is ‘Picture Mushroom’. This at least asks for 3 photos taken from different angles to identify. It’s correct at least 80% of the time in my experience.

Though 80% is not good enough on its own if you plan on eating a mushroom!! Check substrate, habit, nearest trees, smell it and measure it, cut one in half to see inside and check for colour change. Etc!!

Above are my picked Poplar Fieldcaps, ready for the pan. Or pot. Mmmm. So, without further fluffing, let’s crack on to the recipes.

POPLAR FIELD MUSHROOM & WALNUT ASIAN FUSION SOUP

This mushroom goes well in cream sauce and pasta, but I felt like cleansing my system so went with the Asian style option first. I made 500ml veg stock, added 1 tsp of white miso paste and 4 small rounds of ginger.

I added:

• 500ml veg stock (good quality)
• 1 tsp white miso paste
• 3 coins sized rounds ginger root
• 3 chopped spring onions
• 1 chopped long red pepper
• 250g Poplar Field Mushrooms (Pioppinos!)
• 1 portion wholewheat soba noodles
• Walnuts and pepper to taste

Once I simmered and stirred the stock, miso and ginger, I added the rest of the ingredients.

Once the soup was in the bowl, I made Nettle Crisps over the gas flame and added them to the top. I sprinkled some walnuts on top for crunch and some ground pepper. I have to admit, the strong flavour of the nettle crisps overshadowed the delicate nutty and meaty mushrooms. So I would leave this out and stick with the walnuts.

(Yes, hardcore fans, I only have one decent bowl. One day I will get more, but i hate large home stores. The rest of them are small, plastic and have Peppa Pig on them.)

PARSLEY & GARLIC FIELD POPLARS ON CRUSTY BREAD

I pan-fried (erm, like how most people fry) some of the Field Poplars as well with garlic, fresh parsley and onion. While so, so basic, do this first so you can actually taste the mushroom before adding loads of other ingredients.

A lovely meaty, succulent texture. A nutty, chicken flavour. With no meat guilt.

Serve with crusty, buttered, posh bread, like sourdough. One with seeds is even better. Add home-grown plum tomatoes like the Italians do. Mmmmm.

One truly inspirational recipe comes from fellow foragers at Wild Food UK. They created a dinner party canape using marinated mushrooms and nettle crisps wrapped in Garlic Mustard leaves, wth a splash of Hawthorn ketchup.

Here’s the link:

https://www.wildfooduk.com/wild-food-recipes/hedge-garlic-wrap/

Some notes on nutrition. The Field Poplar Mushroom has been studied by the National Institute of Health and in other studies:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4573151/#Sec20

and found to have these properties:

• Anti inflammatory
• Anti tumour (bioactive ceramide)
• High level of vitamins, protein and minerals
• Antioxidants
• Polyunsaturated fatty acids including linoleic acid
• Tocopherols (form of Vitamin E)

More fungal fun to come! Remember, I have some Fungi I.D. courses coming soon. See previous post to book.

xx Hedgewitch Kat xx