At this time of year, the windows of pharmacies in probably every country in Europe are bright with huge illustrations of the fungi which are edible and those that are not. For, all over the Continent, parties are out with their baskets, collecting edible mushrooms that in many cases exist in our country but which we are mostly too timid to try. Wisely so, unless you have made a study of the subject. Most of us know the ordinary field mushroom, and buy and enjoy the cultivated version; possibly the shaggy inkcap or lawyer's wig (coprinus comatus) and some others of the family.
In one small wood they are just now in profusion. They disintegrate in a black mess very soon after reaching maturity, and the one man who confesses a mild liking for them admits that they are, indeed a bit watery. His only culinary skill lies in frying them. So it's tempting to say we should all be more wised-up on any other kinds that might be edible, and even delicious.
Take warning from some Continental experience. A newspaper in the South of France reported sometime ago that 17 people had been admitted to hospital after eating mushrooms, with a violent gastro-enteritis. A mycologist wrote to the newspaper saying that it was wrong to report such an outbreak without being specific about the type of mushroom consumed. He had a point. He stressed that mycology demanded close and careful study and, to obviate mistakes, suggested that all fungi should be referred to by their Graeco-Latin names. For in France, for example, the names in French may differ from region to region. And in spite of everything, he ends, no-one is always going to lie accident-free. To err is human, are his last words.
The Financial Times has an article by Sue Style which tells us that in Switzerland, most villages have an official mushroom checking service, listed in the phonebook with a note of "surgery hours". To get the job, you must pass a rigorous examination.
To come back to Ireland. The place where the lawyer's caps are found is also plentifully supplied with odd brownish things, some very tiny and in clusters, some huge. To take the advice of the writer of the above article: "Murphy's Law for mushroomers: anything which grows in profusion is unlikely to be good to eat." And yet we buy dried mushrooms in packets, and pasta dishes which often have mushrooms.