I’ve been running around the fields of Dorset in a slightly manic frenzy the last couple of weeks.

It's probably alarmed a few countryside users but to a sufferer of WFOD (wild food obsessive disorder) a field of parasol mushrooms (Macrolepiota procera) is an intoxicatingly exciting sight-and this year seems particularly good.

Those of you who get my Facebook posts may have caught a recent short movie filmed near Corfe castle.  I drove past a nearby field a few days later and found even more- 100 at a conservative guess although I was very good and left plenty to spread their spores.

And yes, they make great eating- perhaps even approaching gourmet status, with a rich mushroomy taste and a succulent, slightly chewy texture even after cooking (mushroom expert John Wright of River cottage fame compares them to roasted chicken thigh).

My favourite way of dealing with most wild mushrooms usually involves a frying pan and bit of butter and garlic. However, with such a glut, I have also been busy drying, freezing and of course giving away-  I reckon it’s good to practice wild food karma- share the abundance and it always comes back one way or another.

Foraging considerations:

There’s a lot of fear around wild mushrooms in this country- yet go to the continent and they are a celebrated part of rural culture. There are some species that are tricky to identify. However there are also plenty that, with a bit of dedication, can be easily recognised- the parasol is one of those.

This blog is intended as a basic introduction so do some reading around the subject. However, there are a number of key points that are regularly used for most mushroom identification. To simplify it, I will list them here with reference to the parasol:

Habitat: open grassland and heath- it seems to prefer fairly acidic soils.

Cap: (see first pic and a rather confused Baloo the dog). Between 15-30 cm in width, always with a little bump at the top, cream coloured and covered in brown scales. In its early stages it is a drum stick shape (see pic to the right) this then opens up- like a parasol. It is edible at either stage although the flesh is most delicate when it’s young, it can also be stuffed and baked in the oven at this point. The photo bottom left shows some delicious stuffed young parasols using tomatoes, sweetcorn and herbs as a filling with some grated cheese on top (the other mushroom is a little bit of delicious cep/porcini but more about that another time).

Stem: Long, up to 25cm by about 2 cm wide, with snake skin markings (this is quite tough and is usually discarded or added to a stock pot). Another good ID point is the 'cog' that slides up and down the stem (see pic above and left).

Gills: Creamy white, if they are turning a browny colour it means the mushroom is getting past it’s best.

Smell: This is often useful when identifying mushrooms, in the case of the parasol it has a beautiful, warm, milk smell- particularly in the really fresh specimens.

It should be noted there is also the shaggy parasol. As always, do more research but it differs in a few basic ways- the main one being it’s cream coloured stem without any snakeskin markings and it propensity for bruising orangey/red. It is generally considered edible but has been known to cause dodgy tummies in a few people.