HeroOfThy.me

My latest minor obsession is...

[heroofthy-me]

So many fungi, so little time to wander...

I have a whole trove of mushrooms spotted around predominantly Scotland, I'm thinking of taking some time and posting them and identifying ... for fun.

Edible ones will come with recipes.

Here's a sample of what's to come...

[heroofthy-me]

Mushroom diary entries!

Last year I was still well into my wild mushroom phase, and lumbering into the doodling, so where those two interests met, these came about 😁

I don't actually have a mushroom diary, but it would be about time to start one...

[heroofthy-me]

My friend has waaaaaaaaay to many knives, so Kukuku the rogue has some helpful advice ☺️🗡👀

[heroofthy-me]

A bit of study, a bit of free-form, a bit of gesture... gotta start somewhere.

[heroofthy-me]

I made seitan.

I've had this bag of wheat gluten in the pantry since forever when I first learned of the existence of seitan. Finally today, I went and looked up a recipe and got on with it.

I can distill the steps down to:

Mix gluten flour with seasonings

Add your hydration - if using a stock, make it weak! The entire flavour strength and saltiness remains in the final nuggets!

Knead the dough - it'll remain stodgy like a lab experiment gone sideways - at least in comparison to making bread dough, not the same experience at all!

Rest it for 15min

Chop into nugget sized chunks

Simmer it for 30 min - don't oversalt here either, I suspect seitan absorbs a lot of the liquid directly

Cool it

Chop it up and use it in stir fry, soup, etc

Mine came out overly salty because I used the broth in the hydration stage - and it was at "pasta cooking" levels of saltiness... 🤮

I've got plenty more gluten flour left so I'm sure I can figure imthe flavour balance out.

Texture wise, it's a bit wibbly. Like some cross between a grainy potato dumpling and an oversoaked mushroom...

Totally selling it I know.

[heroofthy-me]

New doodle diary. A generic item I have two of for now, so I reckoned making the cover individualised would be nice. There was a tree in front of me. Done.

I really like how the watercolour pencils came out on the dark background - light upon dark colouring is rather good fun!

[heroofthy-me]

Just a simple office lunch.

I have a mini rice cooker in my office, no frills, no bells or whistles (literally, I have to actively check to see if the little tab has gone "click")

But the rest of my ingredients don't need cooking, just a bit of chopping. I have a kitchen knife stored in that bamboo mat, and a chopping board in the kitchinette. But I guess I could do the chopping at home in the morning...

On top of fresh rly steamed rice I add:

Chopped spring onion

Knife-sredded cabbage

Flaked smoked fish from the shop (that stuff keeps for ages!)

(Smoked salmon could work too)

Gari ginger

Chili powder

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Wasabi paste

Sometimes I leave it like that as a pokē bowl-like dish

Sometimes I top it with green tea and wakame for an ochazuke.

🍚🥗🍵👌

[heroofthy-me]

And so...

Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) . Scotland, March 2026

We're well into the season and the buds are coming up. We grabbed some leaves, and a whole bunch of flower buds, looking under all the leaves to hunt them down 🌱😁

The big warning for wild garlic is to not get them confused with lily of the valley, whose leaves look similar, and is toxic. Last year I did come across some lily, on the edge of the woods meeting with gardens, and I was able to handle the leaves - they are much firmer than the more flimsy-feeling wild garlic, and if you thought the "distinct garlicky smell" of wild garlic was a bit faint, you will be able to distinguish lookalikes that smell distinctly of "green stuff" instead of the more pleasant garlic smell.

The other ID signs of course apply, with lily having two leaves growing from the same base where wild garlic pushes only one leaf out per foot.

Things to do with the stuff?

Well we're planning to pickle the flower buds for wild capers, and turn the leaves to pesto.

We're also thinking of making a wild sushi roll using a whole leaf in lieu of/along with a nori sheet.

And of course chopping it into a salad, blitzing it into a pesto, incorporating it as greens to soup, inviegling it into a saag, all are options we need to explore.

How about, as a tidy wrap for gambas al ajillo ? Make finger food less messy! (I know many people love the greasy messiness of finger food, I loathe it)

Make the best of the season 🌱🧄

[heroofthy-me]

Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria)

East Scotland, August-September 2024 and 2025

The esteemed International Mushroom Representative herself 😁

Among the popular anecdotes we have, it seems that every one of them is disputed - of which, there's the one about Viking berserkers (more likely to have involved stinking nightshade rather than A. muscaria), the idea that early Christianity was based in people getting high off of the fungus (doesn't even grow in the Crescent!), and the one about Siberian shamans eating the mushroom and their devotees then drinking their pee (what to do when bored in the midwinter of an icy desert... 😬)

What's true is that it is mildly hallucinogenic and was traditionally used to attract and kill flies. YMMV.

My own conjecture is that Super Mario's trips to the Mushroom Kingdom through the pipes under the sink has a very clear explanation 😏🍄

Another observation from the foraging perspective is that it seems anecdotally that where there are fly agarics, there is often a chance of ceps/penny-buns (Boluletus edulis) nearby. I have observed this too in my favoured spot!

No recipe this time. Even if some insist on being able to eat them, I am not risking it. ✋️

[heroofthy-me]

This happened to me this evening.

When I opened the door, I was greeted by many big smiles.

It might have been Customer Service.

It felt like Psychosis.

[heroofthy-me]

Common puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum)

Scotland, September 2025 and September 2024

If you get the wee white ones that have the little spikes on them they should be absolutely unmistakable. HOWEVER. I have a tale for you. In a moment.

My girlfriend first introduced me to these when I knew nothing about mushrooms. In her woods by her home, she and her cousins would happily stomp on them! and cause they grey-brown spore mass to puff out and disperse on the wind 😊 I was aghast, at first, how destructive! But it turns out, this is in fact exactly what they need - once they mature, their spongey inside becomes a sack of spore dust; the top of the cap opens a pinprick hole and when raindrops or hooves or feet descend upon them, POOF! the spores shoot into the breeze. Yay! So check that they're mature before stomping on them because... if they're still young, they can be eaten for a lovely chewy texture a bit like firm marshmallow 😀

I did say "however" didn't I ?

Well. See the third pic? Those ones are smooth. Very young puffballs. We found them in the grass of a parking lot and there wasn't a tree for hundreds of yards. Which helpfully suggests we were safe.

But! But!

I told my gf that the insides need to be pristine white otherwise they'd be no good, and I was obsessing over this so much that I forgot to tell her the other thing to look out for: some very young Amanita species can look like puffballs if not paying attention, including some of the dealiest ones ☠️

Well, that caused a panic when I remembered, midway through the pasta and wild mushroom sauce we were having for dinner. Went to the hospital and all, kept under surveillance all night.

Turns out we were ok, they were, indeed, just puffballs. The telling features we should have kept in mind are the faint shape of a developing mushroom appearing, instead of a plain white mass; and that Amanita need to associate with trees.

Always remember all the identifying features when picking and when prepping. Don't rush on account of "hungry." Take your time.

🍽 Totally safe creamy puffball pasta sauce recipe:

Chop puffballs in half and check they are all-white and not showing a mini mushroom shape inside

Then toss them into a pan with some onions and a touch of olive oil and fry a bit

Add some double cream or sour cream, mix in, and add thyme/rosemary/oregano and a knob of butter, melt it all through

Season to taste

Over pasta

🍲 Alternatively, instead of creaming, add the sautéed mushrooms to a miso soup (maybe chop them smaller):

Chop spring onions, including the greens

In a mug add a teaspoon of miso paste and add just a bit of boiled water

Dissolve the miso in the modest quantity of water first, then add remaining boiling water

Throw in the spring onions, and mushroom; add some wakame seaweed if you have any to hand

Add a dash of sesame oil and some soy sauce

It's always about the soups with me isn't it?

Soup is life. With proper ID. 🍄

[heroofthy-me]

Sea urchin tests !

North West Scotland, March 2026

The "common" sea urchin is on the IUCN near-threatened list so don't go bothering live ones! These empty ones were found washed into the shores of a sea loch, apparently by the hundreds due to some recent strong easterlies 😲

I was going to call them "skeletons" but the proper name for this structure is a "test." It's veeery brittle so needs handling gently, and a lot of them were found at various levels of smashedness...

In our specimens, which I do presume to be "common sea urchin" also named "edible sea urchin" (Echinus esculentus), a lot of them exhibit some beautiful violet patterning lines, though most are simply green, presumably due to algae activity... wikipedia notes that even if this species is explicitly given the denomination "edible", it's other species, with orange instead of white gonads (reproductive organs) that are preferred, and eaten 🫢

Very cool finds, even if a rather frail collectible ☺️

[heroofthy-me]

HAM!

I've been taking up drawing a bit more in earnest over the last few months.

All for the sake of the Hero of Thyme. It's been in my head ever since Link could cook.

Expect more silliness. And questionable ham.

[heroofthy-me]

I tried to remake this at a beginner's printmaking workshop 🙈

[heroofthy-me]

Jelly ears! Auricularia auricula-judae. Scotland, over the years, any season.

Big wibblies 😁 Also known as "wood ear fungus", and near-identical to "black fungus" (Auricularia cornea) which can be bought in Asian stores. Very often found on elder trees (Sambucus nigra)

They are known to some older folk as "jew's ear fungus" on account of biblical stories about Judas and the elder tree, and a common-name best retired but still surviving in the binomial/scientific name.

When there's a glut I like to pick the mid-sized ones, and leave the biggest and smallest to spore-out (OK yes I pick some of the big ones too)

The first thing I do when I get them home is boil the lot for about 5min, then set them out on racks to air-dry them over 2-3 days. The better-ventilated the space, the faster it goes. They need to be solid-dry. I store the dried ears in a wee jar for later.

These guys work very well in an Asian-style soup (broth type, not creamy). My morning recipe is:

Dissolve/crush half a stock cube in hot water, and add tbsp oyster sauce

Top up water to the quantity of soup desired

Add five spice mix, white pepper, soy sauce, chili flakes

Throw in chopped bell pepper, spring onion, garlic, ginger, etc to taste

Add any quick-cook dry noodles here, and simmer til almost cooked

Throw in a few jelly ears, and leave to simmer, they will reconstitute within about a minute

Serve

Apparently you can reconstitute them in stuff like gin or orange juice, but that's not my fancy. I like soup. Soup is life.

The above recipe, ears or no, is an excellent hangover aid in the morning, but even moreso a great hangover mitigator before going to bed. Work in some chopped carrots and potatoes if you wish too.

Use at your own discretion 🍻

[heroofthy-me]

Meadow waxcaps (Hygrocybe praetensis) and scarlet waxcaps (Hygrocybe coccinea).

Scotland, October 2024

When you see a meadow waxcap in person, you barely need to reach for the field guide. Tan cap, white stipe, sparse gills, and very sturdy, the "wax"-like appearance of the cap... easy ID.

The scarlet waxcap is less common, only thriving in unimproved grassland. We do have quite a bit of that up here in Scotland, and we found these in the general vicinity of the southern Highlands... they were growing in great profusions, so we allowed ourselves a handful for the experience 😊

Apparently meadow waxcaps are supposed to be choice but... i was rather disappointed when I worked them into an omelette. They tasted... waxy?? I swear they were real mushrooms and not actual wax 🙄

So I have no recipe for these ones. I'll probably choose to leave them next time I find any... or give them one last try in a pasta sauce..

[heroofthy-me]

Slippery jacks and other boletacea (wider "bolete" family, including Boletus, Leccinum, Suillus, and other spongey-cap footed mushrooms)

Scotland, summer and autumn 2024/2025

When we first started foraging mushrooms, my partner's mum, in Poland, said "only pick the ones with pores, the ones with gills aren't safe." That's an oversimplification, but I eventually found out through copious reading why that kind of advice would be passed down.

Amongst gilled mushrooms, some are delicious, and some are fatally toxic. Learning proper ID is of course important for all fungi, but moreso with gilled mushrooms. There can be some very nasty lookalikes for edible ones and you don't want to make any mistakes there!

Interestingly however, even though boletes also have toxic fungi, none of them seem to have a record of fatality or even long-lasting damage. Bad ones can make you extrmely ill - nauseous, cramps, vomiting etc - but eventually it seems most people recover completely... eventually. Which means your leeway for getting things wrong is marginally better.

⚠️ I'm not saying that you can play loose and free with boletes - do NOT play with safety in foraging ever! But it's interesting to think on why folk customs and advice get passed down in this form...

For UK boletes, and as far as I have read, north European boletes, if you stick to not eating any that have red colouring, or any that stain quickly blue upon cutting, then you'll rule out toxic ones altogether. Note: this is only for boletes !

An aside, another interesting fact about boletes is that they are all mycorrhizal, that is, they associate with specific trees and form symbiotic relationships with trees, in a two-way nutrient exchange, and helping funnel nutrients even between individual trees - in fact from the fungi's perspective, they cannot subsist without attaching to a compatible tree species 🥲 arAre the fungi vehicles of communication for the trees? Or are the fungi custodians themselves of the trees they manage nutrients for? Both? 🤯

Pictured are various ones we found on a few different trips. Ones that frequently feature are slippery jacks (Suillus luteus). Peel the caps (texture is allegedly not great, and often has had the effect of gluing grass, needles, deadleaf and debris). The remaining raw mushroom tends to feel like some sort of packing foam 😅

These guys work best given the butter and garlic treatment in a frying pan. Add a bit of sour cream or crème fraîche, and then fold it in with some short pasta like fusilli or maccheroni and top with fresh herbs.

I've found a good vegan alternative to butter that also packs flavour is coconut oil (stay away from margarine, just use oil instead). Instead of cream, you can make a roux with flour and coconut oil, then add some veg stock or just hot water with herbs.

Bon appétit! 🍄

[heroofthy-me]

Oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus

Scotland, September 2025

Rather unmistakable, deeply decurrent gills, growing out of dead wood. Large, grey/tan cap. If they're small and white and wild, leave them alone, those would be angel wings (Pleurocybella porrigens) which have some fatalities attributed to them.... So always stick to big ones with some colour in the cap.

These eventually made it into a stir fry, my favorite way of using them.

I had set them out to dry a bit as they were a tad waterlogged; the amount of spores they dropped was phenomenal.

Fry in a pan with a touch of oil and chopped onions. Add soy and oyster sauce (of course! Vegan oyster sauce works too) towards the end, optionally some five-spice mix, then throw in your cooked noodles. Garnish with chopped spring onions (whites and greens, for pity's sake use the whole things!)