While I was out walking through Manscombe Woods last week I discovered something very unusual growing on an Elder tree. The tree looked like it had ears sprouting out of its trunk! I quickly realised it was some sort of fungi and took a picture so that I could identify it
back at the office.
It turns out that its called a Jews Ear, (sometimes called a Judas Ear) and it is very common to find them growing on Elder this time of year.
I also discovered that it is an edible fungus, so I decided to look up a recipe on-line. There were some interesting suggestions, including stewing, frying and pickling these fungi for use in oriental style dishes, however there were also quite a few comments made about the texture of the Jews Ear being similar to chewing on a rubber glove!
A couple of days later I happened to bump into someone else in the woods who had also seen these Ears and they described how, particularly in Chinese dishes, these fungi would be dried out and ground up to add a great mushroom flavour and act as a thickener in stews and soups.
Its fantastic to know that we have got an edible fungus growing at Cockington along with the many other beautiful fungi that appear at different times of the year.
If your interested in getting to know a bit more about some of the fungi growing around Torbay, head over to Berry Head on Saturday 15th October for our Planet Fungus event , or come along to our Family Fungal Foray on Monday 24th October! See our website, pick up one of our events leaflets or give us a call on 01803 606035 for more details!
Please remember that picking wild mushrooms can be dangerous unless you know exactly what you are picking, and that even real fungi experts always take identification guides out with them to double check that what they are eating is safe.
