Life's Ambiguities

Our cellar is a place full of surprises, partly because it gets things stashed away down there rather in the manner of other peoples attics, and then the said items get forgotten until the 10 year clear out, and then get thrown away. But on this particular wet Sunday (how many have we had of those?), we were amusing new child guests with a tour of the nooks and crannies in this old house. Ooooooh, Scarey....

On the floor in the gloom is a glistening pile of...what?? Well it /they looked extremely unattractive. A fair amount of poking and prodding went on, whilst various theories were put forward. They ranged from dead mouse to cat turd. Thankfully my eldest son came to the rescue. He is in the TA and has not long returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, so being the brave soldier that he is, he picked It up, and we examined it/them in the day light. Hard objects, about the size of a walnut, black when cut open, smelling of mushrooms- of course! Truffles! In the cellar! Our fortunes are made. Rarely have I seen my son so excited. He put two in a jar with some spelt (to flavour it), and went happily back to London licking his lips and ready for a fungal feast.

I do like to be absolutely sure where mushrooms are concerned, so on Monday morning I was hot on the telephone to the RHS. So helpful, but not the right people- they only deal with fungal infections on your plants, but I was advised to contact Kew Gardens, where they have a mycology department. The joy of the internet when you need information. An e-mail to Kew was replied to almost immediately- my request for information had been forwarded to the Mycology Dept to a Dr Spooner, who has written a book on British truffles. That very same morning I had a reply asking that I send a sample to Kew. I should say here that all that morning I had been smelling gas in my kitchen and had checked the cooker about 4 times. When I came to pack the remaining truffles up I realised it was them! Now the smell was far from pleasant and very pungent and I wondered what the post office would make of the package. The lady behind the counter and I had a long conversation about it.

Thank you Dr Spooner for your prompt reply the following day telling me that the specimen had arrived and that it was the so-called 'stinking slime truffle'-Melanogaster ambiguus. Fairly common and (Most interesting) that gas leaks have been mistakenly reported based on the presence of the fungus due to its powerful odour. Fancy that! It is not harmful, but not eaten because it smells so unpleasant. Heigh ho...