Penny Buns at Last

    One of the top three fungi on my wants list is the Penny Bun, cep in France or the Porcino in Italy, (Boletus edulis). Well, this week I can safely say I can tick them off. 

   While on a hunt in one of our Norfolk woodlands I found three wonderful  examples around a mature beech tree. At first I just saw what looked like a broken mushroom but when I looked it was a stem of a big bolete of some sort. Then within a few feet I spotted my first Penny Bun.

    It was a lovely matt brown on the cap and resting upon a bulbous creamy white stem. It was only around 5 inches tall but it was my first which meant a great deal. It was followed by two more over the next 15 minutes or so and boy was I happy.

    Three days later I returned to the same spot and found one more smaller one. But then after searching the area and moving on further into the wood I saw a huge example, a perfect Penny Bun, this was followed by yet another, I couldn't believe my luck.



   I must have walked through miles of woodland in hope of spotting these beautiful fungi,  and now in just two searches i had half a dozen fine chunky mushrooms to fry in butter for the first time.

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