Play it by ear

The gelatinous texture of this common fungus may not be to everyone’s taste, but its rare ability to reconstitute itself makes it a clever pantry staple, says John Wright

Illustration by Kateryna Kyslitska

I AM always pleased to find wood ears on my country walks and I will usually pop a few into my poacher’s pocket to take home, trusting I will not forget they are there. They almost invariably grow on dead elder, but can be found on a multitude of other trees. I have a small population of them in my garden, growing on some (once) splendid pieces of boxwood that have not survived the badly positioned tarpaulin under which I have been hoarding timber for woodworking projects. It is an easy fungus to identify and does, indeed, look very much like an ear—a brown or orange-brown one, shiny on the inside and matte-textured on the outside. It is also extremely rubbery. The only confounding species is the brown cup fungi (Peziza…

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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 19, 2025

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