UKC

Heading to Cham next week. In case of inclement weather I wouldn't mind a hike/forage through some woods. Are there any good forests within a short drive of the valley (will be staying in Cluses)? Old and deciduous preferably  

plenty of woods/forests in the lower parts of the valley next to Chamonix, although mostly conifers from memory

Yo,

Loads of mixed and deciduous downvalley near Sallanches/Passy etc, a good bit near Bossons/Taconnaz but it's probably a hotspot for foragers, and there are veins of silver birch mixed in around all the forests upvalley from Chamonix, which is good for birch boletes. I do all of my forage upvalley, mostly by Argentiere.

Recently I've had great success with winter chanterelles but the summer chanterelles are just about coming to an end. Hedgehogs are going well if you are lucky enough to find a spot, as are various boletes. No sign of death trumpets yet, might not be the year for them. Occasional puffballs. I've seen wood blewitts a couple of times recently, if you are into them. I find them quite horrible.

edit: I'll be checking on my super-secret patch of sow's ear in the next few days. Fingers crossed!

Great, thanks In SE London wood ear is everywhere! It's super cool to see it expand when it rains. I have a lot in my kitchen I collected when it was dried out over the summer, will soak it and cook it in the winter months.

Sow’s ear, not wood ear! Gomphus clavatus, also known as the purple chanterelle. Hunted to extinction in the UK, hasn’t been seen for decades... and unbelievably rare in general, which is a pity, because it’s easily the tastiest wild mushroom I’ve ever found.

Sadly I find very little in the way of wood ear either though, unfortunately. I’ve never found a patch big enough to harvest that the maggots haven’t gotten to first, the buggers.

That explains why I've never heard of it! Have you ever tried Griffola frondosa? Found some of that in Scotland recently and we rated it very highly, miles ahead of any cultivated version I've had (though I'm trying to clone this particular strain). 

No, never found any for eating! Both chicken of the woods and hen of the woods, I've found every now and then, and a chicken of the woods on the same tree every year... but always just far too old for picking, manky and mouldy. I'm walking past the same tree in a couple of hours on a hike actually... but I predict it'll be a bit too old again.

If you end up making a trip downvalley I'd love to hear how you get on, I keep meaning to go and explore the broadleaved forests down there but I always end up just hiking up into the forests above Cham...