Saffron Milkcap

This isn't really supposed to be a mushroom blog: but they are just particularly captivating right now.

So, I wasn't drawn back by fatal attraction to the death cap at Tong Park. Instead I spent the morning trying to bend the fig tree to my will.  More fig tree photos sometime -they do have amazingly photogenic leaves and the fruit are magnificently scrotal thanks to a warm year. Anyway, having laboured long and laudably I went down the other side of the hill to High Royds where I've had my eye on these mushrooms which ooze carrot-coloured milk when cut.   I'm almost sure they are Saffron Milkcaps.  My friend Maciej likes these and it seems they are pretty popular in easten Europe. They are often pickled.  

These specimens have entered my official testing programme: which involves taking some home and having them lie around on the kitchen table for  few days while I compare them to pictures in books and on websites.  I might even look at the spores under the microscope. Perhaps this year, perhaps next I might cook and eat a bit.  I'll take some to Maciej in the week.  Conventionally, it takes 3 years for a particular type to enter the mainstream of mushroom dishes at home.....and 4 years before the rest of the family will eat them.  I am the most dispensible.