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Saw some giant white mushrooms in an olive grove whilst walking the dog. Comparing them to pics on Google I reckon they could be porcini mushrooms.

Would you trust that method of identification before consuming?

nope!

That's a no from me.

Do you have a pic? Pretty confident they aren't Porcini but could still be non-toxic/hallucinogenic edibles. That kind of cépe tend to grow at the base of Spruce/Pines not Olive so as mentioned, probs not them anyway - even if they look similar. If you can provide a pic I do have a friend who is trusted in this area.

A safer bet in Greece is some of the abundant wild tea; Cretan Dittany/Hop Marjoram. The leaf looks a little like sage yet smaller leaf and the bud is more like the yellow/very light green of Marjoram. Very tasty. Ask a local if you're unsure or buy some then take some out on a walk to compare when you see it.

I’ll click a couple of pics tomorrow

Trust in Bamboonoshoe

RIP

Haha, I'm still here and have done a few foraging courses. I wouldn't be confident in identifying every shroom but there are plenty that are easily identifiable. Jelly Ear is one that while amusing in name and strange to touch, it mostly grows on Elderberry and does look like some rotting prosthetic ear. Delicious! It's actually pretty tasteless and the texture is a bit meh but....good to boil down and use in a stew.

Must be some witch doctor shayman one tooth warty faced local to advise you?

An even safer bet is to buy some from a supermarket!

Delicious, but pretty tasteless?

So not delicious then? Doesn't sound worth the risk to me.

Amanita phalloides, also known as the death cap. Can be white capped! Half of one can be enough to kill you. Not worth it Aud.

I think read it again, "Delicious!" is meant sarcastically, especially following "...a rotting prosthetic ear."

There's no risk with a Jelly Ear at all. Perfectly fine and perfectly identifiable. Most people know what an Elder tree/shrub looks like (white flowering/dark small clustered berries/medium serrated leaf/brittle to warty looking bark/around 6-10ft tall) and as stated the Jelly Ear is found on the bark.

If it's real flavour you're after and safe identification - Chicken of the Woods is fantastic. It's a shelf shroom. Looks like someone let a trainee loose with the expanding foam or lots of layered omelettes. Basically grows on the side of Oaks around 12ft up (you'll have seen them) bright yellow in colour, highly recommend it's cooked but it tastes like chicken! Great for any Veggie/Vegan conver who is struggling. Filling too.

Here’s the fella

On the Isle of Wight a couple of years ago about this time of year we drove past a couple of them that looked exactly the same but these were about 3 foot in diameter and easily the biggest mushrooms we had ever seen.

We were on our way to a shop so didnt stop to look closer but inside 20 mins when we drove back some bastard had had them away.

They were like something from a Disney movie that would have had "the little people" living inside of them.

Never seena nything like them before or since they were absolutely massive and about 3 foot high too with a stalk thinker than a drainpipe.

Ah, the Dryads Saddle.

No idea but it was huge and whitish about 3 or 4 foot away from the base of a huge tree with a mate next to him of similar but a little smaller size.

Looked like one of these but massive.

(https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article170567.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200b/death-cap-mushroom-pic-getty-images-270887310.jpg)

Dryad's Saddle grows out of trees....

(https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/images/polyporaceae/polyporus-squamosus2.jpg)

You've got to be quick in early autumn in Savernake or West Woods, as the Eastern Europeans will be in there..... they chuck stuff in the basket, which I'd never consider.

Why not? Just out of interest.

Inherent conservatism.... I'm OK with things which grow in fields..... giant puff balls, ink caps, field mushrooms and perhaps chanterelles in woods.  But that's about it.

I've not been mushroom picking since I was a kid, but we used to gather chanterelles and boletus for drying out or pickling.
Places like Savernake, Newbury, Forest of Dean and as far as the New Forest. Happy times, but the locations of the best places were jealously guarded.

I'd guess with more people having come in from Eastern Europe the foraging must be at an industrial scale these days.

You should definitely pick these if you find them: (https://i.imgur.com/Nuo8UtQ.jpg)

Delicious  ;)

I wouldn't pick any mushroom, safer to spend 79p in the supermarket  :)

You won't find those in a supermarket.

I know  :)

Here’s another one growing near

Would need to see the underside of those. White gills?

You'll have a fun time with those in a nice pot of tea!  :soapy tit wank:

My Mum's husband's son is a freeloading waster, Whilst living on a narrowboat one time he rang his dad and asked him to take him to hospital, he'd been foraging in the woods and picked some mushrooms 'for taste' and added them to a lasagna, or so he told his dad. He was jaundiced and very, very lucky he didn't do any proper damage to himself.

So yea, pick 'em and find out :D

So technically your Step Brother then?  :)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/23/if-you-go-down-to-the-woods-today-dont-come-back-with-mushrooms-aoe