Mystery no more - hedgehogs!

Did you guess right? This month's Mystery Pic was a indeed a hedgehog, a hedgehog mushroom, also known as Pied-de-Mouton! Growing in variety of woodlands, most of my hotspots for them are under mature beech and in early to late autumn, right up to the first frosts. Superb to eat, you can see where they get their name - those soft, downward pointing 'spines' are very distinctive and quite unlike the pores or gills like other fungi, hence their name.

Top tip: let them dry for a few hours on a grill in a warm oven or on an Aga first before cooking, this concentrates the flavours and stops it all running out into the juices

Note: Please do be very careful and only eat fungi you know are safe.
If in doubt, leave wild fungi well alone!