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Saturday 5 October 2013

Pisolithus Arhizus

As soon as I found out what this mushroom was called, I should have thrown it on the compost.  What self-respecting dye mushroom has a name like that?  Well, exactly!  If it had been Pisolithus Tinctoria I might have had better results.

The offending article
Apparently, the young fruiting bodies of this mushroom are edible.  Would you put this anywhere near your mouth???  The inside was even worse :-



Anyway, I checked out my mushroom dye book "The Rainbow Beneath My Feet" and didn't find it.  The Pisolithus Tinctoria was in there though and apparently that gives a rich brown colour.  Can't be an awful lot different, I thought, can it - it's the same family? Well, yes, obviously it can, but I still had to give it a go.

The amount of colour that came out of this was quite amazing.  Really thick, dark brown with a reddish tinge.  Very promising.


I put some merino fleece (mordanted with alum/cream of tartar) in there and heated it for about an hour, keeping it just below a simmer in case too much heat affected the colour. This afternoon I took it out and rinsed it :-


Hhhmmmm, maybe a bit of ammonia would brighten it up slightly . . . no change.  Tried vinegar too . . . no change.  Now if you actually like bleihge you'd probably be quite pleased with this.  But having achieved this colour far too often, the novelty has worn off.

I actually very carefully mowed round this mushroom the other day while I was cutting the grass.  Next time, it's for the chop!

6 comments:

  1. Were you expecting a darker brown?

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  2. I was expecting something with a bit more character, yes. Especially when I saw the really dark colour that came out of the mushroom. In some ways it's just as well that it was paler - at least I can overdye it with something else!

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  3. Heartfelt sympathy from a fellow beige sufferer.

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    1. Hi Fran, somehow I expected you to arrive before long ;-)

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  4. Well, live and learn! I can't tell mushrooms apart, and anyway, I haven't seen any interesting ones on my walks, so I stay away from that. In Sweden I once saw purple and orange dyebaths with mushrooms, amazing!! At the time I had no clue I'd be getting into this myself 30 years later, no notes.

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    1. Yes, you're right! I'm just a mushroom-oholic and think they're always going to be amazing. This one looked dodgy from the start - should have known better!!! :-)

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