MUSHROOM lovers are having a field day. Scotland's leading restaurants and fungi foragers are enjoying the rewards of the biggest wild mushroom harvest in years. Commercial gatherers and thousands of amateur enthusiasts are now enjoying the easy pickings of a bumper harvest valued at at least ?1.5 million.
The abundance is, apparently, all down to Scotland's weather - a long dry summer followed by steady downpours throughout September and into the early autumn.
However, before people with only the scantiest knowledge of Scotland's rich variety of fungi start heading for the woods to pick their own, be warned - there are several varieties of mushroom, including the aptly named death cap, which have the potential to kill.
The advice from experts to those who don't know their chanterelles from their angel wings and their trompettes from their waxcaps is to stay at home.
Dr Stephan Helfer, a mycologist at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, said: "If people don't know what they are doing then the chances of being seriously ill are pretty high.
"Although we only have five species which are deadly poisonous out of more than 1,000 species in Scotland I still don't think that's very good odds."
This year, he said, the harvest had been the best for years. Dr Helfer said: "I can't remember the last time we had such a good crop. We seem to have really good crops at particular times of the year. It is just that this year seems to be particularly good for all the native varieties, especially ones like chanterelle which we are particularly keen on.
"And the weather is obviously responsible. We had a wonderful summer and then September turned out nice and almost equally wet. We had some gentle rain to start with and then continuous rain, which the mushrooms just love."
It has also been a bumper season for the handful of firms in Scotland which specialise in supplying wild mushrooms to the top-class hotels and restaurants in Scotland and England.
Andy Fraser, whose Glasgow-based company, Caledonian Wildfoods, counts Gleneagles Hotel among its customers, said this season had been easily the best in the five years he has been in business.
He said: "There was no rain in June or July and I was getting worried at that point because no rain means no mushrooms. And the season was rubbish until the skies opened at the end of August and whole of September. Since then we have been going crazy with the amount of mushrooms coming in.
"I will be drying more mushrooms this year than I will be selling.
"I will have wild Scottish mushrooms throughout the season, whereas last season I ran out at the end of January."