Jelly Ear Fungus

• Common Names: Jelly Ear, Wood Ear, Jews Ear,
• Latin Name: Auricularia auricula-judae

First thing I picked this year was a couple of Jelly Ear Fungus down at Westburn Woods on the 12th of January at the Explorers Guide to Westburn Woods event organised by WHALE Arts and Edinburgh Arts Festival with Fork In The Road coming along to take control of cooking on the fire.

IDENTIFICATION: Jelly Ear is an odd looking fungus that seems too scary to pick at first. However it is really easy to identify and use. The Jellys Ear fungus is most commonly found on the dying branches of dead elder trees and if you only pick it from Elder trees you will not go wrong as its lookalikes do not grow on Elder. To be honest once you have seen it a few times on Elder you will quickly become confident of picking it elsewhere. I like to use the name Jelly Ear as it describes exactly how this edible fungus looks, just like an ear, it grows “listening” towards the ground, so the bowl of the ear faces downwards, with a velvet like outer and smoother surfaced inner.

Jellys Ear will survive times of drought with the fruiting body completely drying out and looking dead, it can be picked and used fully hydrated or dried, in fact using it dried in a flavoursome sauce is probably best as it absorbs the flavours during rehydrating.

Please do use other sources to help you correctly identify anything you pick. I highly reccomend the Collins Gem Field guides if you like a book to look at.