Got no experience with column chromatography. And at the moment basically, trying to get the buggers productive. Testing on a plate level. Culture the fungus, and once the plate has colonized then divide in half (sterile conditions of course) and test. Like I said, can't compare personal experience with Erlich's, not got any.
PM me about ergot if you wish. Will test my samples for life, and ive been really wanting to look for more.. Mine is from last year but have been climbing the gods damned styxfuckingbegotten bastard WALLS wanting to go out to my little spot and search. It was prolific as hell last year and the two before. Right now though I cannot go out of the house, bar short car-to-shop and back, getting a lift (can't drive, too poor, my family couldn't afford to support the driving lessons, and I had to stop, business making guitar parts on the lathe fell through, uneconomical in the end and couldn't keep it going.
The major problems with ergot (this applies to C.purpurea, I've not read up so much on C.paspali because I haven't GOT any Claviceps paspali
I DO have C.purpurea, possibly some C.sulcata mixed in, a certain proportion of the sclerotiae have a very different shape to the rest, not rounded but of a distinctly triangular profile, and with three deep longitudinal grooves running from pole to pole. Which according to my copy of Kren and Kvac's book, 'The Genus Claviceps' (this is available on ebook format, I don't have a copy on this computer, did on my other one but the screen is busted. And I didn't download another copy, because I went and bought it in hardback, so I can for example, take it with me when going to pick up my meds from the pharmacy when my scripts are due, or if I need take a journey on public transport, et cetera, and for some light, easygoing material to read for those annoying nights where you just can't sleep and the only thing to do are either stay up playing videogames, stay up in the lab, burrowing away like a reagent-devouring blowfly maggot-stroke-Gollum chimaera created by some fiendish mad scientist's experimenting.
Boletes? what kinda boletes? in my ergot spot theres such a profusion of fungi, its a lovely walk down the naturalized, non-paved, woodland and tree-enclosed, uncivilized half of the towpath, there be fly agarics in profusion, to dry for the winter, and the coming year, and to cook like blushers (boil, toss water, boil, toss water, rinse in boiling water quickly and then cook however, similar to how idiots eat those false morels, something I wouldn't touch with a bargepole covered in osama bin laden's fermenting typhoid-dysenteric-haemosquirtings (like the hershey squirts, only much, much worse and with even less in common with even commercial milk chocolate, but fly agaric, oh yes, and blusher, the young Amanita muscaria are the best, they stay the firmest. And blusher, Amanita rubescens, they are NOT to be eaten raw, as they contain a thermolabile haemolytic poison called rubescenslysin, but if they are treated similar to preparing fly agaric for the table, twice parboiling well at least, and then cooking how desired, it leaches out and destabilizes the haemolysin, and they are a valuable early-appearing species, ofttimes popping up when there is little else wild and fungal to be munched.)
Saw the amathyst Laccaria, a relative of the deceiver (Laccaria laccata), the other year, never seen them before, but they are so beautiful. Weird tiny caps, with bulbous-based stems, thick at the bottom and growing steadily thinner, but best of all this really gorgeous shade of deep, vivid violet. Tried eating them, for they are indeed edible, but oh, oh mein gott! I fried a handful or two up to try with my haul of Boletus badius (of late, transferred to share a family with the red cracking bolete, now placed with it in Xerocomus), its the bay bolete, blues like a nun caught bonking her pet golden retriever, pores start pale, turn dull yellow, never red, very tasty, got me a few ceps, which were really good, as good as they ever are, and they always are yummy. Seen various Russula ( brittlegills, name needs no explaining, although all the tissue is brittle and snaps easily, they do not bleed milk, although the genus is closely tied to the genus Lactarius, the milk caps. Last year went to Delamere forrest, and found a whole load of Lactarius deliciosus under the pine woods, its a bright orange species, orange milk, slightly greening with age on the cap and bruises of the stem especially, sweetish taste, and they are a very, very sought after species, lovely roasted, not bad either if given a wee splotch of salted bugger. Real stuff not that shitty vegetable oil based spread, just a light sizzling in a frying pan until cooked through with brownedb ugger covering thefruit bodies.
Theres a lookalike to L.deliciosus though, Lactarius deterrimus, which looks very much like the saffron milkcap, L.deliciosus, grows similar habitat, open pine woods, much more tendency to age green, and less pitted, a more gracile build generally speaking than the saffrons, although otherwise similar in most respects, it too is edible, but often somewhat bitterish and apparently, although I've never found any, not nearly so good as the delectable saffron milkcaps.
This year, best finds so far, were two giant puffballs over at lymm dam. Had to scrabble down a steep, steep drop down a muddy as fuck messy embankment after hopping the fence, and stop myself falling into the dam by means of grabbing saplings and small trees one after the other, grab the puffballs and SOMEHOW, made it back up without getting a thorough soaking or eating my bodyweight in mud and leaf litter-D
Each was about a foot in diameter, quite a respectable weight to them, perfectly, perfectly formed and at that stage of growth where they are at their salty, succulent, scrumptious white all through and through best. Knocked up some batter by making a slurry of brown granary bread with various nuts and seeds in it in whipped egg and a pinch of salt, and some eggy bread over the top, then a wee bit of soy and worcestershire sauce, heated up a pan with some salted proper butter, melted, made sure it was ready to quickly sear, after first cutting the puffballs into 'steaks' about three quarters of an inch thick, covered in eggy bread batter, then fried in the worcestershire/bit of soy-sauce-doped butter.
And tried some too with a mixture of a wee dash of powdered cubeb (the seed of Piper cubeba, has a cold, camphoraceous taste, not entirely removed from that of cardamom but without anyt hint of its warmth, ) just a tiny dash of those, powdered in a spice grinder and added to powdered pink peppercorns, their sweetness mixed with a hint of camphoraceousness complimented the cubeb quite well
Fried again in the form of puffball steaks. Absolute heaven. I saved (unfortunately my old man threw the bulk of the dried part out) but not before I spiked the garden with buried chunks of spore mass all around. I'm hoping that the gleba from the two different puffballs will form hyphae and eventually, if I am lucky, pop up puffballs next year.
(another thing I am working on, is to seed the lawn with Hygrocybe calyptraeformis, one of the waxcaps, because I know where to find it, and that the waxcaps and H.calyptraeformis itself, grows in association, unusually for fungi I have observed at least, with mosses. Its a slender, very gracile waxcap with a thin-fleshed, bright pink cap, and a white, thin stipe. Rare, only recently been taken off the red list in the UK. I am wishing to propagate the species and seed it around, like a kind of jonny waxcapspore (so to speak)
If your interested in ergot, do PM me, I have much...knowledge to share, if you wish it
-Russula-species, some of them snackable some of them not (rule of thumb, if its hot, for the pot, its not, most mild ones are edible, save some with nasty ass smells although of course always ID. Charcoal burners are prolific sometimes there (R.cyanoxantha, or as my dad calls them, 'those grey Russulas'
