Harvested one in feb – but can be found throughout most of the year – summer/autumn/winter the best. Can be rotted. Find large firm fleshy one.
This one the spore have all been released but still firm white flesh.
My thinking is that the spore area isn’t useable so cut some strips from the fleshy part. Some thick, some thin and be that I left the spores on just to see.
I know from foraging and drying them that they do tend to warp/curl at edges, especially with the skin on so have left them to dry under some gentle pressure in my old book binding press.
My knives and tools are sharp, and for this I used my thin blades opinel to slice through it. It was shaving sharp. Within a couple of strokes the blade was dull enough it wouldn’t even slice through paper! A good sign!
A quick sharpen and the final cuts were made.
I wonder if this was how we discovered the stropping properties of the birch polypore? Someone thousands of years ago realising how quickly their blade dulled and tinkering from there.
