Foraging for Mushrooms

In recent years there has been a growing interest in foraging for wild mushrooms. This has followed media coverage from celebrity chiefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver. as well as specialist food programs like "Wild food" and "Road-kill chief". Supermarkets and delis are also following this lead and wild fungi are starting to appear on their shelves (though not the range and variety that you could collect for yourself)

The recent positive coverage for wild mushroom collection in Britain is a change to the traditional mycophobe view point of the British. Here there has long been a negative view of picking and eating wild fungi. Many reasons have been put forward for this traditional view point, but the main one must be the fear of poisoning. This, however, isn’t entirely rational. Most people would happily pick and eat Blackberries they found on a walk, even though there are other berries which are poisonous. Why are people happy to pick Blackberries? I guess because they went picking with their parents and learned how to correctly identify them.

Most people in this country don’t pick mushrooms because their parents didn’t, so they don’t know how to tell the edible from the poisonous. They probably also remember their parents urgent warning not to eat mushrooms they find or they might die! In mainland Europe it is common for family groups to go out mushroom hunting together as a social event. This type of knowledge and acceptance is thus passed down the generations and leads to the mycophile culture seen in most of Europe.

In reality the situation with fungi is that same as with other wild foods. If you can identify the species you can safely pick and eat the edible ones and leave the poisonous ones.

As a pastime mushroom foraging can allow you to: indulge your hunter-gatherer instincts; give a focus to a country stroll; or allow you fill your larder whilst walking the dog. Not a bad hobby all-in-all!