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Forgaging - wild about food Karen. June 9 2011

mushroom

My foraging days began around the age of 6. I can still feel the tickle from the long-legged harvest spider as I dared to plunder juicy booty from its hedgerow haven - those spiders, such good hiders amidst the plump, bountiful blackberries. I remember the exhilaration of “mushrooming” in a lush, green meadow when my father spotted company in the form of a highly interested bull – swiftly, he threw me on his back and vaulted a five bar gate! Now, as an adult, educated in the ways of the forager, a smug smile still besmirches my face as I recall a phone conversation with my brother-in-law, boasting of the magnificent mass of morels that spread before me, growing on the bark mulched beds in a shopping centre car park. There is indeed much room for mushroom envy in foraging.

Foraging quenches the primitive hunter-gatherer thirst

Agriculture may have usurped wild harvesting, but the instinct cannot be quelled. Foraging quenches the primitive hunter-gatherer thirst, connecting you with the seasons and nature. Healthy trees and plants reassure our primitive brain that food is available close by in abundance, reducing worry, thus the calming and soothing affect of gathering in the greenery, from fragrant flavoured elderflowers to powerful wild garlic (ransoms).

So, where to begin? First, poach the phrase “there are either old mushroom collectors, or bold mushroom collectors, but rarely old and bold”, and mushrooms fryingapply this to foraging in general. Armed with this mantra, equip yourself with a good book (I recommend both Mushrooms and Hedgerow River Cottage Handbooks) or sign up for a local course.

 

 

If you are still uncertain whether the bright red berries before you crying “pick me, pick me!” are edible then walk away, rather than risking becoming quite dead. Just stand back and Pick me!
Pick me! admire the deceptive beauty of poisonous plants such as hemlock, foxgloves, henbane, yew, dog’s mercury, cuckoopint, and bryony whilst contemplating why deadly nightshade, the destroying angel and the death cap were so named.


Next, consider the law, the Wildlife and Countryside Act to be precise. If foraging on private land the landowner’s permission is needed. It’s illegal to uproot plants or sell foraged food unless you have their say so, and foraging a commercially grown crop is theft. The age-old question of overhanging tree branches laden with fulsome fruit arises – the fruit (be it medlar, quince, crab apple to name but a few) belongs to the landowner (unless it has fallen and then considered abandoned) so scrump at your own risk. Natural England recommend in The Wild Mushroom Picker's Code Connect with
the seasons of Conduct, no more than 1.5kg of fungal fodder should be gathered per foray, for personal, not commercial use. The great foray infuriation of nought but empty hollows in moss where a much prized cep once grew is all too frequent these days, as is the greater-spotted clandestine exchange of crispy tenners for carrier bags full to the brim and restaurant bound.

wild garlic And finally, conservation, as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall points out “if the correct habitat exists, so will the species that thrive in it, foraged or not”. Plunder nature’s larder mindfully, with respect for the environment, taking care not to trample rare species or stripping entire crops.

So, why not supplement your weekly shop with pods, berries, roots, leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits, nuts and hips from dappled woodland edges, hedgerows or even your own garden.

Feast on free
foraged fresh
food today