Mycophobe is a phobia of mushrooms and whilst I’m not concerned by them I don’t like the taste one bit, so I call myself a gastronomic mycophobe instead and to that end I’ve never really put much effort into getting to know them whilst out an about.
So when Carol Hunt contacted me to see if I wanted to take her place on a Roger Phillips mushroom foray because she was working I initially wondered if I was a suitable stand in. It took just a few seconds to give my head a wobble and realise that if I couldn’t learn off a legendary mycologist, forager and writer I never would.
Roger arranged the New Forest foray as part of a crowd funding package for his latest book called Wild Cooking (available for a pledge on www.unbound.com) which has just reached it's pledge target. Carol did ask that I try and get some material to do an article (as she would have done) for Bushcraft Magazine so when I met up in the pre-arranged carpark I was unsurprisingly the only one without a basket so that meant I could focus taking pictures, not mushrooms.
Roger called everyone into a huddle and his wife Nicky started by handing out organic Russet apples from a tree in their garden. He then went into some detail concerning the rather complex and confusing matter of mushroom foraging policy in the New Forest and as Storm Callum eased we were off.
We stopped a mere sixty seconds walk from the car park because several folk found two nice patches of Fly Agaric and Chanterelle mushrooms-What a start. Once we moved off it was a very relaxed and bespoke feel to the whole event with some clued up foragers coming and going and a few of us stating closer to Roger and his Nicky whilst they both spotted and identified any mushrooms that came into their view.
I’d come armed with a note pad as well as a camera and as we wended our way through the Beech, Holly, Birch and Oak wood I realised that by being shown certain mushroom types that I was having a mild epiphany so what I would have just previously termed a ‘brownish mushroom that looks like everything else’ I could now put a name to. It also helped the texture, smell, habitat and symbiosis of the mushrooms was shared and discussed as we walked and talked.
Every time I turned to see where Roger was he would typically be surrounded by attendees rolling a mushroom in his hands like the above picture.
Roger had been very biddable during the walk when I asked for magazine specific pictures (for a potential cover shot which were considered but didn't quite make it) and on the homeward leg I was chatting with him and his wife and offered to take a picture of both of them which they readily accepted.
Before I knew it I could see the cars through the trees and we were at the end of the walk, but the experience didn’t end there. roger's wife handed out homemade dried apple rings, I organised a group photo, books were signed, further discussions were had, I got to do an quick question and answer session with Roger and I traded some Plum and Hawthorn leather for a small Penny Bun to have a taste with the advice to cook it in butter until crisp to stand a chance of liking it.
And cue the group photo in time honoured fashion. If you attended please feel free to download a copy and forward this to anyone else who may not have seen it. I’ve been to many Bushcraft events, courses and the like but this group was one of the most friendly and freely gave advice when Roger wasn’t. Oh, and I still don’t like mushrooms.
Having got on this foray by chance I duly signed up for a copy of Roger's book, how many gems go under the radar like this I wonder. Above are a couple of shots of the article I did.
So to the Penny Bun tasting once back home...I'm still a gastronomic mycophobe after trying it, anything less than crispy just made me pull faces.
Q1 Do you have a favourite edible and non-edible mushroom?
An impossible question. I am interested in the whole function of fungi. I talk of them as the third force; one plants Two Animals Three Fungi, The function of a large group of the woodland fungi is living in symbiosis with trees and plants, the fungi we see are the fruits of the actual fungal plants, the plants are very delicate fibres so tiny that they cannot be seen with the naked eye (Mycelium), they are about 100 times more efficient than tree roots and are thus able to supply trees and other plants with minerals and trace elements and water essential to the healthy growth of the trees. In return the trees supply the fungi with the sugars and other elements essential to the life of the fungi. They have been helping plants survive since the first plants developed. Science has so far analysed more than 8,000 species of plant which have these associations and the discovery is only just beginning.
Ugly Milk Cap
Q2 What are your thoughts concerning the whole issue of permission to pick mushrooms?
The question of collecting mushrooms is under debate. Many woods have attempted to ban mushroom collecting, but there is a vast store of evidence that suggests that it is not in any way detrimental to the propagation of the fungi, the simplest way of looking at it is that you are just collecting the fruit and as with other fruit picking you avoid damaging the plant and only take the actual fruit (the mushroom). A simple example is the truffle, it propagates it’s self by spreading its spores as do all fungi, but to do this it puts out a pheromone imitating the sexual pheromone of a female boar on heat, thus demanding to be picked and eaten.
False Death Cap
Q3 Tell us a little about your latest crowdfunded book called Wild Cooking, what prompted you to write it?
The new book is called “Wild Cooking” and is to be published by the crowd funding publisher Unbound, if anyone is interested in my work they can help by pledging to buy the book in advance by going to the unbound website the address is: unbound.com/books/wild-cooking.
Amethyst Deceiver
Q4 What is the difference between a mushroom, a toadstool and a fungus?
Toadstool is just another word for mushroom but it has a slightly evil connotation, which dates back to times when no one understood fungi at all and people had a fear of them as ungodly. The word fungus covers the whole group including the things which do not look like mushrooms at all like brackets growing on trees.
Artists Bracket
Q5 How many uses are there for mushrooms over and above being consumed?
Apart from the uses I covered in question one, there is another vast group of fungi that break down dead mater like logs, twigs and leaves. We refer to them as the rubbish collectors, just imagine the state of woods if they were not there to clear up the detritus.
Hedgehog mushroom
Q6 I am working on a new book which is based on researches into all food sources including fungi. I look into traditional uses and knowledge that has been lost. A good example is the garden plants Dahlia where originally sent to Europe as food plants (the tubers are eaten in South America along with potatoes). Just think of the edible garden flowers which are ignored.
Sulphur Knight
Q7Are there any European mushroom varieties that you wish grew in the UK?
The favourite mushroom of Julius Caesar was is now known as Caesar’s mushroom (Amanita caesarea) It is a delicious but is not found in Britain!
A full basket
Q8 Of all the edible mushrooms, which one would you try to persuade a non-mushroom eater to try?
Eating wild mushrooms can be dangerous or even deadly, always check with an expert. There is no rule of thumb that will sort out the poisonous fungi from the edible.
Eating wild mushrooms can be dangerous or even deadly, always check with an expert. There is no rule of thumb that will sort out the poisonous fungi from the edible.
