Wild mushroom season begins . . .
September 6th, 2010
Not what you want to hear at a dinner party. Courtesy of Private Eye.
Wild foods in Britain
Articles in ‘Wild foods in Britain’
Oysters: food for the common people
February 11th, 2010
Archaeologists have analysed the food debris left by Elizabethan theatre-goers in London, obtaining a fascinating insight into their diet. Sifting through fragments of nutshells, shellfish and pips at the sites of the Rose and Globe Playhouses, they discovered that the poorer spectators – the groundlings or stinkards who stood during the performances – munched oysters and hazelnuts, at the same rate that today’s cinema-goers devour popcorn. Read the rest of this entry
Mushrooms: River Cottage Handbook
September 19th, 2009
Mushrooms: River Cottage Handbook
Wild mushroom season
September 13th, 2009
If you’re new to wild mushrooms, the best way to learn the ropes is to go foraging with an experienced group. Fungus.org.uk has a list of links to local groups who organise forays into the wild. There’s also a forum on Wild Mushrooms Online for connecting with fungus enthusiasts in your area, as well as an extensive well-illustrated section about different edible species (such as the Morels pictured above). But the sheer fascinating proliferation of fungi means a guidebook or web page are never enough, as the best ones will warn you. It’s never that clear-cut out in the field.
Wild food in Suffolk
August 9th, 2009
Suffolk-based Food Safari organise days out to learn about wild edible plants and mushrooms. This autumn they have two activities lined up: on September 19 a trip to hunt for berries and nuts and on October 24 they will be going out to identify and pick mushrooms. A day’s foraging ends with a gastronomic wild food feast.
New Forest Wild Mushrooms
July 29th, 2009
Mrs Tee’s Wild Mushrooms, based in the New Forest, supplies individuals and restaurants and runs wild mushroom courses for the public.
All the wild mushrooms they sell are harvested by hand from the New Forest by an experienced team of local pickers. They also have a wide range of exotic cultivated mushrooms
They sell these wild mushrooms:
- Ceps
- Ceps Rufus (Red)
- Girolle
- Pied du Mouton
- Chanterelle Brown
- Hen of the Wood
- Beefsteak
- Chicken of the Wood
- Mousseron de Pres
- Mousseron St George
- Honey Fungus
- Sparissis Crispa
- Mixed Boletes
- Bay Boletes
- Trompette de Mort
One day or weekend courses are available:
This one-day course enables guests to learn invaluable information about the identification, seasonality, preparation and use of both wild and cultivated mushrooms that they can take back and use in their own kitchens at home. The day includes a guided excursion into the New Forest with the expert herself, to forage for and pick their own mushrooms. Importantly, guests will also be taught which mushrooms are not safe to cook and eat.
The Guardian reviewed these fungi courses last year
I’m on a seminar at Gorse Meadow Guest House near Lymington with 10 other fungi fans, delving into the fascinating world of mushrooms. There are, I learn, around 3,000 types in the New Forest alone, but we’re only interested in identifying about 10 edible varieties. Read
If youy fancy going it alone the New Forest Park website offers the following guidelines on picking wild mushrooms:
- Go out with someone who knows what they are looking at
- Follow the fungi pickers code
- Don’t mix edible & non edible species in a basket
- Identify the exact species
- If you are trying a new one, eat a small amount
And the Fungi Collectors Code for the New Forest is:
- No commercial collecting
- Obey any warning signs
- Never remove all the fungi in one area
- 1.5kg personal limit (and if you’ve found this much you’ve done well!)
- If you don’t know what it is, it may be rare – leave it alone
Mitten crabs in the Thames
July 13th, 2009
Chinese mitten crabs are becoming increasingly common in the River Thames and other rivers in England, having arrived in ship’s ballast from Asia. Mitten crabs cause a great deal of damage by burrowing into and destroying fragile riverbanks. They prey on other species and compete with native animals such as crayfish. Read the rest of this entry
Wild food course
July 10th, 2009
Soup with alexanders & lesser celandine.
Interesting course on gathering and cooking wild foods. The Wild Food School in Cornwall offer 2-day, day and half-day courses in which students can gain hands-on experience in identifying and using as many as 90 odd edible wild plants in the UK. There are also guided walks on the subject. Looks great fun.
“Ever eaten nettles? Or even some of the edible thistles? Well how about telling your friends that you’ve become a wild food gourmet, eating those edible weeds chickweed and bulrush, and know all about finding and cooking food from the wild? If that’s the sort of thing that tickles your fancy, then Wild Food School courses are probably the sort of thing that will capture your imagination…” .
Note: the courses are run by Ethnobotanist-Forager Marcus Harrison, author of a series of wild food cookbooks who has had an interest in wild foods for over 30 years. Prices: Day and Introductory courses – £30-85 pp. / W/E & 2-day courses – £160 pp.
Eating badgers
June 29th, 2009
This BBC documentary is entitled The Man Who Eats Badgers and Other Strange Tales from Bodmin Moor about Arthur Boyt, a retired civil servant, who collects and eats roadkill. Mr Boyt’s freezer is brimming with badgers, barn owls, dogs, cats, otters and foxes. But this is much more than a tale about strange eating habits. It is a portrayal of a small, isolated community on a bleak Cornish moor told through superbly shot filming and an intelligent script full of pathos.
Read the rest of this entry
Fears about the impact of last December’s severe weather, the coldest in 100 years, were unfounded. The drop in small bird populations witnessed in the 
The oldest osprey of the UK – and probably the world – has returned to her eyrie in the Scottish highlands. When she left for West Africa at the end of last summer, no one expected her to return. At 26 she’s lived 3 times longer than most female ospreys. In her life she’s laid 58 eggs and hatched 48 chicks, a massive individual contribution to the survival of ospreys in Scotland, where there are still only about 200 breeding pairs. The questions now are if her mate will return and if she is still fertile. Events can be followed on the 
The construction company currently finishing off the Shard building in London, which will be the UK’s tallest skyscraper, recently had to call the council to remove a squatter from the 72nd floor: a young fox. He was surviving on scraps left by builders. After a check-up at the Riverside Animal Centre, the fox has been released on the streets of Bermondsey, having shown the type of curiosity we associate with cats. 
Otters, water voles and fish are all benefitting from the improved quality of the UK’s waterways, now described as the cleanest since the industrial revolution. Since almost disappearing from the wild in the 1970s, otters are thriving, particularly in the south west of England, Cumbria and Northumberland. The population of water voles, highly precarious in the 1990s, is also beginning to recover. The good results of stricter pollution controls and extensive conservation work are set to continue in the new year with the introduction of new European water quality directives. 
