OUR DAY OF MUSHROOM FORAGING

 
 

Last week, Nick, Mahi and I had a day out in Faversham, Kent, on a Forage and Feast Tour hosted by Fable Foods. We left the house well before sunrise, in the driving rain, to learn about the wonders of mushrooms with expert* (he likes to avoid the term “expert,” but more on that below) forager Miles Irving.

On the grounds of an olde worlde pub, under a marquee which we held onto for dear life as the wind roared and periodically lifted to help tip off the pooling rainwater, we joined the tour group and sipped a tea of simmered mushrooms — like a mushroom broth but not at all seasoned.

The day before, Nick and I had taken the dogs for a walk in a local wood, and amongst the forested carpet floor we spied many types of mushroom which we snapped away and uploaded to the Picture Mushroom app to identify  — purple, brown, creamy and tan, including a white bulbous one high up in a birch tree (the birch polypore). On showing our ‘shroom snaps to Miles (like the kids who had done all their homework) he reeled off which were edible, which were edible but not that tasty, and which to steer well clear of. To my amateur eye, those seemingly non-related by appearance were in fact the same type — just at different stages of their growth (which also changes their common names, by the way), while some looked scarily similar to their inedible neighbours. Clearly we needed to spend more time getting to know fungi!

The mushroom tour in Kent kicked off with a vote on whether to step out into the wild rain and forage or bring the cooking part forward with the big array and display already on offer by Fable… and cooking it was. Though tasty, raw mushrooms (even the everyday edible ones) are said to be inedible or indigestible due to tough cell walls and low level toxins in even edible ones that are easily destroyed with heat.

Into a big wok on a high heat went plenty of sliced white common mushrooms and cremini or button mushrooms (which are the baby version of the Portobello mushroom, FYI!) — instantly recognisable as those you find in the supermarket. Then all kinds of exotics joined — I recognised hen of the woods, porcini and girolles. Several large glugs of water were added — we were experiencing the opposite of how I’d learned to cook mushrooms, which is basically wipe clean, no wash, to minimise extra moisture, and then fry until golden. Miles explained that Fable Farm Foods founder Chef Jim Fuller learned to boil the mushrooms first (the moist-heat cooking method), then fry them off to get the maillard reaction (the caramelisation that intensifies and sweetens the flavour), which made for a better eating experience — concentrating the umami flavours and maintaining the mushrooms velvety texture without the grease. 

This information was confirmed by nods of heads from members of the group as we recalled  similarity in this method to how mushrooms are traditionally cooked in Chinese and Japanese dishes. While the mushrooms were simmered until al dente and then later sautéed off with a dash of oil, Miles cooked up some nettles — explaining that the naturally occurring amino acid glutamate found in mushrooms and nettles is an appetite stimulant that helps you feel satiated, much like the delicious flavour found in dashi, a fusion of umami-rich foods. We enjoyed the nettle mushroom combo with glee, as did Mahi who enjoyed 2 “firsts” at once!

By now the rain had stopped and, dare I say it, the sun was making an appearance. As we stepped out onto the main road (with wide-holed collection bags to allow the mushroom spores to escape and drop onto the ground as we walked), there on a grassy leaf-covered verge we were stopped by a fairytale vision. The magnificent red and white iconic toadstools (which baby Mahi was channelling in her knitted hoodie) known as Fly Agaric (because it was powdered and sprinkled into milk to trap and kill flies) were dotted about loud and proud, and as we honed in our senses, we spotted so much more of them.

Instead of the planned 1.5k foraging hike, we spent an hour foraging the forest just metres from the pub (Miles promoted us to notice the difference in moisture levels in the air by how it touched our cheeks), which turned up variety after variety of mushrooms, including some pretty impressive sized porcinis, Boletus edulis.

 
 

From here Miles explained how important mushrooms are to the ecosystem, and how beneath our feet lies the most incredible universe, with a network of Mycorrhizae — an extraordinary fungi — connecting plant roots of up to 90% of terrestrial plants in order to share information and nutrients. All this is something that our ancestors would have understood in their relationship with their environment. Miles referred to this knowledge as relational knowledge — we would have understood the flora and fauna, the weather and the landscape as one would understand how to turn on the TV, radio, laptop, search the world wide web and make a phone call today, all part and parcel of our daily lives. That’s one of the reasons that he is keen to remove the more academic label of “expert*” and use the more inspirational and accessible idea of traditional and cultural ecological knowledge.

I got so much from this trip, not just the fresh air and nature upload, but all the fun facts and storytelling from Miles whose passion for reconnecting us with the land is infectious. To learn more with Miles, check out his podcast Word Wild and his upcoming foraging courses starting in spring (a good Christmas pressie perhaps?), covering plant foraging to seaweed harvesting to cooking and wild fermentation. Miles has kindly shared 5 tips below:

MILES’ TIPS AND TRICKS FOR MUSHROOM HUNTING

  1. Know that you know nothing! It’s OK to be at the beginning of a learning process. You get to be a little child again!

  2. Think about who your teachers will be. Sign up for a fungi foray or a mushroom foraging course, buy some good fungi books*, join some facebook fungi groups (see below). Also realise that the land and your own body are your teachers. Serendipity and intuition will be an important part of your journey of getting to know other living beings (fungal species) with whom you share a common ecology. And bear in mind that…

  3. You can recognise shop-bought mushrooms already and have skills to help you recognise wild ones! You know they have a stem and a cap, for example, and that they have funny flappy things underneath the cap (and in case you didn’t know, these are called gills). You can distinguish people with similar faces, which proves you are really good at pattern recognition and can apply this skill to mushrooms, despite them also being similar. You just need to spend some time with them.

  4. Spend some time with them! Go out and collect some mushrooms (just to look at, not to eat). Notice the kind of place they are growing (e.g. under what trees if you can name them). Feel them, smell them, look closely at them. Get a hand lens (which can be bought from here) and see what they look like magnified. Notice for example how the gills meet the stems. Notice the colour. Notice the texture — rough? Slimly? Smooth? Have a go at identifying them by comparing with pictures in your book and post photos onto Facebook groups. BUT!!!!

  5. ...Only eat mushrooms you have identified with 100% certainty and which you know for sure are edible, including how (some are poisonous raw but edible when cooked). Start with species with no poisonous lookalikes such as horse mushrooms (like huge shop-bought mushrooms) or boletes (which have spongy tunes under their cap, not gills).

There are many books out there on the subject of mushrooms — Miles recommends:

Facebook groups to join:

Jasmine Hemsley