26 April 2018
Desperately seeking fungi
Mushroom Foraging on Hampstead Heath
by Frank O’Nomics.
Oh for the carefree life of self-sufficiency! To roam the fields, living free off the fruits of nature, high in vitamins and low in fat. So it was that when I took myself to Hampstead Heath for a morning’s tutored mushroom foraging, there were two desired objectives. First, how could I identify edible fungi without risking serious illness or worse? Having recently seen the films My Cousin Rachel and The Phantom Thread, I was nervous of the gastric damage that can be inflicted. Second, where should I look to find nature’s bounty?
On meeting our guide in a car park near the Heath extension I had great hopes of returning home burdened with more mushrooms than I could carry fostering a week’s healthy eating. We would roam the Heath learning about the various types of fungi to be found and, hopefully come away with at least two that were edible. Timing seemed perfect for the St George’s mushroom, so called because it appears around our patron saint’s day, and the weather (lots of rain followed by unseasonable warmth) should have supported our cause. We got some early satisfaction as the smooth white fungus was easily spotted. Not an easy one to mistake, it smells of play-dough and as long as it doesn’t show any reddish bruising you have probably got the right thing. The only issue was that, unlike its namesake, the St George mushroom seems to be less than brave in exposing itself, preferring to lurk in the nettles and brambles – not great if, like me, the forager has been foolish enough to set out wearing shorts (schoolboy error). Never mind, at least we had found something.
The other object for the brunch I was already planning was a tree growing fungus called chicken-of-the-woods. This was an even more tempting prospect given that it derives its name from its flavour, and sounds like a possible route towards vegetarianism. Again there was little chance of making a mistake, as long as it is harvested from the beech, oak or chestnut trees on which it is most commonly seen. However, if you make the mistake of taking it from a yew tree you are liable to ingest the tree’s toxins and feel very poorly. Hang on! I’ve now got to become a tree expert as well as a fungi guy! To be fair I think I can just about spot a yew. The bigger problem was, this particular hen was not keen to be found – on any tree. We searched the area around Golder’s Hill Park, the Heath Extension and Kenwood (yes, I hit my daily steps target at an early stage) all to no avail. While the environment for St George may have been fine, it seems that we were a few weeks early for chicken.
Such frustration proved to be very minor in terms of the overall pleasures of our morning of discovery. Our guide’s enthusiasm was contagious and we all shared his delight when someone found a morel – the first he had seen on the heath for over 10 years. We looked for more, but without success. There was an additional culinary benefit from the discovery of some rat’s ears – yes, another interestingly named fungus, this time deriving its name from its appearance. They also appear on trees and are popular in Asian cooking once they are rehydrated. We were also shown, King Alfred’s Cakes fungus (another tree grower) that, like his baking, is black, round – and inedible.
The real revelation of our forage was that, regardless of edibility, finding and identifying fungi becomes quite compelling after just a short period of instruction. The symbiotic relationship of fungi with trees and the land gives a strong sense of the harmony in nature. Foraging is a great way to explore surroundings that are close but never previously noticed, and once you know where to start looking, walks will never be the same – but just remember to wear long trousers.
Fungi To Be With organised my forage and future events can be booked via the website: www.fungitobewith.org
