Go on a course: fungi foray

Go mushroom-hunting in Wales. By Kate Langrish

'We Brits, says Daniel Butler, are a nation of ‘fungiphobics'. While the Italians and French happily spend autumns foraging in woodland for a wild supper, we tend to regard any mushroom outside of a supermarket as a poisonous toadstool. But Daniel, a regular CL contributor and fungi fanatic, aims to change all that with his two-day courses in the Elan Valley in Wales on identifying edible fungi.

'Armed with a special mushroom knife (to cut the mushroom away without damaging the ‘roots') and a basket made by a local willow weaver (the gaps allow spores from collected fungi to drop out and establish new mushrooms), we set off for the woods. Daniel explained that the trick to successful foraging was to learn how to recognise the poisonous ones that edible ones could be confused with.

'It sounded very daunting at first, especially as the first fungi we stumbled upon was of the poisonous variety. It was a fly agaric (the nasty ones all seem to have rather alarming names: destroying angel, the panther, satan's bolete), which looks like a fairy-tale toadstool with its red cap and white spots. But as we continued along the edge of the woods, heads down, scouring the ground, there was a cry from the front. A cep, or porcini or penny bun - the holy grail of any fungi foray - had been found. These delicious mushrooms command a huge price in the shops, both dried and fresh, so we were all very excited.

'By the end of the first day, we had a great collection of edible mushrooms and I felt I could confidently identify quite a few of the tasty varieties, including ceps, bay boletes, hedgehog fungus, parasols and amethyst deceivers. We headed back to the lovely Elan Valley Hotel for a lesson in how to cook and dry our harvest, and a mushroom-themed feast for dinner. After a morning foray on the second day we returned home, truly bitten by the mushroom bug - we were out foraging in our local woods the following weekend, fungiphobics no more.'

For details of the two-day fungi foray (in groups of up to 12 people) including accommodation, meals, guidebook, collecting knife and handmade basket, call 01597 811168 or visit www.fungiforays.co.uk.

 Click here for the full Country Living course directory 

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