038 Mushroom picking without the mystery

Foraging expert Geoff Dann explains how by doing your homework you can gather wild mushrooms with safety. Read by Rachel Atkins.

Fungi foraging can be daunting to a beginner. Britain is home to a vast variety (perhaps seven times as many species as there are plants) and some of them are deadly. In many cases, identification isn’t easy (even for experienced mushroomhunters).

Going foraging with an expert doesn’t always help – some of my students, especially when the fungi are plentiful, are so overwhelmed that they are even more cautious at the end of the session than they were at the beginning. For most people, though, a few hours spent with an experienced person certainly speeds up the first steps.