The excitement of feeding us from nature, those hidden plants and fungi, hitherto unknown as a nutrition source or still keeping their medicinal properties close to the ground... This is the wonder that last year revealed to me. From our earlier explorations and overdose on wild garlic while we still lived in the cottage, then the Dandelion Honey and Elderflower Cordial that was finally the combustion required to ignite the passion for foraging that had been an inquisitive tick hidden away in those curious corners of my mind.

Plants don't hold as much interest in my fledgling foragers mind as do the the power of fungi! The dreams I now barely contain thinking of Giant Puffball steaks or Chicken of the Woods stir fry's or the simple, but oh so satisfying, pan fried mushroom and spinach on toast that is a Narrowboat, Oddstruck Belle menu perennial! Unfortunately often made with the simple (boring) Chestnut or button 'shroom!

The first 'edible' fungi I discovered was on a trip out on the boat. Walking Shadow for his morning movement, I discovered what I later came to know as a clouded Funnel. Now I didn't partake. Fuelled by doubt and that natural and needed hesitation whenever putting anything from the wilds in your mouth, I photographed it, consulted books and my virtual Mushroom community and confirmed the identification.

In the case of the clouded funnel it's an edible but then a certain percentage of people will fall mildly ill. It is recommended to try a small amount first and this nugget of wisdom I will utilise with every forage.

So my natural assumption was that there was a season for mushrooms. But just as plants there are seasons for some mushrooms and for others they are avaialble all year round. I wasn't aware of this piece of information as we stumbled upon my greatest ( at the time of writing ) discoveries. A cold bleak January winters day not a quarter of a mile from where we are moored for winter, in a well trodden path I see her.

A magnificent clump of 4 mushroom caps/shelves 6-10 inches wide and 4 feet up a snapped branch stump. It looked familiar. So I went into standard identification mode and discovered a real gem, Grey Oyster!!...

Pleurotus Ostreatus, the Grey Oyster Mushroom is available all year round and is fairly common, although this is relative as it is the first one I have seen in 50 odd years! But I think thats the joy of Fungi. They remain hidden until you actually start really looking for them. So a few days later I had the time to go back to the spot with my bag and knife ready to take one of the caps to have for lunch!

Shell was just finishing her ten mile training run so we bumped into each other and made our way back to the boat. Showered and ready for our first foraged fungi meal we prepared the cap sliced with some onion and garlic and some extra button mushrooms, lightly fried all of that in a pan, adding some spinach at the end and allowing it to wilt. Not being fussy about presentation we ate stood up as soon as the toast was buttered and a 'shroom pile was steaming on both plates. It was a revelation, meaty, mushroomy but a more delicate flavour than its button counterpart. we both said it would work brilliantly in a stir fry, and later research revealed that it is a very popular genus in Asian cooking, and we know why.

So less than 10 days into 2021 and we had our first considerable forage. Already formulating in our minds is where this could take us? What could nature provide for us. Im planning on swapping out spinach in our diet ( the crop that uses the most pesticides ) and replacing with nettles. Also nettle and mint tea. More Honey from the Dandelions and perhaps some dandy root coffee, definitely more elderflower cordial and perhaps chamapagne. An expansion of my fungi and plant knowledge and hopefully a full larder supplied by Mother Nature herself. We shall see. What a life!

Any or you forage yourselves and are in Cheshire I would be happy to tag along and supply some homemade treats and hot chocolate, in return for some wisdom?!

Thanks for stopping by,

Stay Safe

Love yourself

Chris

First Forage of the Year