Mushrooms in the Great Wild Wood

Wood Mushrooms, Agaricus silvaticus

Cleaned, trimmed and ready to go. Wood mushrooms, Agaricus silvaticus

Gday again!

Lovely conditions of late for all kinds of things to sprout. I found a beaut little patch by my house that was absolutely loaded with edible mushrooms and very healthy looking Milk Thistle plants.

Now, I know a lot of people are wary of wild mushrooms, and fair enough. Although wild mushroom harvesting is probably on average less dangerous than table tennis the new picker has good reason to be cautious. Until you are VERY familiar with a species, mistakes can be made. Usually these result in a nasty case of indigestion, gastric irritation etc but death can occur as well.

If you want to learn about mushrooms, be sure to start off with the most common species, and learn very early how to tell the apart from likely look-a-likes.

Enough nagging. These awesome little guys are Wood Mushrooms, aka Agaricus silvaticus. They smell and taste much like the standard culinary mushroom, or "field mushroom", but with a somewhat scaly looking cap often flushed pink/red in fresh young specimens. Spore print will be a rich purple-brown, gills should be pale pink on young specimens and a rich brown in older ones. Damaged caps and stems placed on white paper will often "bleed" a faint red liquid into the paper. There is often a very thin, fragile "ring" high up on the stem, and a swollen base is common too.

These were sprouting happily from disturbed ground after moderate rainfall, under some lillypilly and lantana of all things.

The nearest local lookalike is the Green Gills, aka Chlorophyllum molybdites, easy ID'd by the greenish tinge to the gills, a rank smell and a generally horrible appearance.

When trying any mushroom for the first time or two, even a common edible species I advise that you just eat a small amount, always cooked, and see how you feel later in the day. Some people are allergic to certain edible mushroom, while other people can eat them by the bagfull and end up with nothing worse than sauce all down the front of their shirt!

After being thoroughly ID'd, trimmed, dusted and wiped over with a damp cloth I went the traditonal route and chopped em, tossed in a pan with olive oil and pepper and served on hot buttered toast. Delicious! So much more character than the plain old store bought mushie and I easily gathered nearly two kilos of fresh specimens within an area barely 3 metres across.

There are many excellent mushroom ID resources and forums online if you want to start learning. Grow kits and mini farms can be had at fairly reasonable prices too. You will often find that tossing and old mushroom kit into your lawn or veggie patch will lead to them becoming permanent residents for free. Well, nearly permanent - about as long as it takes you to pull the up and make some mushroom gravy for your roast beef and potatoes!

Remember, do your research before tucking in. But with proper guidance anyone can learn to reliably ID a handful of the most common edible species.

Happy hunting and have fun foraging!
Aaron

Nettles and kettles.

Happy little patch of Stinging Nettle / Scrub Nettle, Urtica incisa

Gday!

Well with the soggy weather of the last few months, local wild resources are all booming. The cows are happily trampling the lush grass, frightening the gigantic grasshoppers into the waiting mouths of gleaming bearded dragons and the wide spanning reach of golden orb weaver webs. The wallabies and gliders are all getting a bit chubby round the edges and I saw a bush rat you could've saddled the other night.

One thing that is very tender and juicy at the moment is the Stinging Nettle. In my part of Australia, this usually means the Scrub Nettles, Urtica incisa. Very vicious little buggers, even after the usual tricks like damping them down or using thin gloves. These little fellas will happily bite you through a pair of washing up gloves and have given me a bit of a nip ever after a good soak in a bucket of water.

However, they're tasty and useful and just about the only thing the local cows and kangaroos won't demolish. With a habit of turning up all over the place they're a food worth learning to like.

I like my nettles somewhere between flowering and JUST starting to seed. I usually focus on taking the top half off the plant which seems tastier and definitely more tender than the lower, coarser stuff.

Take a long knife or secateurs, some thick gloves, long pants and covered shoes. If you get stung, or your faithful but dopey dog charges into a patch and gets stung all over, consider commercial preparations like Sting-gose or Soov, or the more traditional remedy of strong citrus juice or vinegar.

Non-seedy nettles make a great slashed top dressing for your veggie patch, or convert to liquid plant food by covering a bucket of nettles with water. Cover and allow to soak for a week. Strain, dilute to the colour of weak tea and feed it to any nitrogen loving plants such as tomatoes.

For cooking, there are many traditional european recipes, some of them rich with game meat and wild herbs. Personally I use it much like spinach or kale - toss and season in a hot pan with butter or macadamia oil as a hot side of greens. Or strip leaves, finely chop and add to your favourite fetta pastry recipe in lieu of spinach or silverbeet. Finely chop and add to omelet with parsley and aussie made cheese.

You can also just use the leaves, roughly chopped to bung in a pot of stew or sauce. They add an earthy, nutty flavour that really compliments rich, cold weather cooking. Also very handy for bushwalkers or travellers as these guys really do turn up just about everywhere, can be picked fresh, very easy to ID and make a nice addition to long-life stabilised foods. Lots of minerals and other goodies in them.

I tried making a simple ale with malt extract and a strong nettle tea once, maybe my technique was off that day but within a week it smelled like swamp gas and looked like something a frog threw up. Out the window it went!

Now, I can hear you wondering, what does any of this have to do with kettles? Well, young flowering tops and small, young leaves can be picked, dried in a breezy spot and made into a tasty soothing cuppa tea. Just rinse, then dry and finely chop or powder with a herb grinder. Use two or three teaspoons for every cup of hot water, and a few "for the pot". Bring to a gentle simmer, remove from heat and allow to soak (steep) for 10 minutes. Strain into cups, add a dash of aussie bush honey if you have it, or maybe a squeeze of lemon. Stevia, good old sugar and pomegranate molasses also make for a tasty brew.

Made into "billy tea" with a few sprigs of ti tree or lemon gum leaves and plenty of sweetening is a good brew when you're out in the bush. But use a real fire, I'm not sure why it is but good old fire and woodsmoke make everything taste better!

You can also combine it with green or black tea for an energising, cleansing cuppa with a naturally sweet flavour and at least some of your daily intake of vitamins and minerals.

Sip slowly with your feet up!

Great for congestion and sore throats, and offered by some naturopaths and herbalists as a traditional treatment for urinary tract issues.

Thanks for reading guys, don't get stung!
Aaron

Welcome to Wild Food Forays.

G'day out there,

This is a blog I started to post and discuss my wild food resources and techniques. I live in the beautiful Somerset Region of Queensland, a lovely mix of regrowth, native scrub, rainforest pockets, lush pasture and meandering waterways. Clean air, friendly locals and a laid back, hands on way of life are all in good supply. Wildlife and plant life abounds, both native and introduced. All growing madly on our rich soil and decent rainfall.

My interests include bush foods / bush tucker, finding garden variety species that have escaped cultivation, edible weeds, foraging, colonial foods and recipes, survival / famine foods, low intensity wild gardening, food preservation, mushrooms, wild animals foods such as freshwater fish and (mostly!) healthy cooking.

Wild medicines, gathering techniques, advice and whatever little thoughts float behind my eyes will also be making an appearance.

Please note that despite being a somewhat experienced wild food fan, qualified Horticulturalist and long time fan of all things feral, using any information found here is at your own risk. Please do a bit of research, look around and consider your circumstances before identifying, gathering or eating wild foods and medicines.

If you have any questions or comments please feel welcome to chime in, or email me direct at wildfoodforays@gmail.com.

Have a good one,
Aaron.