I’m not a mushroom expert, but I fully expect to recognise something edible when I find it. This smelt and felt and tasted like a field mushroom. It didn’t look that much like one, but that’s because it was about eight times the size. I remember my dad picing one twelve inces across at Virginia Water when I was a kid, so I know they come like that. This had a white cap, brown gills and was just field mushroom in every cell of its being.
Then I looked in the mirror, and my face was bright red! “Ahhh, I’ve poisoned myself!” I thought. In fact I said it, to the mirror. And to the dog. I peered down my top and up my jumper, trying to work out if I had a rash. No. I sniffed the mushroom. I tasted the mushroom Definitely OK.
Then I realised – after all that – it must be sunburn. It is another of life’s strange little phenomena that however tanned I get (I’ve been reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and sunbathing in the garden all summer, for heaven’s sake) I get sunburnt if I go somewhere different. Like Minnions in Cornwall, and Wick in Caithness. It’s as if the sun is of a different quality – or coming at me from a different angle? Answers in a tweet please.
Anyway, Samsung Keis is only 64% downloaded so you won’t be seeing photos of the huge non-poisonous mushroom tonight. Maybe when I next get to WiFi land…
In the meantime, a list of foraged goods:
- Psilocybin mushrooms (John O’Groats, numerous stone circles, Beinn Ghlas)
- Coltsfoot (John O’Groats but masses everywhere)
- Giant chamomile (John O’Groats – don’t know it’s proper name)
- Field mushrooms (Castle Sinclair)
- Sorrel (John O’Groats , Castle Sinclair, Beinn Ghlas)
- Guelder Rose (Noss Lighthouse carpark)
- Clipper lighter (Wick – functioning, hi-viz orange, with gas)
- Balls – for the dog (Wick, Inverness, Birks o’ Aberfeldy)
- Chanterelles (Loch Ashie)
- Blaeberries (Ladder Hills, Druim an Aird carpark, Beinn Ghlas)
Permaculture House In Totnes 