In the autumn each year, we spend most Saturday mornings hunting for porcini mushrooms and other edible fungi in the forest near our home. We have become quite good at spotting the delcious porcini, and we always bring home a couple of baskets to cook with. All the traipsing around in the woods should easily replace our gym efforts, but sadly, we use a lot of butter when preparing the mushrooms back home!
Our biggest haul so far	Two early morning deer
Delicious porcini (ceps)	A ring of mushrooms
Growing on the forest floor	Nature's wonders
	This interesting orange fungus is probably toxic, but pretty.
Near our favourite hunting spot	Another type of mushroom: bay boletus
Nick has a special mushroom stick	The open weave basket helps to distribute the spores.
How did that photo get in here? We saw the excellent Russian performance art group Derevo in Islands in the Streamthe same day we went mushroom hunting. We liked their outfits.
	Our harvest at home.
There are wild ponies in the woods near us.	They seem quite friendly.
A cauliflower fungus. Delicious when cooked.	These mushrooms look like sprouting peanuts to me.
This was the find from one morning's search. We made mushroom ragout with them.
		We took these porcini to our local greengrocer to sell. In London, they fetch £66 (about $117) per kilo!
I included the two photos of Leo Hickman above for the following reasons: I think he's quite cute. His book, A Life Stripped Bare, set us thinking about eating organically and collecting food from nature. As a result, we have started ordering a weekly organic fruit and vegetable box from Riverford and we are now eating a much healthier and more varied diet. I wanted to point out that the broccoli in Mr. Hickman's box on the left is much lower than the broccoli featured on the actual book cover. Was his editor afraid of showing too much skin? I for one bought the book based on its cover.
Back HOME to georgenick.co.uk