My Mycology findings
How did I start learning?
I've been foraging mushrooms for around two years. First time I foraged some was in Hackney Marshes where I saw a woman picking mushrooms that grew in a circle on the grass. I approached to her and told me what they were, when I researched online it seemed she was right. That's when it all begun. A few months later I did a day couse with Wild Food UK where they taught me the basic of mushrrom foraging. Since then, I've been self learning being now able to identify quite a few subspieces of edible and non edible mushrooms.
Some of the mushrooms I've found:
Cauliflower Mushroom
Beef Steak Mushroom
Hen of the Woods
Bay Bolete
Where to start learning?
It's easily to feel overwhelmed when trying to start identifying or foraging mushrooms. I recommend you start with one mushroom at a time - you cannot learn them all at once. You can focus on learning the characteristics of the 3 most common mushrooms in your country on the current season.
Some of the materials I found the most useful when I started are:
- Books: I recommend having a pocket size reference boook you can take with you as well as a more extensive one to reference at home. These are they ones I used:
- Videos: Watching videos of people foraging, giving you tips and showing you how to identify specific mushrooms it's a great way to learn. There's loads of people with great foraging video content online. I especially recommend:
When is the best time to start learning?
I belive there is not such thing as best time to start learning. Although it is true there are more mushrooms in Autumn but there are plenty of mushrooms you can identify in every season.
The best time to start learning is now.