Fungal frolics
Question: In continental Europe, gathering wild mushrooms is a popular
pastime and knowledge of types and their culinary varieties is widespread. In
Britain few people can tell one mushroom from another. Why? Surely there was a
time when Britain’s rural population ate anything edible. Has mushroom lore
simply been lost?
Answer: There is no good evidence that the British ever had any fungus lore
worth losing. Our ancestors, both Saxon and Celtic, seemed to consider them
“poisonous damp weeds”, typically found near serpents’ dens, and treated them
accordingly. With very few exceptions (field mushrooms, blewits, and a few…
