Overview
Come and join us foraging for the day as part of Ring of Gullion’s Autumn Fest 2023. The story of wild food and medicine is as much part of our heritage as is song, poetry, storytelling.
As autumn moves to winter we find less and less to forage or so it seems to the untrained eye.
Many of our fruiting fungi friends have gone back down into the mycellium but there may still be some cold weather mushroom specialists to find and explore.
There are also many edible wild roots if you know where to look and autumn / winter is the perfect time to harvest them as all of that summer goodness and nutrition has been transferred below ground.
If we’re lucky, some edible berries and nuts may still be hanging on.
For thousands of years up until the recent past this is exactly what our ancestors did to survive and thrive so lets follow in their footsteps for a day.
Join me on a wild food exploration day and together we will begin to peel back the layers to the mysterious kingdom of fungi, roots and berries.
- We’ll try to find any cold weather mushroom specialists and perhaps some of the last of our autumn fungal friends depending on how frosty the weather has become
- Learn how to ID fungi and mushrooms in a systematic way using a mushroom identification key – field guide
One of the names for a mushroom in the Irish language is ‘Fás aon Oíche’ which translates literally as ‘The growth of one night’. They say that mushrooms hide when they hear you coming ! They definitely occupy an elusive world of folklore and fantasy.
I have been watching, learning , studying fungi and wild food for many years and would love to share some of that knowledge with you.
Included in your day:
- Approximate 5 hour day including foraging walk of 2.5 + hours, light lunch, ID skills, wild food processing, cooking and tasting.
- We meet at 10.15 am at a location close to my home (exact details on booking)
- We begin with walk of field and forest looking for mushrooms, fungi, roots and berries. (please note that it is not permitted to uproot any plant without land-owner permission)
- Learn how to ID mushrooms in a structured way using a proper ‘field ID guide’
- You then drive back the short distance to our home and barn where Lorraine will be waiting with a warming cup of our signature mushroom soup, bread and a range of wild and preserved foods
- After lunch, we can futher explore and expand on our IDs again learning the essential skills of using a key and wide range of books and other sources.
- We go for a short faraging walk again and I will show you how to spot the small above ground clues indicating a rich bounty of tasty nutrtious roots just below the surface. Together we will dig, harvest, process cook and taste these.
- There will also be a range of other preserved wild plant roots to learn about, see and taste.
Sustainably sourced and ethically foraged ingredients only will be used.
