We were very lucky to be visited by the incredibly knowledgable and engaging Michael White. He is a wild food and self sufficiency expert and came to talk to us, in particular, about the marvellous world of mushrooms!

We started with a game of delicious or deadly where we had to vote which plant we would have opted to eat out of two. Fortunately, not a real event as 95% of us would have been wiped out in the first round by possibly the most poisonous plant in the British Isles: Hemlock Water Dropwort!

Then Michael started introducing the stars of the show....the mushroom. We learnt LOADS. We puffed puffballs and bruised boletes. We learned how Otzi the 5000 year old ice man (Europe's oldest known mummy) had been carrying a Birch Polypore fungi which was threaded with a leather string. He was almost certainly carrying it for medicinal purposes as Birch Polypore is known for its antibacterial properties. We learnt the distinctive red and white spotted Fly Agaric mushroom gets its name fromthe medieval practice of breaking up the caps and leaving them in milk to stupefy flies. 

Michael had made us some mushroom sweets which lots of us were keen to try and most of us thought were delicious! We then went on a tour of Deggs Wood to see what fungi we could find. It was brilliant fun and we found lots - somegot really good at identifying milk caps, amanitas, boletes and brackets.

When we came across a rotting Stinkhorn (it really was stinky), Michael looked just beneath the leaf mould and discovered.....a witch's egg. This is a young Stinkhorn mushroom. He cut it open and the more curious and (arguably) braver amongst the group gave it a try. Some of them even tried the incredibly gooey, jelly casing. The tasting crew agreed it tasted a 'little nutty' and 'a bit like a radish' but given the option they preferred the mushroom sweets!!!

The children loved Michael's visit and we are ever so grateful to him for coming to visit and sharing his passion for foraging with us. Thank you so much to Bluebell (Karen Cowell) for organising this special morning. Take a look at the photos from the session here. If you would like to know more about his rural courses or to follow him on Instagram, click on the links below.

https://www.instagram.com/rural_courses/

https://www.ruralcourses.co.uk/