Moon Down are pleased to welcome John Wright, an acknowledged expert and author in foraging for wild food.
John has written:
Mushrooms: River Cottage Handbook No 1
Hedgerow: River Cottage Handbook No 7
Edible Seashore: River Cottage Handbook No 5
http://www.wild-food.net
John runs foraging courses at River Cottage in South East Devon, at the Kingcombe Centre in West Dorset and on the New Forest, so we are especially pleased that John has agreed to run two mushroom foraging courses for us in the South East.
In the Press:
Read Courier reporter Lee Moran’s article on the 2011 mushroom foraging course. Click here >>
A typical day’s programme to include all refreshments and substantial 3-course lunch with wine.
| 10.00 am | Meet at Moon Down – Tea/Coffee & biscuits |
| 10.30 am | Let the foraging begin! |
| 1.30 pm | Cookery demonstration from our resident Chef, Clive followed by a delicious 3-course lunch with wine. |
| 3.00 pm | Time to take a closer look at the morning’s finds with John followed by a Q&A session. |
| 4.30 pm | Afternoon Tea with homemade cake. |
| 5.00 pm | Time to go home… |
What do I need to bring?
You only need to bring yourself, dressed appropriately for a day’s foraging, so stout boots or shoes teamed with warm and weatherproof clothing.
Wear
layers as the weather can be changeable and foraging will go ahead, wind,
rain or sunshine!
What I don’t need to bring?
Sorry no children under 16 or dogs.
“Rather
like traveling to pastures new (literally) when it comes to fungus forays
so my trip to Moon Down was something I had been looking forward to immensely.
Despite many of the fungi disappearing due to the very dry and unseasonal
weather Moon Down was a treasure-trove of fungi.
The mixture of old pasture, pine, spruce, oak, beech, burnt areas and wood chippings along paths gave a hugely varied habitat and a correspondingly large variety of fungi. Being a bit of an anorak I was particularly pleased to see many hundreds of Bird’s Nest Fungi nestling on some chippings, a rare, beautiful apricot coloured species called Rhodotus palmatus which grows on elm logs and many other uncommon fungi.
Not that our guests, who, truth be told, were interested mainly in what we could eat, went home dissatisfied as we found many edible species including Penny Bun, Cow Bolete, Shaggy Ink Caps, Fairy Ring Champignon (lots!), Puffballs and several more.
I can’t
wait for next year.”
John Wright
