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Edible Mushrooms ...

It could be said that there are three motivations for those who enjoy gathering wild, edible

mushrooms. The first is primitive: we love to hunt for free food. The second is commercial: some species

can be sold for astonishingly high prices. The third is the one that I think applies to most

mushroom gatherers and, I hope, to the readers of

this blog  it is aesthetic. The object is not just to find

the ingredients for a tasty meal or to make a

small addition to the bank balance, for the search

for mushrooms can take us into incredibly

beautiful places, where we will be captivated by

their perfection, the strangeness of their life-cycle,

and their unpredictable habits.The pastime is given

an extra edge by the uncertainty of their appearing at all. 

There are days when we just know that any chance of ahaul is slight. On other days, we can sense that mushrooms will be there, ready for the picking. And when we find a bumper crop, it is thrilling.We tell everyone about it, and even share ourbounty-but we keep its location a secret, to be told only to our families or our closest friends.