Picking wild edible mushrooms
Wild mushroom haul. View more images
The day we decided to pick wild edible forest mushrooms began with three ominous signs.
The first sign was the weather – a grey rain filled sky and harsh cold winds. The second saw both soles on my hiking boots fall off on the way to the forest. The third, and perhaps the most obvious sign, was that the forest we were supposed to forage in was being cut down around us as we arrived.
I brought my husband and two kids along for a mushroom foraging adventure in the Lidsdale State Forest, just beyond Lithgow and the Blue Mountains in NSW. But as we jumped out of the car, and I saw pine trees fall, I wasn’t too sure of our chances of safely finding wild mushrooms.
Edible mushroom picking in pictures
“My family go wild edible mushroom foraging beyond the Blue Mountains. Join us on this tasty journey.”
From Wild mushroom foraging, posted by Trina Tune on 4/30/2013 (28 items)
- As we arrive at our mushrooming destination the forest around us is being felled.
- Our guide Margaret points out the two edible mushrooms we can pick – slippery jacks (…
- (Foreground) Margaret scrapes back the mustard yellow spongy underside of a slippery …
- A shiny, brown slippery jack.
- Up close – the spongy underside of a slippery jack.
- My daughter proudly holds a huge slippery jack that she found.
- A fresh saffron milk cup emerges from the pine needle covered forest floor.
- A broken saffron milk cap stem reveals its distinctive saffron coloured flesh.
- My fingers are soon stained a saffron colour after picking many saffron milk caps – o…
- Damaged saffron milk cap gills soon turn green form oxidisation.
- My kids show off the rather large saffron milk caps that they have found.
- Ok, me too. I can’t help but pick this huge beauty which later becomes a tasty soup….
- Two old fogies – a mangled old mushroom and my gaffa taped boots, which once saw bett…
- Beware – of beautiful but deadly mushrooms. If in doubt throw it out.
- Make sure your kids don’t pick up any ‘dubious’ mushrooms.
- Look but don’t touch! I just loved these fairy-like mushrooms.
- Where is the smurf?
- My son’s bounty!
- Sorting the mushies – my foraging group gets busy.
- Close up of our haul – the slippery jacks are the spongy mustard yellow and brown-top…
- More hauls.
- Preparing a slippery jack to eat raw. Peel off the slimy brown top and slice – yum!
- Be careful not to get lost in the forest – thank god my daughter loves bright pink!
- Frying up the saffron milk caps with olive oil and onions.
- Pure heaven! Fried saffron milk caps (whole) on sourdough toast with sliced slippery …
- Pickled saffron milk caps.
- A lone saffron milk cap travels home on the dash with us.
- I turn the rest of the saffron milk caps into soup when I get home.
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Fancy a food forage?
Delicious foraged fig wrapped in pancetta thanks to my sister-in-law
I’m always itching for a good food forage, and Green Lifestyle has published a great article on an Italian Aussie, Diego Bonetto, who has definitely been bitten by the foraging bug.
In the article, Diego says his favourite foraging ingredients are mushrooms, dandelion, wild fennel, wild olives and wild asparagus. Some of my favourite foraging plants are native spinach and purslene.
My brother and his family are also awesome fig foragers (among many other fruits), and I’m always overjoyed when they share their harvest with me.
Mushroom fetish in the forest
Delicious wild saffron milk cup bounty
Fetishes come in all forms, and my friend Lou recently discovered hers is in the shape of a foraged mushroom.
Read on to learn how Lou developed this delicious fetish out in the middle of a pine forest.
Words and pictures by Lou Clifton
Foraging is a word I rarely used until a few weeks ago. But I have since discovered a sub culture of foragers making the most of nature’s kitchen and sharing their discoveries with others through lovely blogged stories and images. I’m now rather hooked on foraging. It’s the antidote for our consumer society, finding food and supplies in the bush and taking what you need. It’s a lovely feeling that is hard to describe until you get a foraging fetish.
Gardening is gangsta
Now this is the type of gangsta I want moving in next door.
Guerrilla gardener Ron Finley, who lives in South Central LA, received a warrant for his arrest when he planted his verge with vegetables.
Purslane – grow your own Omega-3
Purslane growing wild along a pavement
It’s amazing that here in Australia purslane (also known as pig weed) is considered a weed. It grows rampant where I live, and I picked my first crop growing along a sidewalk down by a city river.
Being a succulent, purslane seems adapted to growing in most places – particularly where many other plants won’t – like in sidewalk cracks and between pavers. I have to admit that I am guilty of ripping purslane out of paving around my house when I thought it was nothing more than a weed.
Mobile garden ideas
Why not launder some strawberries?
Who said gardens had to stay put? I love all the ideas in here for taking your garden with you, and hey … one of the ideas is mine 
Take a look at the slideshow on the thedailygreen website
Guinea pig compost machines
Our fluffy little compost machines
We recently adopted two guinea pigs from some old neighbours who moved overseas.
Besides being super cute pets for the kids, the guinea pigs are also proving to be excellent composting machines and lawn mowers.
Although they are small they sure can eat and poo a lot.
How to get composting
Simple compost bin with comfrey plant – a great compost accelerator
Composting is great for your garden and the environment. It cuts down household waste, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves soil organically.
Best of all composting systems can be cheap to set up, easy to run and fit almost anywhere.There are a variety of composting methods and ways to contain your organic matter – from a simple heap, pit or enclosure to bins, barrels and worm farms. All have their advantages and varying reasons for use.
