Meet the fungi fanatic dispelling myths around mushrooms
From his home in the Elan Valley of Wales, fungi fanatic Daniel Butler is on a mission to dispel the myths around mushrooms.
"Any day now, there will be a scare story in the press about wild mushrooms poisoning people," Daniel says. "It happens every year and deters people from foraging."
To put the risk in perspective, there have been only a handful of adult fatalities from fungi in the past century, while every year there are 6,000 deaths from accidents in the home."*
In the more than 25 years that Daniel, a writer and smallholder, has led guided walks in Mid Wales, he has been on a mission to dispel the myths surrounding one of his favourite foods.
He explains that, unlike the cultivated species in supermarkets, wild mushrooms are richer than you might expect and less easily digested. "Any ill-effects are usually down to eating too many at one sitting," he says. "The correct portion is 50g per person, and they should be used as an adornment to a meal rather than being the centrepiece, to add a special touch to soups, risottos and casseroles."
Of the 1,000 species we can find in Britain with the naked eye, he continues: "A very small number are potentially fatal, while the vast majority are harmless and many are delicious. Our prejudices are not shared on the Continent, where the ancient pastime of foraging is still valued."
From early September through October, Daniel takes small groups of fellow foragers to hunt for mushrooms in the tranquil Elan Valley, a pristine landscape of small farms, mixed woodland and clear rivers.
On today's ramble in a conifer plantation, there's a frisson of excitement as members of the group make their way through the leaf litter, eyes fixed to the ground, watching for telltale signs of hidden treasure. Their finds will contribute to a meal later at Daniel's home, a 17th-century longhouse near Rhayader.
Trees are cloaked in moss and lichen, ferns in every shade of green flourish in the humus-rich soil, and the forest floor is scattered with fir cones. Damp, earthy smells mingle with woodsmoke, while far above the forest canopy the raucous calls of jays can be heard.
Daniel is as knowledgeable about wildlife in the air as he is about wild food on the ground and flies his goshawk, Sky, every day. On his 13 acres he also keeps rescue pigs, a horse, poultry (foxes permitting) and two dogs (Gem, a lurcher, and Holly, a Jack Russell).
"On a good day, we can expect to find a dozen edible varieties," Daniel says, setting the bar high for today's search. The first discovery is a patch of porcini, identified by their spongy gills, brown caps and thick beige and cream stalks.
Highly prized in cooking and highly priced in the deli, there are enough to share, so they are carefully sliced off with a knife and placed in a willow basket. In one season, Daniel estimates that he picks 50kg of porcini, which he dries on wire racks above the woodburner.
As the morning progresses more delicacies are unearthed, including hedgehog fungus – a strangely shaped species with tiny spines rather than gills, hence its name and popularity with young foragers.
Giant puffballs are unmistakable, growing as large as three feet across; their firm, white flesh is a good substitute for pasta in a lasagne. Contrasting in shape and size, a flush of chanterelles is a welcome revelation, with delicately fluted golden trumpets that have a distinct aroma of apricots.
Daniel is self-taught, but over the years has amassed a wealth of knowledge ever since tasting a wild mushroom he found on a haystack in 1992. Two years later he swapped city life for the Welsh countryside to pursue his dream of self-sufficiency, and found tiny parasols growing in front of his house, so his fascination for fungi grew.
"The first course I organised, in 1997, was as a favour to local hoteliers – now I make half my annual income from them." To extend the season, he offers courses from April onwards, because another myth is that mushrooms are seen only in autumn.
"From Easter, a distant drum roll gradually increases. St George's Mushroom traditionally appears on 23 April; in May you might find three different species, four in June, five in July. Then it's full on from mid-September, and one October morning I collected my personal record of 31 edibles," he says.
Daniel believes the biggest myth of all is that picking mushrooms damages the environment. The banning of mushroom foraging has a complicated history. Commercial picking has been banned in the New Forest in Hampshire for several years because it's a Site of Special Scientific Interest, although monitoring this has proved difficult and there were reports of groups of people arriving at dawn to harvest large amounts for commercial gain.
To crack down on such activity, as well as protect the mushrooms' habitat, in 2016 the ban was extended to prevent even the collection of small amounts for personal consumption in areas where foragers were accused of uprooting native plants.
However, Daniel says: "The fact is, you can't uproot a mushroom because it doesn't have a root. Most of the fungus is underground where the mycelium (the vegetative part) wraps itself around the root of a tree or shrub and taps into it for nutrients.
"It breaks down leaf litter, absorbs it into its structure and pumps it into the tree; in return, it extracts sugar and water from the tree. Trees and mushrooms have a symbiotic relationship."
To emphasise his point, Daniel challenged the "no picking" rule by foraging in the New Forest, and this resulted in a climb-down by the Forestry Commission, which conceded that banning "harvesting on any scale" was not legally enforceable.
Back at the smallholding, Daniel rustles up a sumptuous lunch for the group of 12 – truffled cream of celeriac soup with homemade ciabatta, wild mushroom stroganoff on basmati rice or a ragu cacciatore made of home-reared pork cooked with porcini, tomato and home-grown herbs.
"The dessert, lemon cheesecake, is low on mushrooms – but think of this as being let off for good behaviour!" he says. The foragers, now replete with the fruits of their labours, all leave as new converts to the magic of mushrooms.
For more information, visit fungiforays.co.uk.
* Rospa Figuire. To ensure safe foraging, join a group led by a mushroom expert.
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