Slow Mushrooming Explained On Uncommon Sense
It wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that fungi was classified as its own Kingdom, separate from animals or plants. Co-author of
Wild Mushrooming: A Guide For Foragers Alison Pouliot says in Australia, and particularly Victoria, we classify things just as flora and fauna still – forgetting the third ‘F’. Alison joins Amy to discuss this forgotten kingdom and her new book written with Tom May.
An underlying philosophy of the book is that understanding ecology and conservation is crucial for foraging. Alison says, every forager has to essentially be a conservationist, because you want to protect the place and the environments from which you’re taking something from. that really has to be the starting point.”
Last modified on Tue 16 Mar 2021 15.59 EDT
Good morning. We’re halfway through the working week on Wednesday 17 March and today we have news about calls for Australia to tackle a
resurgence in racism. The
attorney general has delegated duties to avoid conflicts of interest, while Tanya Plibersek is urging Labor staffers to
report sexual harassment.
Top stories
Australia has been urged to adopt a new national anti-racism framework to fight the ‘resurgence of racism’. Australia has not had a national anti-racism plan since 2018 and race discrimination commissioner
Chin Tan says the rise in racism against Asian Australians, Muslims and others is a “significant economic, social and national security threat”. Tan will today
Last modified on Tue 16 Mar 2021 18.15 EDT
Every autumn when the Swiss go out to collect mushrooms, before they return home in the evening to dunk them in fondue, they hand their basket to the Pilzkontrolleur. This mushroom inspector will pluck out any toxic fungi and send them home with what is safe to eat.
The fashion for foraging has made it to Australia, but locally there are no Pilzkontrolleuer offices to visit with your harvest.
Ecologist Alison Pouliot says that while Indigenous Australians have the “oldest foraging culture in the world”, much of Australian society has traditionally been mycophobic – afraid of mushrooms – thanks to the influence of equally fungal-fearing British forebears. Now, waves of immigration from continental Europe and Asia and, more recently, high end restaurant trends, means mushroom foraging is “increasing whether we agree with it or not”.
The mushroom crusader on a mission to teach safe fungus foraging goodfood.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goodfood.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
is the first guidebook to provide comprehensive information about the edibility of fungi found in Australia. The timing is significant as it reflects both a growing mycological knowledge and the groundswell of interest in foraging for wild food.
Learning to identify fungi accurately takes time. Central to the philosophy of this book is the recommendation that foragers take a slow mushrooming approach: a ‘fungal apprenticeship’ of sorts. Building comprehensive knowledge reduces both poisoning risk and environmental harm. Mindful foraging is the basis of a safe and sustainable Australian approach.
Although this book is mostly about wild mushrooming, cultivated species provide the benefit of availability and certainty about identity. Wild-foraged species can be substituted for commercial species found in your local supermarket, in many of the recipes.