The importance of foraging

By Matthew Rooney

The importance of foraging. It has become fashionable in recent years for conservation minded people to criticise the act of foraging. “It’s rapeing the countryside”, “there are gangs of commercial foragers pillaging our forests” and so on. Look but don’t touch is their mantra. I have grown up with this mantra for over forty years…

Mushroom News: Fungi Picking Ban “unscientific” say fungi experts

By Matthew Rooney

A number of newspaper have reported that the Forestry Commission plan to introduce a complete ban on fungi picking in the New Forest. This appears to be a gut reaction to the poor mushroom season last year and is based on no known scientific evidence. In fact there are a number of long term scientific…