The Ramblers - Derbyshire Dales Group

Freedom and food for free

Usually when I walk my eyes are raised. As you may know I am on the lookout for our avian friends. I am not an ardent ”€˜twitcher” but I do twitch a bit especially when something exciting turns up out of the blue such as the kingfisher we saw in Bradford Dale the other day €“ that wasn’t out of the blue, more like a blue flash then it landed close by, a superb sight.

However today’s walk had a dual purpose, it was August and very few birds were around so it was eyes down, instead of up, and on the lookout for fungi or mushrooms. Field mushrooms, horse mushrooms, giant puffballs or anything edible, we weren’t fussy. The walk was not to be long nor was it to be short, just right like Goldilocks porridge, or a typical €”Thursday” walk. I won’t tell you where we started. Soon we spied our quarry, round white caps poking through the lush green pasture with pink gills and that lovely ˜mushroomy” smell. These were the field mushrooms that we had hoped for. Now I have two rules about mushroom gathering €“ the first is that I have to be certain of what they are, and the second certain of what they are not. Some fungi are poisonous but not deadly, some are deadly poisonous, and some make you hallucinate. Names like Destroying Angel, Death Cap and The Sickener spring to mind. There is no antidote to some of them and the poison is cunning in that after the initial sickness etc. one feels there is some respite but then things go rapidly downhill until complete liver and kidney failure occurs. Death is the usual outcome. I do have other minor rules involving the proximity of cow pats and percentage of maggots – but lets not go there. Enough of that, we were enjoying ourselves, with mushrooms in profusion and by the time we found our perfect lunch spot with manifold views of distant hills shaped like a dragon’s back, we had a bag full.

Here’s a puzzle for you €“ how do you weigh a bag full of mushrooms when you are miles from anywhere with only the usual Ramblers’ accoutrements?”  You might ask why, but the recipe for soup requires a particular quantity. (Ask Pam if you require the recipe)

Moving on, we were torn between hoping for more mushrooms and hoping for no more as we had to carry them! It is very difficult to resist picking when they are there in such profusion. Two ravens, a third as large again as crows, cruised overhead, our attention grabbed by their deep guttural croaking, the sheen on their inky black wings reflecting the light as they then tumbled and turned above us. Magical. Oh no, more mushrooms  we picked again and doubled our take and soon it was time for tea. We found another perfect spot by a river. By now we had stopped looking down and as I looked up I glimpsed a kestrel hovering, its head motionless despite the stiff breeze. How impressive, unless you are an unsuspecting mouse scurrying between tussocks. Further searching revealed another, then two more, an inspiring sight. The four kestrels were stationed at intervals along the escarpment as if to guard some long forgotten castle perhaps as their ancestors did.

Soon we were back to base having enjoyed the freedom of the hills and with over 9 lbs of food for free. As we work our way through a freezer full of tasty mushroom soup this winter we will look back with happy memories of our walk in August. Where were we foraging? You should have guessed by now. Remember my €”rules” and if the thought of being poisoned stops you collecting fungi I’ll shed a few crocodile tears as hopefully more mushrooms will be left for me!

Graham Games

[Front page] [Walks Programme] [Chairman] [New Membership Secretary] [Keswick weekend] [Lake District 2010] [Footpaths] [Volunteers Required] [Articles] [Plinth Penguin] [Pennine Way] [High Tatras] [Alison Uttley] [Without sight] [Lancasters] [Snow shoeing] [Sir Joseph Whitworth] [Cromford Canal walk] [Coast to Coast] [An Alternative Ramble] [Lyme Disease] [Super-fly] [Freedom and food for free] [South West Coastal Path] [Medieval Manifold] [Aircraft Crashes] [Ethiopia] [Dogs] [Derbyshire Area] [Social events] [Committee] [Walking holiday] [Constitution] [Yahoo Group] [Links]