In a quiet corner of Co Wicklow, rain has poured all morning leaving the ground sticky with wet leaves.
Rain jackets are zipped tight and boots squelch in the mud as a small group of strangers assemble at the edge of a private forest.
Everyone in the group, young and old, is united by a curiosity for mushrooms.
At the centre of the group stands Bill O’Dea who, with his wife Freda, has been running mushroom hunts in Ireland and abroad since 1996.
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The exact location of the hunt was only revealed a few days prior, adding to the sense of adventure that lay ahead.
Baskets in hand, eager foragers follow Bill, Freda and their dog Musha into the forest for an afternoon of mushroom picking and eating.
Bill is a mycophagist, someone who studies fungi with a view to eating. With his encyclopaedic knowledge, he gives the group a crash-course on the types of mushrooms that may be found along the way, and how they can be identified.
There are about 7,000 mushroom-producing fungi in Ireland, but only a small percentage are edible.
“There’s no shortcut” to mushroom identification, Bill warns, highlighting the importance of consulting an expert when foraging.
It is a topical warning.
Earlier this month, Australian woman Erin Patterson was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in prison after murdering three elderly relatives of her estranged husband by feeding them a beef wellington laced with death cap mushrooms, also known as Amanita phalloides.
They are at the top of the page listing poisonous mushrooms that Bill has given foragers to look at before heading off on the hunt.
Smooth and almost shiny, the death cap is often greenish to a dirty brown, becoming pale in wet weather. It is responsible for the majority of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide.
On the same list is the fly agaric, also known as Amanita muscaria. With its bright red cap dotted in white, it looks like it has come straight from the pages of a children’s fairytale. Though considered poisonous, there are few recorded deaths from its consumption. It is a psychoactive fungus, and can cause hallucinogenic and intoxicating effects.
On the other side of the page is the reason many foragers have come here today, the edible varieties. Porcini, regarded as a good mushroom for cooking, has already been found by one member of the group, near the car park of the forest.
Also on the list to find are chanterelles, known for their yellow gills and apricot smell, among other edible mushrooms, such as puffballs and cauliflower fungus. Any edible mushrooms found along the way will be put aside by Bill later for cooking and tasting.
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After the brief overview of the mushrooms that may be found, foragers are encouraged to wander through the forest and pick any mushroom they encounter, bringing them back to Bill and Freda later for identification.
Some wander off in pairs, others decide to forage alone. Those who stick close to Bill watch as he comfortably plucks mushrooms from the ground, identifying and describing each one with ease.
First-time foragers may feel nervous at the prospect of eating anything beyond supermarket mushrooms. Bill remarks that Ireland is a “fungophobic society”.
Unlike mainland Europe, where mushroom foraging is more common, he suspects that a handful of poisoning cases in the past may have passed wariness about wild mushrooms down through generations of Irish people. However, the interest and enthusiasm among those gathered for the hunt suggest attitudes are beginning to change.
By the afternoon, foragers return with their hauls to lay their finds on to a long wooden table, where they are encouraged to sort the mushrooms themselves into different identifications. Bill moves from pile to pile, lifting and identifying each type of mushroom.
Not all are destined for the pan, of course. The brown roll-rim, for example, may look harmless but is highly toxic. Bill explains that it may not kill after a single meal, but repeated consumption can lead to death. No death cap mushrooms are found on this hunt, though they are known to grow in Ireland.
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Freda demonstrates that mushrooms have uses beyond the kitchen. The dyer’s mazegill, for example, can be used to dye fabrics. She produces swatches of gold and cream cloths, their colours drawn out by boiling mushrooms in water.
Meanwhile, the edible mushrooms are set aside for a feast. Bill fries them in a pan with butter, grapeseed oil and salt. Cups of home-made mushroom soup are passed around, warming cold fingers after a morning spent in the rain.
As hungry foragers dig into the freshly cooked mushrooms served simply with bread, there is a quiet satisfaction shared in eating food gathered only hours before from the damp forest.
For a few short hours, the only purpose is to forage for food, to search, identify, and finally to cook. It is a calm rhythm that offers a rare respite from the noise of the outside world.
Bill and Freda’s next mushroom hunt will take place near Dublin on Sunday, September 21st. Mushroomstuff.com
