Foraging & Feasting

To many, fungi are the stuff of fairy tale, associated with witchcraft or psychedelics. I embarked on a mushroom-foraging expedition in Ashdown Forest with Emma Phillips for Suitcase Magazine. Scanning the floor, feet treading softly between open heathland and birch wood. The scent of autumn, of moisture and decaying leaves, hangs thick in the air and, at the foot of the trees, you can see blooms of yellow sulphur tuft rearing their many heads. After scouring our basket was full of wild fungi findings, and our brains trying to remember all the mushroom knowledge our guide had bestowed upon us, we delivered out basket of goodies to Fire & Wild who treated us to a truly special forest dining experience. Many of what we ate was foraged or even hunted in the same forest where we feasted.