From wild curry to champion truffle hounds
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From wild curry to champion truffle hounds
I love the approaching autumn and its hive of activity. With porcini, chanterelles, charcoal burners and a host of other mushrooms in the basket there are hints that it's round the corner.
The summer has been a bit of a damp July and August but for us here in Scotland this is far more normal than last year’s Mediterranean heatwave. It is creating the humid conditions that fungi love for fruiting, trying to tempt me out from behind my desk. I’m busy writing up the results of The Wildbiome Project. This fascinating project kept 24 other foragers and me busy trying to live only on wild food from March to June. Nearly all the blood tests are in and we’re waiting on the gut microbiome analysis. What happened is under wraps at the moment but will be discussed in a special edition of BBC4 The Food Programme with Dan Saladino and Tim Spector planned for 15th October.
Now is the time to start looking for wild mushrooms - of course only eat those you can 100% identify as safe. If you’re not sure come on a course. Elderberries are ripe when they are dusky black - they’re nearly ready here - and the bunch hangs down instead of up. Don’t forget you must cook them. A friend of mine - who should have known better - made a raw elderberry smoothie. His wife and daughter still haven’t forgiven him yet! Raw elderberries will give you stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
Rowan berries are ready to pick when they are deep orange/red. They are very tart but, cooked with sugar into a tangy sweet ‘n’ sour jelly, they are excellent with meat. I also preserve some of them whole in a light syrup. We’ll be pairing these with rabbit in a Tandoori Rabbit & Rowan Kadai (see below) for the Wild Curry Night. In herbal medicine hawthorn berry and rowan berry are often used to help people who have problems breaking down fats. They seem to help tone the gallbladder too. Like elder they are best cooked. Rowan’s tartness comes from parasorbic acid and cooking or freezing transforms this into harmless sorbic acid.
Here are some events I am involved with that are coming up.
If you want to escape the Edinburgh Festival, or are commutable to Central Scotland, hop on a train for the evening and discover Bathgate’s best-kept secret. On Sunday 27 August, I’m hosting a Wild Curry Night at Indie Roots, a fabulous Indian restaurant This is only the third pop up in 5 years - so they are as precious as hen’s teeth - when incredible Keralan chef Vinod and I put our heads together to create a foraged wild fusion menu.
We’ve created a menu to swoon over - Wild Garlic & Orache Tarka Dahl Saag, Sea Buckthorn Tilapia Tandoori Machli, Jack by the Hedge Chestnut Naan Bread, anyone? To check out what else you could be eating and to book your table, click the button below. V, VG options available for all courses and other dietary requirements can be catered for. I’ve even put the train times from Edinburgh and Glasgow for you.
Next up is the Scottish Wild Food Festival on Saturday 16th September at the Tir na nOg Holistic Centre, Balfron Station where I will be talking about the Wildbiome™️ Project and what we are starting to learn from these experiments. This is a lovely festival full of ideas and food and very family friendly! For more information and to book your tickets click the button below.
The Grassland Fungi Workshop at Guardswell Farm in Kinnard, Perthshire is on 29 September 2023. This is with mycologists Nev Kilkenny< Matthew Rooney and myself. I’m delighted to be returning to Guardswell as its ancient grassland habitat is home to many grassland mushrooms that are rare nowadays due to declining habitat and unique to this type of terrain. This is a full day with a lunch, walks and workshop. For more information and to book your tickets click the button below.
Saturday 11 November brings the UK Truffle Festival at Plumpton Racecourse, East Sussex. I’ll be giving a talk about living on wild food. The festival also holds the The UK Truffle Dog Championships and other events such as cooking demos and tasters (not of the dogs, of the truffles!). Kids go free and it’s also dog friendly. The organisers say that tickets are selling fast so book yours below.
On the telly
Recently, BBC Countryfile asked to visit me at home when they were in Glasgow. They wanted to see what I was picking for the herbal teas that I make that I’d described in my book ‘The Wilderness Cure’. Directed by Tom Auld on the right, they made a wee ‘postcard’ in my garden and kitchen! It will be toward the end of tonight’s episode of Countryfile at 19:00. Catch up on BBC online or BBC Sounds if you’ve missed it.
And finally…
This autumn’s woodland Scottish Fungi Forages are fast selling out, with many courses only having a couple of places left of them. So if you’re thinking of taking the plunge into mushroom hunting, now is the time to pull on your wellies! Led by Matthew Rooney you will learn to identify anywhere from 50 to 80 species of fungi (usually!), find out which you can eat and which you should definitely avoid!
Green love
Mo x
From wild curry to champion truffle hounds
I'm going to make it to wild curry night one of these days I swear as I know it would just be incredible! Love all the events you have coming up!
Am also excited to see the results from consuming only foraged foods which can be such a challenge in how we expect to experience foods. I know that it’s far easier for me when I am also in place away from cell phone and electricity. But really I came to comment about the elderberries which -can- cause stomach cramps / upset when consumed raw. However for some people it’s fine. Mostly it’s the seeds that are the culprit so the smoothie crowd who blend and break up the seeds are generally the first to suffer. This is due to the nature to the cyanogenic glycosides present in the seeds which are easily denatured by heat. Hence if in doubt heat it up. However, if in need of elder berries in the wild the rule of thumb is to consume without crunching or breaking the seed, rather like poke berry and many others that are designed to pass intact through the digestive system of the willing propagators. So check it out- eat a few elderberrys and see how you feel- you might be someone who has no effect from the seeds passing through. otherwise heat or macerate to denature that tricky constituent which is also a big part of its healing.