Hello I am here

[mbeirnes]

Hello all

New to the site but recognise some of the user names from another site.

Me got an allotment and try to grow all mi own veg. No animals as yet but that will be soon And do a bit of foraging to supplement the table.

Unfortuately I also have a job, that I am supposed to be doing now so best go

[Wombat]

G'Day mbeirnes,

Glad to see you've joined us, yeah this working idea is really badm I have the same problem.

Nev

[Andy Hamilton]

I think that many of the people on here have jobs that they are supposed to be doing

Foraging, is that just a few mushrooms or are you a bit of an expert?

Allotments certainly seem to have got popular again in the last few years, I supose it coincides with the huge rise in house prices and the popularity of organic vegetables.

Anyway welcome to the forum, hope to hear more from you.

[mbeirnes]

I am no expert on foraging.....
Certainly not mushrooms, actually I dont go near them, would only kill myself
The sort of foraging I am up to is hedgerose fruit (blackberries etc), I live close to the moor so billberrys, also nuts are are easy enough to find.
Wild garlic grows in abunance on river banks and will be coming up soon you usually smell it befor you see it

I think that allotments are becoming more popular with our generation (just guessing but you look the same age roughly as me) as people are becoming more aware of where the food in the shops comes from and how it is grown. Also there has been much debate on whether they are cheaper than the shops. I spend (in money) about 100 quid on the allotment, this includes the rent and water and the seeds/plants. We eat about half our veg from there in the lean times (Parsnips and leeks are all we have left at the moment) but most of our fruit/veg/salad/herbs come from there in the summer.

I would think that with a bit more time, and effort it would be very easy to have a year round supply especially if you have a poly tunnel

[jema]

Welcome to a very good site :)

jema

[Emma]

hiya mbeirnes, you will lurve this site I do. I think allotment are startin to be trendy, that makes them more popular.

[diver]

hiya, welcome to the site, its very good. I try to eat only veg from my lottie but am not that good at it yet....I like to forage same as you and would like to pick mushies but am afraid I would kill my self and family!

[Andy Hamilton]

hiya, welcome to the site, its very good. I try to eat only veg from my lottie but am not that good at it yet....I like to forage same as you and would like to pick mushies but am afraid I would kill my self and family!

Have you tried http://www.agarics.org/Index.jsp I think you do have to be pretty sure. In France you used to be able to go to your pharmacist to identify them. Be good to have a similar service here. There are times when I see perfectly edable srooms but will leave them as I am unsure. I once saw loads of edable mushrooms growing in a graveyard that I left, there were pounds of them too.

[Wombat]

One advantage you guys have over there is a long history of edible fungi consumption - we have stuff over here that no-one knows whether it is edible or not, and I am shure as hell not game to try!

Graveyard? wow mate, corpse mushies!

Nev

[Andy Hamilton]

One advantage you guys have over there is a long history of edible fungi consumption - we have stuff over here that no-one knows whether it is edible or not, and I am shure as hell not game to try!

Graveyard? wow mate, corpse mushies!

Nev

Are there not traditional mushrooms of the aborigones?

And as for the graveyard mushrooms I could not convince my girlfriend to come back and pick them, she thought it was wrong or sinister or something. Just food I thought.

[Wombat]

This gives you an idea of how things go, and backs up what I have read eslewhere

"R.V. Southcott puts the matter into stark perspective: 'the edibility of most Australian species of fungi is untested' (Southcott, 1996). The aboriginal population are known to have eaten fungi. The Beefsteak Fungus, Fistulina hepatica, was eaten by Western Australian Aborigines, according to a mid-eighteenth century record (Kalotas, 1996), and the Pitjantjatjara and Pintupi of the Australian Western Desert were known to eat the Native Truffle Choiromyces aboriginum. The Arunta of Central Australia, however, believed that fungi were endowed with evil magic and would not eat them at all (Spencer and Gillen, 1904, quoted in Kalotas, 1996)."

Nev