October in the UK is MUSHROOM season! Last weekend Mellors and I headed for the New Forest for a two day foraging course with the ace mycologist Mrs Tee.

Mrs Tee is a bit of a legend and it was awesome to spend time with her as she passed on the knowledge from her 35 years of picking and selling wild mushrooms. She is also an exceptional cook and we gorged on wild mushrooms 3 times a day. We stayed at her wonderful Bed & Breakfast in Lymington, home to several black pigs (one of which is an escape artists) and 2 very handsome Great Danes.

Saturday morning was spent learning to identify mushrooms by discussing and handling real mushrooms. These were weird and wonderful and as different from button mushrooms as you can imagine: we met the black trumpet of death or cornucopia, trumpet shaped, edible and frilly; big yellow cauliflower fungus shaped like coral or brains, delicate spindly mushrooms like drunken cocktail umbrellas and fat white parasol mushrooms which shift shape from balls into parasols.

I had planned to ask why mushrooms have such a magical and mystical reputation, but after a morning’s study I had my answer. Mushrooms are eerie and other-worldly, resembling sea creatures rather than any earthly thing. They grow from dead trees and where fires have been. Mushrooms which burst, blowing their tops off, leave little white goblets in the woods. The stink horn mushroom can be smelled from miles away; and eerily, you can watch it grow before your eyes.  The bears’ foot mushroom is shaggy and hangs from trees, resembling a large paw.  When you stamp on puffball mushrooms, ‘smoke’ plumes out. (The band Röyksopp, which literally means “smoke mushroom”, is named after these).  Mushrooms turn pink and blue and purple and black if you bruise or cook or cut them. And of course, the Death Angel mushroom can kill you in 45 minutes.

We learned which poisonous mushrooms to avoid – apart from the classic red cap with white warts of fairy stories, we were told to avoid white gills and white caps. Mushrooms with a spongy underside rather than gills are safer, apart from those with red caps. We discovered that mushrooms can be located by foresty clues: chicken of the woods grow on old oak trees and the saffron milk cap under pine.

Then, after a gorgeous lunch of wild mushroom pasta and some banter with Mrs Tee, we set out into the New Forest to forage.The first thing we found were the dainty, lavender colured and gloriously named Amethyst Deceivers.

We recognised chunky ceps and little white millers which smell like wet dough. After 5 minutes I realised I’d been blind all my life and on every autumn walk in the woods, I’d probably trampled oblivious over delicious free food. Politically I love the idea of wild food being there for the taking, that nature’s bounty belongs to us all. Where else but in the woods do oysters grow on trees?

Mellors noticed porcelain mushrooms, gleaming and shiny white, clinging to a branch. I sliced saffron milk caps with a pen knife, drawing bright orange blood.

We spotted beefsteaks high above us in a tree and a little staircase of gleaming mushrooms all the way up a birch, tantalisingly out of reach. Next time we forage, we’re taking a tame monkey.

Muddy and inspired we finished our forage at dusk and returned to Mrs Tee for another gorgeous meal with a side order of juicy anecdotes before rolling into bed; mushroom-stuffed.

Mrs Tee:

• supplies The Grosvenor House Hotel, Le Gavroche, The Connaught, and the Dorchester with wild mushrooms and Marco Pierre White with truffles.
• was arrested, jailed for five-and-a-half hours, and charged under the Theft Act  by the Forestry Commission for foraging on public land
• brought a civil action against the Forestry Commission.  She now owns a personal license to pick mushrooms in the New Forest for the rest of her lifetime.
• can pick 50kg of pied de mouton in three hours.

Some of the mushrooms we learned about:

• Ceps or porcini – Grows overnight. Can weigh up to 1.5kg per mushroom. Very rich, creamy, fleshy. Slightly sweet.
• Ceps Rufus (Red)
• Pied du Mouton or wood hedgehog – Sought after. Goes well with fish, with chicken, in a cream sauce.
• Beefsteak – Looks like a bloody beefsteak or liver, grows on oak tree, but doesn’t destroy the oak. Chefs use it with fresh foi gras. Tastes sweet, oriental – a specialty mushroom popularised by Antony Worrall Thompson, who has bought them from Mrs Tee.
• Honey Fungus
• Chicken of the Wood – Orange on top and lemon-yellow underneath. Tastes of chicken, smells of chicken and cooks like chicken but is more expensive than chicken. The biggest one found by Mrs Tee was 105lb.

Growing up in RSA, I was fortunate enough to have a swimming pool in my garden. After a roasting hot day in the classroom I would rush home,  kick off the small leather furnaces that were closed school shoes on an African summer’s day and leap into the swimming pool. I’d splash about in it’s cold aquamarine embrace, sounds muffled underwater, blowing bubbles inelegantly like a hippo.

Whole afternoons were spent playing Marco Polo (a kind of aquatic Blind Man’s Bluff) with my cousins, rescuing drowning ants from the water (I felt sorry for them) and jumping into the deep end from a garden wall (strictly forbidden).

Every now and then Zuma the black Labrador would decide to swim. She’d enter the pool very formally via the steps, gravely swim a wide loop and exit up the pool stairs before splattering everyone with a wet, vigorous, chloriney shake.

Over the long Christmas summer holidays I more or less lived in the swimming pool. It was a little kingdom of weightless delight, and respite from the white hot sun.  My secret terror of the Kreepy Krauly and Shongololos which, lemming-like had drowned themselves in a many footed suicide pact, only added to the excitement.  I would float on my back for hours, head submerged, happily deaf, watching the sparkling water reflected above me on the underside canopy of a giant jacaranda tree.

Purple jacaranda flowers in Moms pool

I’d emerge with wrinkly white fingers, even more freckles and chlorinated red eyes, blissfully cool and tired. Why mum insisted I then have a bath after 3 hours in a pool I could never figure out. Being on dry land felt alien and, if my sister teased me at the dinner table, I would make splashing motions through the air at her,  being so accustomed to splashing her in the pool.

It was only when I moved to the UK that I realised how very privileged I had been to have had a private swimming all throughout my childhood. Here swimming generally belongs in  public pools with little time or space to yourself, and swimmers adhere to near rows moving in one direction.  The glorious splashiness of bombing is strictly forbidden. Having said that, I am very impressed with the public pools and lidos of the UK, some of which are beautiful pieces of history.

They are also very democratic – for a small fee anyone can swim in these public spaces, so different to the walled gardens of South Africa’s suburbs in the 1980s.

I was also delighted to discover the public bathing ponds of London’s magnificent Hampstead Heath and the thrill of swimming in nature, minus the chlorine sting of the artificial pool.

Environmentally minded gardeners are behind a modern revival in natural bathing pools. Here’s how to do it: http://www.ivili.org/video/natural-swimming-pool

]]> http://muswellhillbilly.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/trend-for-natural-swimming-pools-resurfaces/feed/ 0 muswellhillbilly pool Hornsey Baths http://muswellhillbilly.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/hever-fever/ http://muswellhillbilly.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/hever-fever/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:41:16 +0000 muswellhillbilly http://muswellhillbilly.wordpress.com/?p=463 ]]>

On an early autumn day in September Mellors and I joined his family at Hever Castle for a huge family picnic, to celebrate two engagements. There were 18 of us including two grandparents and Gemma the dog. We picnicked in the beautiful grounds and walked through the Italian gardens – three generations of gardeners together!

This rose is a favourite of Mellors’ grandmother.

Click here to read about a GardenAfrica supporter who has committed to running the 26.2 miles of the Amsterdam Marathon to raise funds for GardenAfrica’s vital work.  Personally just typing the words ‘26.2 miles’ makes me feel tired, but fortunately there are ways to fundraise for charity that don’t involve breaking a sweat.

If you would like to support GardenAfrica there are lots of things you can do that won’t cost you money:

• Set up a GardenAfrica fundraising cell in your area.
• Host a South African wine tasting.
• Host a dinner party.
• Host a garden party.
• Sponsored events – such as skydiving, marathons, walks or something that suits your own pace of life.

More details available here.

Remember when you donate to GardenAfrica, 90% of donations go straight to projects the field.

Look at the awesome beetroots that Mellors grew!

Tonight we shall feast on Borscht!

We did a clever time share in the vegetable patch – now that the beetroots are out the ground we have planted in leeks which have been waiting backstage in pots for their moment to be planted!

Seriously, what a monster! This beauty loves our snapdragons and I had to take a picture as he’s the biggest bee I’ve ever seen.

Factoid for the day: Dumbledore is an old English word for bumblebee.

Please help! GardenAfrica is training communities in Sub Saharan Africa to plant sustainable vegetable gardens, enabling people to grow their own food, free from dependency and debt. Our vital vegetable patches are unfolding in homesteads, hospital gardens, the dry earth of school yards, feeding families and improved health and nutrition.

Because of our work, mums are planting crops and the precious food money saved can go towards school fees. Young men with compromised immune systems can eat fresh produce, giving anti retroviral drugs a chance. Children receive one healthy meal, boosting concentration – picked from their scorching school garden.

Where AIDS related illnesses have taken parents, grandmothers have many mouths to feed, or, increasingly, small children head households and provide for their younger siblings. There is a strong tradition of agriculture in Africa but drought, war and issues of land ownership have eroded some of this knowledge. We work with grandmothers who remember the old ways, helping ensure that their knowledge is passed on to the children now responsible for putting food on the table. GardenAfrica helps by providing seeds, tools and importantly, local trainers, so knowledge stays in the community and is not dependent on foreign volunteers.

The global recession has swiped GardenAfrica’s funding and yet our work has never been more important. We urgently need to continue funding these projects. We are not a large charity with global offices, we don’t have pay ourselves big bonuses. 90% of donations to GardenAfrica will be used directly in the field.

Please donate today or read our fundraising tips to see how you can raise money and help this vital charity continue.

GardenAfrica: You Dig In and We’ll Fork Out!

Things that worked this summer:

Peas and mange tout in containers on the patio – this kept them (relatively) slug free. Next year we’ll do more in pots and more sequential planting.

Runner beans in large pots on canes

Peppers in the potting shed and the green house – next year will do lots more small sowings in trays and propagate widely

Herbs – sequential sowing of annuals meant constant supply of nice herbs like basil and parsley. Basil did well on sunny spare room window.

Squash – did brilliantly in greenhouse but outside – not so much

Cucumber – need to keep properly moist to avoid problem of powdery mildew on leaf

Tomatoes – worked very very well in the Autopots (automatic watering system that draws water up only when needed)

Beetroot – Looks good in pottage beds and were well protected by the green plastic slug barriers.

Note for next year: successional pea sowing, cucumber and squash to go in Autopots, more space for potting on pots, start peas and climbing beans in pots first

What didn’t work:

• Growing squash plants on the shed roof – try brassics or aubergines or peppers

• Direct sowing lettuce – this was munched by the evil slugs

• Trying more than herbs in hanging baskets on the apple tree – peas and spinach didn’t work, marigolds were okay but herbs work best

• Sunflower seedlings need more protection as they were decimated– we didn’t get a single sunflower this year!

Scenes from the garden this week!

Grape Vine

Makwela

New apple tree

Barrel pond (tadpole penthouse)

Marigolds

Veg bed made from wine bottles

Ginormous squash (possibly a Tryffid)

Old apple tree

Tomato

Garden table

Shed & greenhouse

This week GardenAfrica founder George & I went to the Hampton Court Flower Show.

The show was Tudor themed because its the 500 year anniversary of Henry’s coronation. There was a dedicated show garden for each of Henry’s unfortunate wives and the scarecrows this year were knights, queens (man headless) and kings. There was also a topiary Mary Rose in a sea of lavender

The show gardens were fab. Green roofs seemed to be a theme this year! I liked the one below, emphasising reusing & recycling and sporting a letterbox waterfall.

I also loved this “bug hotel” which anyone can make in their garden, giving wildlife some much needed shelter and attracting all sorts of creatures to pollinate plants.

Next we explored the marquees, devoting rather more time to vegetables than to flowers. We  hunted down chillies, envied the allotment show garden and got giant garlic from the Isle of Wight garlic farm shop.

They were selling lovely old fashioned heritage seeds so I bought Mellors some Woad (source of blue dye before the discovery of indigo) and some Goosefoot herb.

I took photos of some lovely chicken houses, should any of you be tempted to get chooks.