Edulis Fruits & Foraging CPD

Well on Saturday Molly and I visited Golden Acre park in Leeds. In all of the years I have lived in Leeds I have never been here before and It is such a wonderful place, full of beautiful flowers, plants, trees and a really nicely kept park for families and peaceful walks. The area is a local nature reserve and the area is full of hundreds of plant and tree species. I have followed 'Eduliswildfood' on Instagram for a while now and her videos and courses are packed with information and learning when it comes to foraging and wild foods. When I saw that she was running a course in Leeds it was absolutely necessary that we both booked on.

I think both Molly and I share an interest in foraging and have a general passion for food as you all probably know. The difference is with mushrooms and fruits the species and varieties can basically mean the difference between life and death and the items that we forage certainly are the most common and easy to find items as we know they are generally safe. Such things as sloe berries, blackberries, apples, elderflower, elder berries and other common and easy to identify plants and fruits.

But i cant help having a passion for mushrooms. Not so long ago, over lockdown i think, I picked up a small Roger Phillips mushroom guide for pennies at a local car boot sale. As a family we love to walk and explore with the children so took this book with me. As you start to focus on hunting and finding mushrooms its actually quite an addictive sport. I quickly became mushroom focused on our walks, much to the annoyance of my children as the walks become slower and much more away from the beaten track.

A large group of us set off around the park. The day focused on identifying plants and fruits and as we headed off deeper in to the park, we were encouraged to hunt for mushrooms so they could be identified and observed by the group.

'Eduliswildwood' @instagram Lisa had over 20 years foraging experience and the level of knowledge was insane. I would only hope to be as confident as clever as this with a constant study of mushrooms in to my 70's.

Identifying mushrooms isnt as easy as you would expect and there are many features you would need to look out for and to observe when learning to ID varieties and different groups of mushrooms. It would absolutely bore you to death actually if i sat and explained that on here but actually I am always pretty happy to see photographs and beautiful images, especially of the Cep and the Amanita Muscaria of 'Fly agaric'. These just fill me with happiness, I love to look at them in books and finding them in person was really pretty cool.

Fly agaric! Maybe it's because it reminds me of fairies and woodlands and magic and beauty. I don't know what it is but it certainly made the day better.

Using this as a CPD training event for Molly and I was invaluable to us and our practice. It supports our interests and knowledge of foraging plants, fruits and mushrooms. It also gives us that extra information to be able to pass on to the children we work with in a woodland environment. We may not have all the answers, but a good basic understanding of food that is safe and things that are poisonous will go a long way in keeping our children safe in the woodland. It also good for us and our working relationship. Working together and training together keeps us both motivated and passionate about the role we play in our forest school and how we can work together to provide holisitic natural learning for the children and adults we invite to the woodlands.