Mushroom pickers revel in bumper season

Foragers are embracing a longer than average mushroom season in Victoria this year, as cool, wet days interspersed by crisp and sunny periods create ideal conditions for the fungi to grow in the wild.

A strong supply is good news for the growing number of mushroom-pickers heading out to elevated and forested areas as part of a booming interest in picking your own food.

“Foraging in general has absolutely skyrocketed, particularly in Victoria through the extended lockdowns,” says Anna Matilda, founder of The Urban Nanna, which has run mushroom foraging workshops for seven years. Her workshops filled up immediately after events and gatherings were allowed when COVID restrictions lifted.

“People were forced to stay very close to home, walk the same streets again and again, and you start noticing different things,” she says of the reasons behind the interest.

Forager of six years, Liam Spurrell, of Spurrell Foraging, agrees that foraging is a pastime that’s grown in popularity.

“A lot of people are more interested in where their food comes from… The general public is doing more research,” he says.

Cameron Russell has run mushroom-picking tours for 26 years in Victoria. He says it’s an exciting way to greet autumn, with mushroom season traditionally starting on Anzac Day and running for as short as a month, or sometimes up to three months.

This year, he and other foragers expect the season in Victoria will last until mid-June.

Mushrooms grow in the wild in areas including the Mornington Peninsula, Mount Macedon, Woodend, the Otways, Ballarat, Daylesford and Beechworth. But identifying what’s edible and what’s potentially toxic is the chief concern of any forager – or should be.

“There are literally tens of thousands of species out there that are yet to be identified or classified [in Australia], which is [both] terrifying and exciting,” says Russell.

With so many unknown fungi, experienced foragers emphasise educating yourself before you go picking. Many suggest sticking to easily identifiable species. These include saffron milk caps (also known as pine mushrooms) and slippery jacks.

Matilda starts her Urban Nanna workshops with an hour of education before any exploring occurs.

Her workshops also have a strong emphasis on how to forage in sustainable, socially-minded ways that leave plenty of fungi for animals to feed on, for the forest ecosystem, and for others to pick.

She has been disappointed to see well-known spots stripped bare of mushrooms in recent years, that 10 to 20 years ago would be abundant.

“If we all just take what we want when we want it, the concept of foraging is completely unsustainable,” she says.

But others, including Russell and also mycologist Jim Fuller at Fable Food, say the idea of over-picking is a false one. Mushrooms release thousands of spores which then germinate and lead to more mushrooms sprouting, sometimes in a matter of days.

That said, good foraging etiquette is to leave some mushrooms for others.

“It’s not like collecting footy cards or knick-knacks. It’s not something to be hoarded, it’s something to be shared with other people,” says Russell.

Foraging tours in Victoria

Cameron Russell’s mushroom tours, Dromana, from $75 per person, mushroomtours.com

The Urban Nanna mushroom foraging workshop, Forest Hill, from $128 per person, theurbannanna.com

Four ways to cook wild mushrooms

Slippery jacks are best dried. Dehydrate them in either an oven at 50 C or a dehydrator and blitz them to turn them into a powder. Keep for up to a year and add to stocks or rub into meat. Liam Spurrell, Spurrell Foraging

Pine mushrooms work well with other earthy flavours. Think Jerusalem artichokes (also in season now) and celeriac. A simple one-pan dish is to roast the ingredients above with thyme, garlic and butter at 250 C for 15 mins. It could also be a side for roast chicken. Nick Anthony, Masons of Bendigo

My favourite tip for cooking mushrooms is to boil them. They don’t lose their structure or any flavour. Add a few centimetres of water to a pan, cook until it’s nearly dry, then add just a dash more to pick up all the concentrated flavours. Finally, add a touch of oil and your choice of aromatics, then saute for that deep rich golden colour. Jim Fuller, Fable Food

Slippery jacks are quite abundant, so try preserving them somehow. A mushroom garum is a fermented sauce that you can brush on grilled mushrooms for more flavour. Chop 4-5 kilograms of mushrooms, add to a casserole or rice cooker with a fair bit of flaked salt and apply pressure to keep them under the brine that develops. Leave for six to eight weeks. Michael Ryan, Provenance