Unfortunately the weather didn't look on us kindly and the rain showed no signs of stopping for the day, so we kitted ourselves out in all our waterproof garb and headed out, picking up Helen along the way. We are already regular visitors to the forest with Dylan, our big black labrador puppy, but today we were looking forward to exploring at a more leisurely pace, with time to take in the things which usually pass us by in a blur as we get pulled along. We pulled into the car park to find a good few other cars already there, along with a big white gazebo tent under which the rangers were busy preparing for the forage. After an initial briefing to introduce the rangers we headed off, following a footpath alongside the River Garry and it wasn't long before the rangers spotted some interesting mushrooms to show us.
Although not experts, the rangers were very knowledgeable on their mushrooms and had some good horror stories to tell us about some of the more poisonous varieties, and it certainly helped hammer home the message that you can never be too careful when it comes to picking wild mushrooms to eat. Someone in the group even managed to spot this lovely specimen - the rangers narrowed it down to two varieties of mushroom, both of which are among the top three most deadly mushrooms in the UK:
Eating just a sliver of one of these innocuous-looking beauties is enough to kill a human, so it was quite awe-inspiring just being in its presence. After examining the mushroom it was thrown back deep into the bushes and everyone who had handled it was very sensibly instructed to give their hands a thorough clean.
As we continued on the walk, we went from the extremely poisonous to the really rather tasty, finding a good stash of chanterelle mushrooms. The rangers told us how to pick edible mushrooms in such a way as to minimise damage to the main plant underground, and to ensure the longevity of the plant.
After this we moved onto other types of edible wild food, including yarrow which can be used to make tea, the roots of silver weed, and hazlenuts.
We then headed into the bilberry terrain to try out some of the commercial and home-made devices the rangers had brought along for bilberry picking. As veteran hand-pickers it was interesting to try the tools out, and they did certainly make the job somewhat faster and less messy, but I still think hand-picking is the most enjoyable method, as long as you don't mind having purple stained fingers and nails for the best part of a week afterwards.
We were running out of time so at this point we headed back to the car park with our findings and found the head ranger had been busy cooking up a storm while we'd been gone. We'd been out in the rain all morning so it was fantastic to be given a hot cup of tea, and then after we'd all washed our hands we were treated to a demonstration on how to skin a rabbit and gut a fish, and the fish was then cooked on an open fire for us all to try, accompanied by a zingy wild sorrel sauce. We then moved on to sample the rabbit stew which had been cooking all morning, and which was truly delicious. Among the other things on offer were wild nettle soup (also delicious), some pig nuts, wild sorrel, fresh hazelnuts, a plethora of jams and jellies served with bannock (a simple traditional scottish bread), and a vast array of cordials and syrups made from various foraged berries.
The day ended with a short overview of some of the good foraging books available to buy, and a quick feedback session. I couldn't believe how much had been crammed into this day - so much delicious food and such an interesting and inspiring day out. There was a lot of information to take in, but luckily the rangers were well-prepared with recipe booklets and information leaflets for us to take away with us.
We couldn't recommend this day out enough - our thanks to the Great Glen Way rangers for a wonderful informative day and lots of inspiring ideas.
Jen x
2 comments:
Sounds like a good day.
When does the big black puppy just become a big black dog? He must be well over a year old!
When he starts behaving like one. No signs yet...
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