I grew up in a pretty traditional British/Hong Kong Chinese household. We had the takeaway downstairs and our home upstairs. When it came to dinner time (this happened when fewer orders came through), my parents would snatch a mouthful of rice and rush off. The meals were pretty balanced in terms of the 5 flavours. We’d have a meat dish like beef/pork/chicken; a whole fish served with ginger and spring onions or pickled turnip and sour cabbage; steamed salt preserved duck eggs; salted fish with black beans; stir fried choi and usually a bowl of tong (soup). Following this would be tong shui (sweet dessert soup), orange segments, Chinese apple-pears and fresh lychees or longan/dragon eyes (if we were lucky!). However, by far my favourite dish would contain dong gu / shittake. Sometimes served with pork, fermented red bean curd and Chinese yams or with chicken thighs in a gorgeous smooth sauce, I would dive in! My mother would lament that I would suffer horrendous constipation but I didn’t care, they were my favourite.
As success of our takeaway grew, my parents sold it and opened a Chinese restaurant in the next town and we bought a newly built red brick house on a site of old woodland. Every autumn, a whole array of weird looking, brightly coloured mushrooms would festoon the garden floor. I owned a tiny Collins Gem book on fungi which contained no photos, only illustrations and was frustratingly inadequate for safe identification. Whilst my curiosity and affinity to fungi never left me, I parked it on the back burner while I focused on school, university and then TCM training.
Shortly after graduating from Acupuncture school, the mushroom bug bit me again and I trawled the internet for fungi foraging courses. My first was with the esteemed mycologist, Patrick Harding, up in a beautiful Scottish town called Crieff. I remember being 7 weeks pregnant with my eldest son at the time and was constantly vomiting every time I even smelt a mushroom!
I followed up by reading books by Paul Stamets, Roger Phillips and attending other courses run by wild food enthusiasts. However, the real learning is only gained by quietly foraging yourself and identifying your finds through spore prints and a host of other means.
While picking chicken-of-the-woods, chanterelles, ceps and hedgehog mushrooms were fun for the pot, I still wanted to find out more about the healing properties of fungi. They have been used for centuries in Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine andI am currently growing some Ling Zhi at home (Reishi/Ganoderma lucidum) and I’ve foraged some Ganoderma applanatum this week. I’m especially interested in looking into aqueous and ethanol-based extraction techniques and am keen to try it on the aforementioned artist conk. I’ve encapsulated some home grown Lion’s Mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) because I’m curious about it’s reputation in improving cognitive memory. I really must credit the book by Martin Powell “Medicinal Mushrooms: A Clinical Guide” which sets out all the essential must-know aspects of some common medicinal fungi. It’s an easy read and especially accessible as Martin is also a TCM practitioner.
Finally, I am studying East Asian Herbal Medicine with the esteemed Dr Christine Cannon of the AHMRC and am enjoying delving deeper into these fascinating fruiting bodies that have the power to heal us so much.
But what’s your “take away” from this blog entry? Well if you too are interested in wild crafting, you may wish to follow a similar trajectory to mine. There are so many more resources out there compared to my formative days. The main area of study I think everyone should start with is to LEARN YOUR TREES as this is a very important means of identifying woodland mushrooms. Also get fully versed in the foraging rules in the areas that you wish to explore, e.g. seek landowner’s permission. Lastly and most vitally- NEVER EAT ANYTHING THAT YOU ARE NOT 100% SURE OF ITS IDENTITY. For example, many young amanitas look like the prized cep . Fortunately, you can only meet you maker by EATING a poisonous mushroom- smelling, touching and even licking them won’t harm you.