Writer and foraging enthusiast Olivia Sisson has been out and about over the summer, collecting up a range of edible wild fungi.
Olivia Sisson and her prized foraged puffball Photo: www.instagram.com/liv_mosss
She tells Summer Times anyone can pick up a book, join a group and get to grips with identifying the various species of ebible plants in the wild.
This summer has been bountiful and fun, she says with a recent walk along one of her favourite tracks resulting in her picking up 20 unusual treats, each weighing up to 2kg.
“Probably the most exciting find so far this summer has been giant puffballs, Calvatia gigantea," she says. "They are a really fun species that pop up in paddocks and parks, often in urban environments that have been developed."
Foraging is easy she says, and all you need to do is just get started by maybe picking up a book, doing some research or join groups on social media.
Very quickly you’ll realise there are more edible plants and fruits around that you may have ever have imagined, and it’s only a matter of time before you stumble across species you’ve been looking for.
She’s coming across many field mushrooms at the moment, similar to the button mushrooms we buy in the supermarket.
Getting a positive identification before consuming anything is important, particularly with mushrooms, she says.
“That means that you reference multiple sources, you’ve done enough research around your find and taken enough observations and checked out everything from where it’s grown, what it looks like, what it smells like - all these different attributes and you cross reference those with multiple sources and you have a certain level of confidence in what you’ve found. It’s a lot more than doing a quick Google image search.”
When foraging for mushrooms you want to take extra precautions because the dangers posed, particularly from two types in New Zealand.
“They’re a species that can be deadly poisonous… With mushrooms there’s lots of different attributes you want to look for when you’re getting an identification.
“But two species that we have in New Zealand that I’m particularly keen to be aware of are death caps and yellow stainers. Yellow strainers, when they are cut or bruised they turn a very vibrant colour and they also smell very acrid, almost like in indoor pool.
“Then the death cap, a very key identifying feature there are the gills on the underside of the mushroom are white and it also grows from a little bulb… so if you brush away dirt at the base of the mushroom you’ll see that it’s growing from almost a little bulb.”
Sisson advices people to take their time when foraging and appreciate the landscape and environment - allow your senses to take everything in so your memory is fed well too.
“When you come across a mushroom the first thing that you want to do is not just jump in and pick it straight away. It can be really exciting and you might want to pick it straight away but the best thing to do is just pause, slow down and greet the environment the mushroom is growing in… Is the mushroom emitting a kind of smell? I foraged mushrooms the other day and just in that time of slowing down… I noticed this amazing this almond biscuity smell.”
Walking through Christchurch’s red zone recently she saw a lot of heritage fruit trees, including many beautiful varieties of plum.
“I’m also seeing lots of edible ‘weeds’. I’m a super keen gardener and I’ve had to do a lot of garden maintenance over the weekend, which was fun. But the more I learn about edible weeds it gets harder to weed the garden,” she says.
These include chickweed, which she tries to now incorporate into her garden.
“It grows up and down and the country, and considered a weed, but it’s a great green and great in salads. I make really nice green smoothies with it, which has a really creamy texture when you blend it up.”
She says she doesn’t have a goal in mind when she walks in the wild these days, and avoids to locate something specifically. “You set yourself up for a bit of disappointment when you’re that targeted in your approach," she says.
“Now I just look at the whole at the whole scene… I look at everything when I’m out there.”
