Foraging for fungi

Foraging for wild food is fun, but it can also be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, especially if there are mushrooms in your basket.

But you can rest easy as you tuck into your wild mushroom lunch at Bill O'Dea's Avondale Mushroom Hunts as he's an expert in the field and a dedicated mycophagist or mushroom gatherer. The first of his autumn mushroom hunts takes place today, but there will be a further outing at the Avondale estate in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow on Saturday, October 6th and you can book places online at mushroomstuff.com. The €65 fee includes tea and scones at the 9.30am meet-up, a guided hunt in the fungi-rich woods at Avondale, where O'Dea has discovered more than 120 varieties of edible mushroom, and lunch with sandwiches, soup and dessert, as well as those just-picked mushrooms.