To forage or not to forage?

That is, indeed, the question.

Prehistoric humans getting food

To get at an answer, we first need to consider, what is the attraction of wild food in the first place? In my mind, the most important are two things:

• Wild mushrooms are free, just lying around, there for the taking.
• Bringing home wild food delights the prehistoric man in each of us. "Honey, I brought you a mammoth," - life just doesn't get any better than that.

But, hang on. Are wild mushrooms really free? If you think about it for a moment, no, not really. Taking into account the cost of kit and travel, one kilogram of ready-to-eat mushrooms will cost you about £15. By comparison, shops will charge you about £20 per kilo. The extra £5 saves you hours of walking, tick bites and having to tell everyone you meet in the forest some combination of "I know what I am doing, thank you", "I will be very careful", "Sorry, I cannot teach you to identify mushrooms", and (my favourite), "Get your horse away from my basket!".

Modern human getting food

With the myth of "free food" busted, prehistoric man becomes surprisingly easy to tame. I still occasionally succumb to the call to explore the woods, but searching for interesting mushroom products in supermarkets is just as important, and good finds I make there give me just as much pleasure. Occasionally it even turns out to be something you do not see in the forest. One such recent find proved to be particularly special, and this will be the subject of the next post.

Image credits:
Le Mammouth by Paul Jamin, public domain;
Voyager golden record, image 77, public domain