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Is there any reason fungi are collected much more in Europe than the UK and possibly Ireland?
Quote from: mark smyth on October 13, 2009, 01:26:55 PMIs there any reason fungi are collected much more in Europe than the UK and possibly Ireland?Fear! In the UK, undoubtedly Raymond Briggs' novel "Fungus the Bogeyman" - at least over the last 30 years since it came out, negating the encouragement given in Richard Mabey's "Food for Free" which came out just before. There has been an increasing interest in wild edible mushrooms here in Norway in particular over these last 30-years. This has been driven by the fact that we have a national society "Sopp og Nyttevekstforbund" (Fungus and Useful Plant Society) devoted to wild edibles (now over 100 years old). In the late 70s a number of local groups sprung up here and they have been instrumental in arranging edible mushroom courses locally. As someone else mentioned (Hans?) we also have a network of "control locations" where people can have their harvest checked over by experts. "Experts" are often private people who have taken a course and exam organised by the society, qualifying them as "fungi controllers".