MUSHROOM NEWSLETTER. 19 October 2016 SEASON WINDS DOWN?

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1 MUSHROOM NEWSLETTER 19 October 2016 SEASON WINDS DOWN? We re coming to the end of the season or are we? In theory last Saturday was my last formal foray, but the last three or four days have been very promising. We started on 15 October with a 12-strong group picking a nice range of mushrooms which was great because we had a Country Living photographer in tow (the piece should be coming out next September). They aren t there in great quantities, but they are there and everyone went home extremely happy (which is always the most important thing). Nice range of edible species from Saturday how many can you count/identify (I make it nine)? I took out another group this morning (18th) and we also had a good haul. I didn t take a picture of the basket, but we certainly scored into double figures with Chanterelles,

2 hedgehogs, hen of the woods, charcoal burners, shaggy ink caps, honey fungus, saffron milk caps, cep/porcini, beefsteak and parasols. We also found a destroying angel and a few fly agaric, plus several non-edible milk caps and a few cortinarius (webcaps). Eight happy hunters! I was particularly cheered up by the discovery of my first meadow waxcaps and shaggy ink caps of the year. Both of these are delicious, although sadly their appearance reinforces the impression that the bulk of the porcini are now over and that we will have to wait for August for the next bonanza foray.

3 That said, due to popular demand and the lateness of the season, I am laying on one final foray on Monday 24 October. This is going to be a slightly odd event. It will follow the general pattern of my weekend all-day packages ( 70), but for anyone pressed for time or on a budget there will be the option to bale out at 1pm (this will cost just 25 per person). As usual, dogs and small children are welcome and free, with only a minor charge for teenagers. Despite conceding picking is legal, the Forestry Commission continues to hammer home the message that it isn t Meanwhile, things are developing darn sarth. I have been getting increasingly angry about the latent racism down there. I was going to mount another stupidly provocative publicity stunt, but in the end I thought it sensible to keep the powder dry. All the same, I couldn t just let things go. To put it in a nutshell, last year the Forestry Commission

4 began to collate a dossier of mushroom incidents. They came up with only they didn t (see below)... well, I sent them a letter: I am deeply worried by the apparent racism which is not only tolerated, but to some degree encouraged, within your organisation. As you know, there has been a long-running issue about mushroom collecting in the New Forest. You have consistently argued there is a serious problem in the New Forest from gangs of commercial pickers harvesting mushrooms. So far you have failed to provide any serious evidence (let alone prosecutions), but you have produced a dossier of 150 alleged incidents. If one eliminates repeats (e.g. P3), reports from outside the Forest (e.g. Alice Holt or Puddletown) and silly (e.g. Not picking but looked suspicious ) incidents, the real events shrink to about 90. After that things become very murky because of redactions. In most cases the missing word is four/five letters in length. What could these words be? In an excusing the redactions you cited the Data Protection Act and the need to protect identities. This is fair enough, but in most cases this excuse cannot apply because no one could be identified from just four or five letters. It seems that in these cases you are covering yourself with the following: Regulation 12 (5)(a) Adverse affect on public safety. Information that may enable a particular group of people to identified by a particular characteristic has been redacted. It has been widely reported that racist attacked have increased since the vote to leave the EU and we not want to disclose any information that may lead to and particular section of society being considered more likely to be picking fungi than any other section of society when visiting the New Forest. Could it possibly be the redacted words are Pole or Poles? If so, this is clearly racist. And what bearing does ethnicity have? Why mention this at all? You don t mention religion, skin colour, age or sexual orientation... why does nationality matter when compiling a dossier of alleged commercial mushroom picking? And this suspicion appears supported by press releases and briefings put out by your press office over the past four or five years. It has always been gangs of East Europeans picking for profit hasn t it? And in my meeting with your ranger and keeper on 23 September, it was made blatantly clear that he considered the culprits were from Eastern Europe (he mentioned Poles on several occasions). Could you reply within 28 days?

5 I ve had a fairly swift holding reply apparently the Community Manager (who sent out the offending quoted above), suddenly isn t qualified to handle the issue and has passed it on to her line manager. Finally, several forayers have expressed interest in my Pembrokeshire white elephant (see This is based very near Little Haven (Haverfordwest) and it sleeps eight (10 at a pinch). Dogs and children are welcome and there is unlimited free firewood. I am now taking bookings for next year. Seven weeks have already gone, but most of the prime slots haven t been taken. Any newsletter subscriber will get a 10% discount on the list prices ( 600, 900 and 1500).

6 So, a week at Easter, summer half-term and the entire summer holidays remain available. As with last year, there is also an inexplicable lack of demand for relatively cheap weeks in May and June (prime puffin time). Daniel Butler / P S As always, let me know if you want to be removed from the mailing list this is a bit more complicated at my end than it should be, but I will do my best to keep everyone happy.