Open Country

In a year that has seen a record rise in the number of people seeking medical help after eating poisonous fungi, Richard Uridge visits the New Forest to hear about the variety of wild mushrooms to be found, the dangers of picking the wrong ones and the problems this can also cause to the ecosystem of the forest. Richard joins mycologist, John Wright, to hear about his lifelong passion for wild mushrooms and joins him on a forage in the forest to find out how to know what to look for when picking fungi. Mrs Brigitte Tee is the only person liced to pick and sell New Forest mushrooms. She tells Richard how her love of wild mushrooms began when she first spotted them from the saddle of her Welsh mountain cob pony over 35 years ago. Today Mrs Tee is one of the leading authorities on edible wild mushrooms, and supplies a variety of top clients including Fortnum and Masons, the Langham Hotel in London and chef, Hugh Fearnley-WhittingstallIt is the popularity of TV chefs and cooking shows that Forestry Commissi