This is my therapy - time spent in the wild, gathering food.īut should more people forage? Well the fungi foragers of southern England have been up in arms about a recent ban on mushroom picking in the New Forest and the arguments are long and emotional. ![]() Is this the sub conscious at work? I'm not certain, I think it's a deeper connection with the natural world itself, but that's not to say that the conduit for this hippie-like communion isn't the unconscious mind. Walk distractedly through the woods to your favourite spot for a particular mushroom and you may well be successful, but allow time to drift around, follow previously unnoticed deer tracks or simply the whim of the moment and somehow you always seem to strike gold. In response to making this commitment the natural world seems to reward you. The phone is off, the watch ignored and I feel good. Every time I head into the woods with a basket for mushrooms, or flick a fly line across the stream after a trout I seem to slip, little by little, into a world where nothing exists outside this moment. I'm addicted to it: It's the forager and hunter in me that does it. When I first heard of the idea of "Mindfulness" I recognised that this is a state of mind I often find myself in. But should we see a return to foraging as offering the opportunity to feed us more regularly than perhaps we allow it? Often foraging is seen as a past time of the foodie folk of these fair isles but certainly for me it's more than that. ![]() Wild food is very trendy these days, gone it seems are the days of necessity and so, in this world of apparent localised food abundance wild food is eaten only for its flavour.
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