Basket to plate ... wild fungi plucked from the forest.
Tricia Welsh discovers the delicious and the deadly while foraging for fungi on the forest floor.
'There are old mushroom foragers and there are bold mushroom foragers,"Macedon wild mushroom expert Richard Foard philosophises."But there aren't any old and bold mushroom foragers,"he adds,through his greying beard.
Foard and his 12-year-old twin sons,Jonathan and Lewis,have come to help guide a group of about 36 mushroom-lovers through the pitfalls of self-harvesting wild mushrooms. He has brought a basket of just-picked multi-coloured fungi for us to study and inspect before letting us loose to fossick on our own.
He describes them all. There are bright orange-coloured saffron milkcaps or pine mushrooms (lactarius deliciosus) found only in pine forests,muddy brown slimy-looking slippery Jacks (suillus luteus) with pores instead of gills,small grey ghosts (tricholoma terreum) and gorgeous lilac-coloured wood blewits (lepista nuda).
"There are about 20 different sorts of wild mushrooms we pick,"says Foard,who has been supplying Melbourne restaurants such as the European,the Grand,Pure South and O'Connell's with mushrooms harvested from local pine forests for many years."You need to read and get familiar with them to recognise them. Stick to young ones."
He also warns us to be wary of the wonderful-looking classic red ones with polka dots (amanita muscaria),which look jauntily like a fairytale setting for a story-land picnic for little folk.
Armed with wicker baskets and sharp knives,we set off in different directions through the pine-forest plantation."There are plenty just by the roadside,"Foard whispers. As we head off,there are flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder but we have umbrellas and waterproof jackets - and realise that this is the weather in which wild mushrooms thrive.
Besides,mushroom foragers brave any weather."We go hail,rain or shine,"I recall Justine Noy telling me on the phone the day earlier. Justine,with her husband Peter Thomas,owns Rasputin's restaurant in Macedon. The mushroom-foraging adventure is just one of their innovative ideas to keep Sundays"fun days"in the country.
The entrepreneurial couple took over this country restaurant last November and recruited chef Mark Renaud (who once cooked beside Sean Donovan at gastro-pub the Station Hotel in Footscray and the Botanical in South Yarra),who was keen to move to the country to have his own restaurant garden. Between them,they are keen to share the region's natural bounty with local diners and food-lovers and have come up with a program of gourmet experiences.