Was away in the New Forest this weekend with some friends on our annual mushroom pilgrimage. We stay at a fantastic “restaurant with rooms” called The Three Lions. Actually, we visit there once a year at this time and have done for the last ten years - if you are in the area and want somewhere to eat and stay you won’t go wrong with The Three Lions. Just a note - this is not sausages and chips rather Sea Bass in Nutmeg and Bay-leaf.

The first time we went, ten years ago, we almost picked more mushrooms than we could carry. A lot of these were Ceps, that most prized of mushrooms. Every year since we have returned and picked almost nothing - nada. Maybe one or two Ceps and a handful of less inspiring mushrooms. Ten years and a great deal of nothing.

This year - ten years later - the forest is alive with mushrooms. Everywhere you look - mushrooms of every type - mushrooms I have never seen before (loads of white mushrooms, gills with what looks like a white necklace around the stalk). We picked starting at 3.30PM way after the professionals and locals have harvested and gone and still picked more than could be carried including a heavy-weight bag of Ceps. Three main types below:

Birch Bolete Cep Slippery Jack


From left to right: Birch Bolete, Cep & Slippery Jack.

We asked Mike at the The Three Lions and he said that people talk of a ten-year cycle for mushrooms - no idea if this is true or not. Or if it is true whether it is to do with the life-cycle of mushrooms or that the peculiar combination of weathers that stimulate the little things occurs only about every ten years. No idea. But I do know that ten years ago the forest was alive and this weekend was alive again and I guess this will last until the frosts arrive.