Quite by chance yesterday afternoon, after a very non French MacDonalds burger I popped into Gamm Vert in Villeneuve to get some soft cushions for the outside patio seats.
You know what it is like, you just cannot wander in and not look around and it is great to meander through the isles.
It was with a somewhat great coincidence (after only writing about foraging for mushrooms this morning) that I should spot four packets of grow your own mushroom at the end of the vegetable seeds.
I had four choices from a range by the company Radis et Capucine (truly awful website and typical of how the French have failed to grasp the web) - Pleurotte grise (Oyster Mushroom), Shiitake, Paris blanc and Paris Brun.
I went for the Paris Blanc because it seemed the more simpler of the range and they cost me 8.95 Euros - I am not sure if that was good or not?.
Now apparently, I just have to put the contents of the sachet in luke warm water for fifteen minutes, drain off the excess water and then pour the contents over two boards (they had an example of a light fibre board which resembled the type you could put drawing pins in). You then seal the boards with the Mycelium on them into a large plastic bag and pierce the plastic with a few small holes to let the excess humidity out and wait - the process takes six to eight weeks and your mushroom kit has to stay in temperatures of between twelve and twenty five degrees.
I guess this is all very much contrived and I think I aspire to finding the real thing in the right place and I can think of no better way to make a living than to be able to walk the woods in the morning and evening with my dog and make a living being at one with nature.
I followed a story in November 2006 about Brigitte Tee-Hillman who had picked wild mushrooms, under commoners rights, in the New Forest. Brigette had made the news because the Forestry Commission had banned her (illegally) from foraging.
I bet there are many many of us who would swap lives with Brigette?
I will let you know how I get on.
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