Wild mushrooms grow wild across most parts of the UK. (and for the purposes of this site I will only be speaking about mainland UK

I have gone mushrooming in many parts of the UK from the colder parts of Scotland to the warm and damp parts of Cornwall.

Now some fellow mushroom lovers may disagree with me on this but so far, my Mecca in terms of wild mushrooms simply has to be the New Forest. I have never before seen such abundance and variety, the only problem is you have to get there early to be others.

My first ever trip down there was really by chance, I was visiting a farm to purchase some chickens (I keep a few at home for fresh eggs, you simply cannot beat a fresh free range egg from a well fed chicken that has had a diverse diet) anyway I digress.... I was early so stopped near Beaulieu, about 2 miles away I suppose and decided to go for a walk in the forest with my wife Cathy. It must have been about 11ish am so not perfect - ideally you should collect earlier than 11am as the later you leave it the more chance of maggot infestation from flies (and other foragers will have bagged the best fungi) It was September - which is just about the start of that special time when the majority of really good fungi start to appear (e.g: Ceps).

So there we were sauntering down this leafy glade, I had half an eye out but being as we only had 30 mins to kill, I had no equipment with me (knife, basket, Identifier cards, brush etc) I was not paying particular attention then wham!! right before me, 20 yards away in a sort of surreal haze (well OK it was not but it appeared that way in my minds eye) there was the largest troop of the king of all mushrooms, the Porcini, or Cep (penny bun) This troop of mushrooms of consisted of about 12-14 specimens covering a few feet radius (I have never seen them in a quantity like that, usually twos or threes) but it was the size of them, they were mostly over 5inches across the cap, further more they were largely clean and uneaten by slugs! It was truly amazing. A cep of that age/size is almost certainly going to have some deterioration through pests but these were not far of the best you could expect.

It was that day that I vowed to return to the New Forest and since then have found more variety, quality and abundance than anywhere else

So there you go. The New Forest is spectacular. I will add new locations soon as I am writing about various parts of the Uk now. The aim is to help you find fungi in your area. If you are really struggling, drop me an email where you live and I will see if I can recommend a place to start based on what I have been told and picked up over the years.

You can help others yourself, why not post in the "forager" section and share your revent foraging trip stories.

In general though, here are some guidelines where to look for Wild Mushrooms:

• Areas that have a high moisture content i.e: are damp 
•  Areas that have lots of old rotting tree matter and wood 
• The base of many trees such as the Pine or Larch (the Larch Boletus is found here) 
• Look up as well as down– Chicken of the Woods (a bracket fungus) grows in the bows of Oaks and is very tasty when cooked (do not eat raw) 
• Amongst dense leaf deposits 
• Areas that are mossy and are not massively overgrown 
• Old land that has had little disturbance 
• Fields with olds woods with mixed deciduous trees - within a 200 yard range – these are very good as fruiting bodies will come from mycelium sometimes over a mile (and further) from the woods. 
• Many mushrooms have a mychorrizal relationship with trees and feed off them but the actual fruiting body can appear a long way off. For example, when you see a fairy ring of mushrooms in a field, the likelihood is that the fungi it connected to a nearby woods and would not exist without it. 
  
• ·    The older the land, the more mycelium will occur (fungi roots for want or a better description)

Areas to avoid:

• Dry areas – there are some exceptions

•  Sandy ground (again some exceptions but they are generally poor for the edible fungi)

• In general, areas that are rocky (which means the mycelium cannot extend) or areas that are really overgrown are not ideal.

•  Areas that are new or have been disturbed, the mycelium which is actually they main part of the fungi, will have been destroyed and the fruiting body (the part we see above ground) will unlikely grow.