🍄 Mushroom Foraging Around Sydney: A Delicious & Free Adventure 🍄

From Bush to Kitchen:

A Day of Foraging, Wildlife, and Woodland Feasts

Would you like to know more about food foraging & be able to identify plants and mushroom?

Foraging is not just a quirky hobby, it’s an epic blend of outdoor adventure, mindful movement and food sourcing straight from nature. If you’ve never tried it, this might be the sign you’ve been waiting for. In this blog we focus in particular on mushroom picking around Sydney, because surprise surprise Sydney has some amazing hidden gems where wild mushrooms thrive.

Why Try Mushroom Foraging?

Foraging isn’t just fun, like a real-life treasure hunt,  it’s also packed with benefits. It gets your body moving, clears your mind, and helps reduce stress. It connects you to the land in a deep and meaningful way and can even boost your environmental awareness. When shared with family or friends, it becomes a wonderful social activity too. Plus, wild mushrooms are nutritional powerhouses, rich in antioxidants, potassium, vitamins B and D. They’re high in protein, low in fat, and absolutely delicious.

You might get lucky and spot some amazing wildlife…

When and Where to Go Around Sydney

The mushroom foraging season around Sydney runs from April to July and the sweet spot to go is 2–5 days after steady rain — that's when the mushrooms really start popping up.

Two of the best spots near Sydney are:

• Belanglo State Forest

• Oberon region

You’ll need to drive a bit out of Sydney, but the journey is half the fun. Make a day it: stop in a small town along the way, grab a coffee from a local café, and maybe have a chat with a curious local about what you’re up to. It turns the outing into a mini road trip — and helps support small local businesses at the same time.

But... Is It Safe?

This is important: not all mushrooms are safe to eat. Some are toxic, and a few can be deadly. If it’s your first time, we highly recommend going with an expert or joining a local foraging group. While there are apps and books that can help, photos can be misleading and misidentification can have serious consequences.

In these areas, you’ll typically come across two edible types:

• Saffron Milk Cap: bright orange, slightly fruity, earthy flavour

• Slippery Jack: a bit slimy but tasty when cooked right

With time and guidance, you’ll get the hang of recognising the good ones and gain the confidence to go it alone safely.

What You’ll Need

Packing right is key. Here’s what we recommend:

• Basket (not a bag) – Allows airflow  and disperses spores as you walk

• Knife – For clean cuts, preserving the mycelium in the ground

• Comfy clothes & boots – You’ll be walking in forest terrain, so dress for the weather

Pro Tip: Don’t stack mushrooms! They bruise easily, and cross-contamination is a risk if you’ve picked an unidentified species.

Want to Learn More?

If you're curious about foraging beyond mushrooms — or just want to learn the right way from local experts — check out our amazing partners:
👉 Diego Bonetto and Bush to Bowl.
They both offer workshops and courses to deepen your understanding of wild foods, native plants, and sustainable living  and we’re proud to collaborate with them occasionally.

To stay update with our activities join the PNB Community 🌱

Become a PNB member (annual membership is $25 for individuals/$35 for households) or come along to our next event and learn about sustainable living for you and your family. We would love to see you there!

Pine mushroom in the forest

Sunday's Permabee in Kay's Gorgeous Garden of Delights

Catching bananas, redirecting rainwater and the magic of dried eggshells… highlights from our Permabee in North Curl Curl on Garigal Country.

If you’ve ever been curious about a PNB Permabee, here is a little snapshot of the wonders of what a group of keen beans can achieve on a Sunday morning - simply BYO gardening gloves and a willingness to wheelbarrow!

Kay is a prolific gardener and beloved PNB Member and if you’re lucky, you may have crossed paths with her at one of our events as she has been known to bring generous amounts of kumquats and other delicious home-grown produce along to share!

Last Sunday morning, we were welcomed to experience the magnificence of Kay’s garden firsthand. From the abundant fruit trees heavy with limes and bananas, to the blossoming basil bushes and the gorgeous scent of Native thyme, we were blown away by the variety and vitality of life growing in every corner of her backyard oasis. It was truly inspiring to see.

Led by Permabees Team Leader Marc Stubbs, our first order of business was to dig a swale to redirect the path of rainwater that was flowing in to Kay’s shed. We learned how to use a level to ensure that the water would flow evenly across the contour of the back garden and formed a mound from the first layer of topsoil that we dug out to form the trench. We would continue to add to this mound throughout the morning, pouring ‘barrow after ‘barrow of soil over it to create a new garden bed. We also covered the trench and the mound with a hearty layer of mulch.

At the very start of our swale-making journey…

While team wheelbarrow were busy having a ‘swale’ of a time, some of us were catching the latest banana harvest from Kay’s fruit forest. Since banana trees stop producing fruit after the bunch is made, it was time to cut the trunk down and make the most of the trunk’s inner moisture by slicing it in half and laying it face-down in the garden. Slimy and rewarding work! Now it was time to learn how to make our beds…

Kay has recently harvested veggies from three of her garden beds and as she is practicing crop rotation, it was time to get these empty beds ready for the next lot of seedlings by replenishing the soil. For each bed we had a bucket of coffee grounds, a bucket of compost from Kay’s garden, a bag of Cow Manure (lovingly called ‘Moo Poo’), a sprinkle of Blood & Bone and a sprinkle of dried eggshells that Kay had saved and blended into a egg-shellent powder (high in calcium - for happy worms and plants!). We had a great team effort going here, with some of us on sprinkling duty and others busy raking and making up questionable gardening puns…

Before we knew it, it was time for morning tea and we were treated to an epic spread featuring fresh fruit and home-made dolmades, Naoko’s special apricot slice, cupcakes, freshly flipped mini sourdough pancakes for smoked salmon blinis and Kay’s watermelon kombucha. Yummm! We all went home with a tummy full of treats, new numbers in our phonebook (hello new gardening buddies!) and for some, a tower of basil and a bunch of bananas. A very delightful morning indeed.

If this sounds like fun to you, why not join us for the next one? Become a PNB member (annual membership is $25 for individuals/$35 for households) or come along to our next event and learn about sustainable living for you and your family. We would love to see you there!

What a feast! Thank you for having us, Kay!

International Permaculture Day

May 3 is International Permaculture Day. A day where all things permaculture is celebrated around the Earth across continents from Brazil to India, to the UK to the USA. On the Northern Beaches of Sydney PNB has this year lived streamed on our FaceBook page virtual garden tours to inspire and inform with practical back yard solutions.

https://www.facebook.com/permaculturenb/videos/1114987385534546

https://www.facebook.com/permaculturenb/videos/593833261488328/

We also launched our new logo today. Inspired by a sprouting seed for new growth, hope, and resilience. The logo uses the colours of nature.

There will be more online garden tours coming up on our FB page including Bungun Edible Sanctuary.

In the meantime if you are wanting some more online inspiration then check our online factsheets at: https://www.permaculturenorthernbeaches.org.au/permaculture

The good food guide

Sarah Redshaw, Blue Mountains Greens

There is no doubt that eating less meat and dairy is going to help the environment but achieving this and going further involves complex issues. There are social, cultural and, dare I say it, economic issues to consider. 

While big agriculture is endangering our environment and can involve unacceptable treatment of animals, growing plant-based foods using the same sorts of processes would be equally bad if not worse for the environment.

Land use and the degradation of the natural environment is the pressing issue. How we treat animals is also a consideration. Large scale farming using pesticides and fertilisers is a huge problem and as has been pointed out in a recent article by Andrea Burgenerin1.

Simply growing plant-based foods using the same methods is not going to solve any problems. Large scale land clearing continues even in NSW with an increase under thegovernments of the past eight years. This ongoing and unabated destruction is a huge problem whether for grazing land for animals or for growing crops. 

Blaming consumers and expecting individuals to carry the burden in their food choices is not the solution either. Sustainable farming practices and market availability of sustainable food have to assist consumers to make choices they can afford. Some are better placed to afford more sustainable and healthier food choices. Others are constrained in their options in the current market context. Scaling back consumption by those who can afford more than they need (which is many of us in the affluent West) would help matters but it won’t help make food production more sustainable on its own. Government reforms are needed to enable more sustainable options that are affordable.

Changes in agricultural regulations, food policy, waste management, education, trade, and health outcomes are essential to support the development of a sustainable, inclusive, and equitable food culture. Therefore, both the market and the state have a responsibility to improve system governance and transparency and thus support a reconnection with producers, places, plants, and animals to allow us to understand the true social and environmental costs of our food choices2. 

Holistic approaches breaking down communication barriers between food producers, academics, healthcare providers and the public are needed, accompanied by ‘official dietary guidance and sustainable food labelling to inform consumers, send a clear signal to the food industry and set directions for government-supported food assistance’3. Advocacy at all levels of government for support for sustainable food production is paramount.

Transnational corporations producing over-processed foods designed to make large profits wield enormous power and control in the food system. Governments need to address this prioritisation of large profits over social and environmental considerations in agriculture and redesign and democratise food-choice environments. Regenerative farming practices are urgently required as well as demands from consumers for more sustainable food production practices.

1  Business Day (28 August 2019), businesslive.co.za

2 - 3 Goggins, G., Kennedy, E. H., Herman, A., Crona, B., Jonell, M., Duignan, S., ... Hinrichs, C. (2019). Transforming Society’s Food Choices. One Earth, 1(3), 272-274. doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2019.11.003

Building a Sustainable Future Together

The word is changing on many levels and so quickly at present. Take the time to breathe fresh air, enjoy the bird song, and appreciating nature at these times.

Working at home can be a time to utilise online resources, read books, and doing those practical jobs that we do not often have time to do. We can also make our own cleaning products, grow our own food, be pesticide free, and reduce waste through composting and buying patterns. Autumn is a great time to save our own seeds, plant onion, garlic, leeks, broccoli, cauliflower and broad beans. We can use this time to be learning new ways to live a sustainable lifestyle and lessening our ecological footprint. The world can think more about the full cost of all the products we use socially, ecologically, as well as economically.

The down shifters’ guide to a resilient future is a site on retrofitting the suburbs - how you can make you home, garden, and community resilient. You can also look at our own Green Home initiative video on this PNB website.

https://retrosuburbia.com/

Measure your ecological footprint now and then again how it will be in the future at the website:

https://www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/change-the-way-you-live/ecological-footprint-calculator#gs.1a3wjo

You can also offset your footprint through tree preservation or tree planting initiatives.

Building an ecological future together.