July is a majestic season for fungi. The forest is alive with all sorts of mushies. Squishy little jellies, polka-dot toadstools and exploding puffballs. There's the delicious and the deadly, medicinal and magic. Nature is just amazing.

Grey Knights, Tricholoma terreum, are an abundant little mushie. You'll find them peppered along pine forest paths, guiding the way with a winding silver trail. They're common, delicious, and underappreciated. They have a bit of a confusing and complicated relationship with foragers. They're the on-again, off-again wild romance of mushrooms. But messy love stories are sometimes the best. But before I fill you in on the drama, what are we looking for? Cap: • Grey • Felt-like

I snacked on bushfood as a kid. But my full descent into foraging was all via mushrooms. Years ago, I found some little brown mushrooms growing in my backyard—caramel brown, with a nippled top. I was worried they looked similar to some hallucinagenic mushrooms I’d seen on a 60 Minutes exposé. Somehow the stars aligned and I stumbled exactly where I needed to be: a mushroom ID group on Facebook. The group’s mycologist admin hit me with a mouthful of a taxonomical name. Turns o

Mushrooming is usually a treasure hunt in the forest. You wander through the wilderness, taking in every detail, until you uncover a whole bounty of mushrooms hiding beneath leaf litter. Ah, the excitement of a haul! A basket overflowing with abundance, enough to host the most glorious dinner party. But foraging for Porcini isn't like this. They're so elusive in Victoria, there's a one in a million shot you'll stumble upon one. Expect a sad, empty basket. The lucky few who ha