Country Fayre Adventure
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 08 September 2012 18:15:57
Campbell Park is a wonderful space which has already featured in this blog quite a bit (Pride, The Proms and numerous artists at the International Festival) - today it hosted a Country Fayre. This was one of the last events in the city's summer of culture. We went largely because we are a couple of eccentrics with a sense of humour who wanted to take the mickey out of the talk on "Mushrooms of Milton Keynes". The joke was on us, it was actually a rather fun afternoon and the talk on mushrooms was far more interesting than we had imagined.
Karl took a number of photos of the day which I'll post, each followed by a little bit of commentary where necessary.
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Tractorgirl on a Tractor[/caption]
Bearing in mind my online pseudonym we couldn't resist getting a picture of me on a tractor.....this was one of two occasions I found myself in a queue with a bunch of infant and pre-school children. The other was when I encountered a vehicle they use to clear the weeds from the lakes. All of the heavy machinery on show belonged to the MK Parks Trust who were hosting the event.
We weren't allowed to play with the chain saws which was probably a good thing.
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Man with a big saw[/caption]
In addition to the vehicles there were some animals on show with accompanying activities:
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Animal Activities[/caption]
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Scary Lizard[/caption]
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Chicken[/caption]
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Sheep keeping out of the sun[/caption]
In terms of the talks they were varied:
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Talks Programme[/caption]
We went to the ones on bees and on mushrooms. The bee one was alright. Having given an outline of the importance of bees, (apparently 1 in 3 mouthfuls of food relies on bees), the lady giving this WI style talk went on to tell us all about how them and how we can protect them before referring to how she kept bees and got honey from them. The mushroom guy, Justin Long was brilliant. He was clearly a slightly eccentric fungi lover but had a really good sense of humour and excellent presentation skills.
Some of the things I learnt about mushrooms in MK and fungi generally:
1) Fungi is a cross between a plant and an insect because it behaves like a plant but has some cell structure in common with insects.
2) Micro Fungi is used in the process which they use to stone-wash jeans.
3) In the UK there are about 12,000 species of fungi.
4) St. Georges Mushrooms are wild mushrooms which emerge around the 23rd April each year. They are edible but you have to be careful as there is one which is very similar which can kill you.
5) Morrell Mushrooms are not generally found in Milton Keynes, but you can find a similar one. The Morrell is one of the best, (and some delicatessen's over charge you for them).
6) Ikea car park in MK has a good mushroom in it, but you have to be careful as it is poisonous raw - but all wild mushrooms should be cooked before eating due to the risk of bacteria anyway.
7) A False Morrell can kill you and has a chemical used within rocket fuel within it.
8) Possession of a magic mushroom is a criminal offence but if you graze it you're not in possession (not that this guy has ever found one let alone used this loophole in the law).
9) If you eat a shaggy ink cap (which can be found amid the concrete cows) it is best to avoid alcohol with it.
10) Michael Jordan (mushroom man rather than basketball player) once gave a number of journalists a mushroom at a book launch that gave 10% of them an allergic reaction.
If you happen to be in the area and want to get more acquainted with fungi Justin Long is doing a short course on 20th October for the Parks Trust (£5 per person and booking required).