Wednesday 13 October 2010

That Jamie Oliver Has A Lot To Answer For...

The City of London Corporation has been catching record numbers of illegal fungi pickers on its land and has said TV chefs who encourage wild foraging are partly to blame.

Senior forest keeper Jonathan Preston said: “One of the biggest problems we have got is a real issue with celebrity chefs promoting mushroom picking. Jamie Oliver and people like that.

“Epping Forest is right next to London and it's not like a forest in the middle of Dorset where you might get ten people there at the weekend.”
Why can't they just grow their own, or go to Waitrose, like normal people?

5 comments:

Bucko said...

Whats wrong with picking funghi and why is is illegal?
Do the government own wild mushrooms now? Or am I missing something?

SadButMadLad said...

It's illegal because the forest is a SSI (Site of Scientific Interest).

Just another one to add to the tens of thousands of laws introduced by Labour where with so many no reasonable person will be expected to know when they are committing an illegal act - to refute the legal phrase of "ignorance is no defence".

Weekend Yachtsman said...

The forest is a SSI?

What, the whole forest?

Have these dorks any idea how big it is? (2476 "hectares", whatever that means in real money)

Haven't I also read somewhere... ah yes: "When Queen Victoria visited Chingford on 6 May 1882 she declared "It gives me the greatest satisfaction to dedicate this beautiful forest to the use and enjoyment of my people for all time""

So f off bureaucrats, it's ours, not yours. Just f off.

D-Rex said...

There is a field near the UEA where you will see loads of people wandering round at this time of year staring at the ground. Yup they are looking for mushrooms, mushrooms of the magic variety. Why do you think the CRU was such a shambles?

JuliaM said...

"Just another one to add to the tens of thousands of laws introduced by Labour where with so many no reasonable person will be expected to know when they are committing an illegal act..."

Funnily enough, nor do the police, it seems. I've a post coming up on just that subject today...

"Have these dorks any idea how big it is?"

I doubt a single bureaucrat has ever visited...

" Yup they are looking for mushrooms, mushrooms of the magic variety. "

Heh! Explains a lot, indeed...