About Geoff

 

Email: geoffdann@hotmail.com
Phone: 07964 569715
Twitter: @DannGeoff

I am a writer, foraging teacher, smallholder, prepper and doomwatcher now based in Ceredigion. From 2013 to 2023 this blog/website was called ‘Geoff’s Fungi and Foraging”.

For 15 years, based in south-east England, I took groups of people to forage for fungi, plants and seaweeds. In 2016 my first book was published – the most comprehensive book available on British and northern European fungi foraging. My second book, on edible plants and seaweeds, came out in 2022.

In the summer of that year my family moved from Hastings to the west coast of Wales, to start a new life on a smallholding. Our aim is to become as self-sufficient and resilient as possible. I am still available for private fungi foraging events, and open to suggestions for collaboration with owners of suitable land for running public events. Please email me for details.

 

 

Geoff in the media:

Appearance on Radio 4 chat/magazine show Saturday live (Summer 2018)
Interview and dawn forage with BBC Radio Kent, December 2014 (the making of)
Interview on BBC Radio October 2014 Mark Forrest Show
ITV news – ten foraging tips by Geoff
ITV news – fungi poisoning story
Mouth magazine
The Telegraph

You-well.co.uk

 

28 thoughts on “About Geoff”

  1. keith Lewis

    congratulations Geoff on the new website.
    you took me and my wife Minoo out foraging end of last year for the first time ever, and we had a great day.
    we were eating winter chanterelles for over a week, and loved every dished prepared with them.
    Xmas presents were dead easy. BOOKS and books of mushroom foraging and identification!
    thanks to you you really stimulated our interest in this new and fascinating world.
    no doubt we will catch up with you sometime later in the year.
    all the best
    Keith

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  3. Pearl

    Hi Geoff

    I came across your website whilst looking for an alternative way to clean cauliflower fungus. My husband and I have been amateur foragers for many years and have avoided poisoning ourselves thus far. 😉 We have been foraging and eating our edible fungus finds for many years now and also use Roger Phillips, Peter Jordan and the Collins Wild Guide to help with identification, although we are fairly confident on the varieties we eat and tend to stick to the ones we know. Although this year has been a bit sparse on the mushroom front due to the relatively dry summer, we did manage to find some chanterelles, milk caps, yellow russulas, hedgehog fungus and a cep in Sussex yesterday. Thanks for the link to WildMushroomsOnline. I’ll go have a look.

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    1. admin Post author

      Hi Pearl.

      There is no easy way to clean cauliflower fungus. I just submerge the whole thing in water and slowly pick bits out, cleaning as I go.

      Geoff.

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  4. Kat Stene

    Hi Geoff,

    Just wanted to say a big thank you for this afternoon’s forage, we were all very impressed with the knowledge you have, and the many varieties we managed to find. We had the winter chanterells in a pasta dish for dinner and they were delicious!

    Thanks again,

    Kat

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  5. Michelle Twin Mum

    Fab to have found your blog. I moves to East Sussex abut 3 months ago and have fallen in love with fungi. Not eaten any of it as I have no idea what I’m looking for but loving taking pictures and there is so much here on the estate I live on. Mich

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  6. philip howes

    hi geoff.

    How can you be sure eating COTW from yew trees is safe?

    Is there any documented scientific research?

    I found 2kg in brecon beacons and am umming and arring as whether to eat it.

    cheers

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    1. admin Post author

      Hi Phillip,

      I am sure because I’ve eaten a ton of it, and fed it to loads of people. Full story is here:

      https://www.geoffdann.co.uk/uncategorized/chyewks-chickens-of-the-wood-on-yew/

      There is no scientific research. That is…there never was any scientific reason to believe it WASN’T safe. It’s a myth.

      However, I do feel I must point out that it’s not good to take 2kg of something you’re not sure you are going to eat! That’s the sort of thing that gets foragers a bad name.

      best wishes

      Geoff

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  9. Ross Turner

    Hi Geoff,

    Thanks for a really informative and fruitful session on Saturday the 11th of November 2017.

    We have rely enjoyed our winter chanterelles and hedgehog fungus!!

    We look forward to next years season and getting out with you then!!

    Ross , Stevie, Lyra and Greeta

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  10. Mary Louise Boyle

    Hi Geoff, your info here has really helped calm my nerves about where death caps many grow but I have a question I’d be so grateful if you could answer….you said above death caps may grow in a field by a woodland, is that simply bcs the roots are under the ground of the field? I am a panicking because we have a natural limestone cliff wall in our back garden ( in northern Ireland ) and on top of that theres a row of trees and they run down the street. I don’t know if that counted as woodland but I feared the spores could drop down into our garden which has got a few trees (not together , at different sides of the garden), and grow death caps, and maybe some day my puppy would snack on them! Generally do death caps need to be in a woodland environment to grow? I assume if they could grow other places more easily then more would be heard about it. Thankyou so much!! Best wishes, ML

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    1. Geoff Dann Post author

      Hi Mary

      Re: ” is that simply bcs the roots are under the ground of the field?”

      Exactly, yes. Fungi that are symbiotic with trees can sometimes be found up to 50m away from the tree itself, because that’s how far the roots can extend, especially if the area they are extending into isn’t home to any other trees.

      “I am a panicking because we have a natural limestone cliff wall in our back garden ( in northern Ireland ) and on top of that theres a row of trees and they run down the street. I don’t know if that counted as woodland but I feared the spores could drop down into our garden which has got a few trees (not together , at different sides of the garden), and grow death caps, and maybe some day my puppy would snack on them!”

      Unless the roots of the trees extend into your garden, that can’t happen.

      “Generally do death caps need to be in a woodland environment to grow?”

      They cannot survive without their tree partners. Although *very* occasionally you will find a fungus clinging on in a location where its tree partner once lived, although even then it is usually in the presence of some other sort of tree (of a variety they are not usually symbiotic with).

      Geoff

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  11. ruby

    I’m having trouble booking on your Good Friday forage. The paypal page isn’t working, I’ve tried several times now to pay. Please can you get back to me on this. Thanks you.

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  12. steven dirven

    After years of slowly getting in to the world of mushrooms learning one or two a year. Your book helped me big time to feel more free ( or safe) with those butifull fungi fellows! Thank you verry mutch. If the saying is treu ‘you are what you eat’ I’m not to far off to become one of them.

    Again, Thank you.

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  13. Peter

    Hi Geoff Dann, I was impressed with the picture of wild garlic on the cover: a plant which grows in huge abundance round our way in the spring. We have an excellent and easy recipe for wild garlic pesto, don’t know whether you’ve included something similar in your book but I’m sharing ours, in case anyone’s interested:

    Ingredients
    150g wild garlic leaves (a small basketfull: do not pick more than one or two leaves off each plant)
    50g parmesan or vegetarian alternative, finely grated
    1 garlic clove, finely chopped
    ½ lemon, zested and a few squeezes of juice
    50g pine nuts, toasted
    150ml olive oil
    Salt and Pepper

    1. Rinse and roughly chop the wild garlic leaves.
    2. Blitz the wild garlic leaves, parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and pine nuts to a rough paste in a food processor. Season, and with the motor running slowly, add almost all the oil. Taste, season and add a few squeezes of lemon juice.
    3. Transfer the pesto to a clean jar and top with the remaining oil. Will keep in the fridge for two weeks.

    NOTE: when foraging, beware of poisonous lookalikes like wild arum, lily-of-the-valley, dogs-mercury. If you’re careful you shouldn’t trip up.

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  14. Bob

    Hi Geoff,
    I bought your book when you did the talk at the Kino in St Leonards a few weeks back. Really enjoyed the talk. I am a web developer and am putting together a website for a very special group. We will be listing books and information regarding Self-Sufficiency and Wellbeing. Do you have an affiliate program that we could tap into to help promote your books and bring in a few sheckles for the group.
    regards
    Bob

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    1. Geoff Dann Post author

      Hi Steve.

      At the moment I do not have any public events specifically for fungi planned. Since moving to west Wales, I don’t have anywhere suitable to run such events, although I am keeping an eye out. I can do private events in Brechfa Forest for a very reasonable price if you know some other people who are interested.

      Geoff

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  16. Natalie Kirby

    Hey Geoff,

    I hope all is well your end. I am on a fungi based mission, and hoping you may be able to point me in the right direction.

    I work at a College in East Sussex, and next week we have our first Green Week. I have been tempted for a few years to facilitate the creation of a woodland/fungi focused garden in an underused area of the campus and next week could be the perfect time. Although I am fascinated by fungi and would love to explore this topic with our students, I have very little knowledge about how to approach creating a space like this. Would you know of anyone in this location that I could potentially collaborate with or resources?

    I look forward to hearing from you,

    Thank you
    Natalie

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    1. Geoff Dann Post author

      Hello Natalie

      I am afraid I don’t believe I know anybody who can help you with this, but it isn’t really all that complicated. If you want fungi then provide the sort of environment fungi like. Which means dead wood — logs, large branches, etc… These need to be somewhere they will be naturally as damp as you can manage, so not in the blast of the full sun if possible. You could also plant a birch sapling, since they grow fast and have a lot of mycorrhizal partners. Do email me if you have more questions.

      Geoff

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