We have had an unusual weather year. A very wet spring was followed by a drought and heat wave temperatures through the summer. Autumn has given us rain and changeable weather.
How will this affect foraging? Many plants fruited early, trees shed leaves because of the stress, some plants dried up. We will see what’s left.
Mushrooms are less predictable than plants. No terrestrial mushrooms will have grown during the drought as they are totally dependant on water in the soil. Now that they have a chance to come up, they will. Exactly which species will respond best remains to be seen. Some rain over the next few weeks would be useful to produce a good range of mushrooms. Unusual weather years tend to produce rare species. Fungi that grow on trees will have been less affected by the summer drought, so may have benefitted from the high temperatures.