Sir, – The article about foraging in Bushy Park in Dublin (Life & Culture, September 27th) was entertaining and provided food for thought.
It was interesting to hear about various experiments in the field at eating windfalls from various trees. The photograph accompanying the article featured horse chestnuts.
These are completely unrelated to sweet chestnuts of “roasting in an open fire” fame and are mildly poisonous to humans and, ironically, horses.
There are only a few deadly poisonous plants or fungi in Ireland so most things you find in parks or gardens are likely to be safe and merely unpleasant to eat. A very small number are, however, seriously dangerous, so please be careful while foraging and avoid eating random herbage. – Yours, etc,