Wild mushrooms are found all over the world and I help to prepare them for sale to discerning mushroom customers throughout the UK. We take delivery of our mushrooms in East Sussex and most of them arrive already dried - a process best carried out soon after picking to retain the flavour.

Wild mushrooms come into season at different times of the year and are therefore seasonal. We want our customers to experience and eat wild mushrooms all year round - which is why drying them is best. In fact dried mushrooms have much stronger flavours than fresh mushrooms and lose none of their nutritional values.

Dried wild mushrooms increase in volume by 3 - 4 times when re-hydrated. So a 100g bag of our mushrooms is actually somewhere between 300g and 400g in real volume.

You shouldn't use dried mushrooms until they've been rehydrated - but re-hydration is easy. Simply boil some water and pour into a bowl, add the quantity you require, but remember that dried mushrooms increase in volume to 3 to 4 times. Soak your mushrooms in the boiling water for about 20 minutes or until fully re-hydrated stirring occasionally.

The mushrooms can then be drained from the water and used - but don't pour the used water down the sink! This is now a fantastic broth that should be strained before use to remove any sand/grit and can then be used in many recipes for soups and stews etc. You can even freeze it to use at a later date.