Fancy a spot of fungi foraging?

Lovers of the countryside and of fine food will have field day on Saturday 30th of October during a Fungi Foray at Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant and Spa, deep in the heart of the Dorset countryside, an area immortalized by Thomas Hardy in his Wessex novels.

Guests can accompany celebrated wild mushroom hunter John Wright as he forages for edible (and some not so edible) delights in the chalk downlands and the leafy woods around the gorgeous village of Evershot. And, as it is Halloween weekend, who knows what else we might stumble across in the woods.

The rolling hills of Dorset provide some of the best mushroom hunting grounds in England, and there's no better guide than John. As well as writing the River Cottage Mushroom Handbook, he has led over 300 fungi forays over the years and is a wonderful ambassador for the joys of this fascinating pursuit.

With John leading the foray, absolutely no previous experience is required and so children will have great fun too. There will be two sessions of this Adventures in Food package: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning session will start at 10.00 with a short introduction by John, followed by a few hours exploring and foraging in the surrounding countryside. At 12.30, when, no doubt, everyone will have worked up a hearty appetite, they can repair to the delightfully traditional Acorn Inn for a well earned pub lunch.

The afternoon session will begin at 2.30 pm, again with a short introduction from John before he takes his band of foragers into some very different terrain to discover other varieties of fungi. At 6.30 pm everyone can gather in the hotel to examine the different types of mushrooms, toadstools and fungi collected during the day and where John will identify them all and host a very engaging question and answer session.

Steven Titman, Summer Lodge's Executive Chef, is preparing a special mushroom themed menu that will include some of the specimens collected during the day. A four-course fungi extravaganza is priced at £65 per person. Eric Zwiebel, our world renowned Sommelier (he was runner-up in the 'Best Sommelier of The World' Competition in 2008), will also be on hand to suggest the wines he thinks most appropriate for the feast that waits.

John comments that, "Foraging for your food is a joyful enterprise, but it is in the nature of such things that sometimes one's prey will not co-operate. The weather may have been too dry or too cold and the fungi may be keeping their heads down. I have chosen the date to give us the very best chance and I think we should do well - my best guess is that we will find around 40 species including up to 10 edible ones."

Immerse yourselves in the country experience with the Adventures in Food package including:

* Two nights in a beautifully appointed room or suite
* Full English Breakfast daily
* Complimentary guided forage with renowned forager/author John Wright
* Three-course dinner prepared by our Chef Steven Titman with several of the ingredients we find during the day
* Late check-out until 4pm on Sundays

Guests staying at Summer Lodge on Friday or Saturday night are welcome to join the forages at no extra cost. Participants may decide to forage in the morning, or the afternoon, or both. Lunch and dinner are optional, but as they will be very much part of the experience it is expected that many will decide to sample the delights of the Acorn Inn, and Summer Lodge's highly regarded kitchen and cellar. You will also have the opportunity to buy signed copies of John's fascinating books on the edible delights of the countryside, the hedgerow and the seashore.

Both sessions are also open to non-residents who are having the special forage dinner menu at Summer Lodge on Saturday evening.

For more information, visit: Summerlodgehotel.co.uk