‘Experiment': Accused mushroom killer's fatal lunch evidence
Ms Patterson said she bought about a kilo of mushrooms from Woolworths in Leongatha.
The court was shown records of her shopping trip where she bought 'potato mash', 'beans' and 'filo pastry'.
Ms Patterson said she 'roughly' followed the recipe from her copy of the cookbook Recipe Tin Eats
'I did have to make some deviations,' she said.
'I couldn't find the big log that the recipe called for, the tenderloin, so I had to use individual steaks.
'I had to adapt.'
Ms Patterson said she posted in her Facebook chat and 'asked the ladies if they had any advice' for her ahead of preparing the beef Wellington.
Ms Patterson explained how she decided to cook beef Wellington.
'I went through quite a long process of deciding what to cook,' she said.
She said she cooked a shepherd's pie for the last lunch that she made for the family, which she said didn't seem 'special enough'.
'I remembered on really important occasions my mum would cook beef Wellington as a kid,' she told the court.
'I'll give it a go.'
Ms Patterson said she had never made it before and took the recipe from a book she owned, Recipe Tin Eats.
Explaining her lie, Ms Patterson said: 'So, something I had been thinking about in the background and doing some preparation for, I had come to the conclusion I wanted to do something for once and for all about my weight and eating habits.'
'I was planning on having gastric bypass surgery.
'I was really embarrassed about it.'
Ms Patterson said she thought the lie may have allowed the family to continue supporting her with forms of care, without then knowing about potentially weight loss surgery.
The court heard a series of messages that Ms Patterson sent to Gail Patterson.
In the messages, Ms Patterson said she had 'a needle biopsy' on a 'lump' and was scheduled for an MRI.
Ms Patterson admitted those texts were a 'lie'.
'I shouldn't have done it,' Ms Patterson tearfully said.
In a later message, Gail Patterson asked how the accused killer went with the medical tests, which she now admits never happened.
'I might talk more about it when I see you in person, love Erin,' the accused mushroom killer said.
Speaking about a lunch invite shared in June, Ms Patterson said she reached out to be more 'proactive' about staying close with the Patterson family.
'A week or so earlier, I had invited Don and Gail to come for lunch. I invited Simon to come to lunch,' she told the court.
'I had become a little worried that perhaps I was, that there might be some distance froing between me and the Patterson family.'
Ms Patterson said she wasn't sure if there was a 'Patterson gathering' she hadn't been invited to.
She said she realised she had to be more 'proactive' about staying in touch with the Patterson
She said the lunch 'was great,'
'The kids really loved it,' she said.
'I found out that there were some mushrooms growing on my property that were toxic to dogs,' Ms Patterson told the court.
Ms Patterson said they were called inocybe mushroom
Asked if she knew of other toxic mushrooms, Ms Patterson said: 'There were the red and white dot ones at the botanical gardens, they should not be eaten.'
'I became aware of death cap mushrooms quite early.
'I looked up to see if they grew in South Gippsland.
'I remember finding out that they didn't essentially.'
Ms Patterson was shown another image that she said she 'didn't remember' taking.
'I don't remember seeing mushrooms like that on my property,' she told the court.
'That is a photo of a mushroom not in great condition on my sink,' she said about another image.'
Asked why Ms Patterson took images of mushrooms, the accused said: 'I was trying to see if I could figure out what was growing on my property.'
'They look like the mushrooms I saw in the garden.'
Ms Patterson was shown a series of images, which she confirmed she took.
'It looks like it might be those mushrooms (from the garden), but on paper towel now,' Ms Patterson said.
Images were also shown that Ms Patterson said showed a flooded paddock on her property.
Ms Patterson returned to the witness box on Wednesday, first asked about images on an SD card.
The accused triple murderer confirmed she took the images and videos, some of which featured her children around a 'Leongatha trail'.
Ms Patterson said the images looked like: 'Some mushrooms and some grass among some leaf litter.'
She said they were captured around the first COVID lockdown in 2020.
Ms Patterson said she was using a Samsung Galaxy phone at the time.
Erin Patterson, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three murders and one attempted murder over the July 2023 lunch she served to her former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, 70, and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66.
All three died in hospital days after eating the meals. Ms Patterson maintains the poisonings were not deliberate.
The sole survivor of the lunch was Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson, who has attended court most days since giving evidence in week two of the trial.
He sat silently at the back of the courtroom on Tuesday as Patterson explained she had begun foraging for wild mushrooms during the COVID pandemic in 2020.
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