Ottilie Mitchell
Live reporter

The trial has heard the deadly meal came in the form of a beef wellington - a pastry filled with meat and mushrooms.

"Why did you choose that dish">She says she used a best-selling RecipeTin Eats book - from popular Australian chef Nagi Maehashi - as the basis for the recipe.

Katy Watson
reporting from Morwell

Turning to lunch in 2023, the trial has heard Ms Patterson told her guests she had a serious health issue to discuss, which after the meal she revealed was cancer. She has itted in her evidence that wasn't true.

Asked to explain, Ms Patterson says she had come to the conclusion that she wanted to do something "once and for all" about her weight and "poor eating habits". Yesterday she told the jury she had struggled with binge-eating and body image.

"I was planning to have gastric by surgery so I thinking I didn’t want to tell anybody what I was going to have done. I was really embarrassed by it," she says.

She thought that by letting them believe she had serious issues that needed treatment, they might be able to help her with logistics around the kids and she wouldn’t have to tell them about the real reason.

Simon Atkinson
reporting from Morwell

Under questioning from her barrister, Ms Patterson its she lied to to her mother-in-law Gail about having been to an appointment to have a needle biopsy done, and about plans to return for an MRI scan.

"Why did you tell lies">“They had been really nice about it. I did not want their care for me to stop, so I kept it going," she adds.

Katy Watson
reporting from Morwell

The trial earlier heard evidence that death cap mushrooms were spotted in two nearby towns in the months before the lunch - and their existence logged on iNaturalist.

Ms Patterson's barrister Colin Mandy asks her whether or not she had ever foraged for mushrooms in Loch or Outtrim – phone records suggest her mobile may have travelled to the towns shortly after the iNaturalist posts.

She said no.

She also denies ever seeing the posts on iNaturalist reporting the death cap mushroom sightings.

Defence barrister Colin Mandy SC now asks Ms Patterson about an online search for death cap mushrooms on the iNaturalist site, a citizen scientist database which tracks plants and fungi.

Ms Patterson says she doesn't viewing the page - which the court has heard was accessed on her phone in 2022 - but that it was possibly her, as she recalls wanting to know if toxic mushrooms grew in the area.

"It was possible that was part of the process I went through to see if they grew in South Gippsland."

She replies that searches about mushrooms were largely on her phone because she had it with her during her walks.

"It was just the most convenient thing."

Simon Atkinson
Australia producer, BBC News

And we’re straight in with where we left off yesterday… mushrooms.

Erin Patterson is being taken through images of fungi that were found on a camera memory (SD) card seized from her home by police.

She says she took the pictures in early 2020. Directed to one of them, she says: "It looks to me like some mushrooms among some grass and leaf litter."

Another she identifies as having being taken at one of her former homes, saying she recognises the kitchen bench.

She is asked why she took photographs of mushrooms.

"I was trying to figure out what was growing on my property," she replies.

Here is what we learned as Ms Patterson gave evidence on Tuesday.

• The 50-year-old began her evidence by detailing various medical scares – before itting she never had ovarian cancer, a claim prosecutors allege was used to bring the lunch guests to her house.
• She told the jury that she had a huge mistrust of the health system after hospital visits with her children, which was the reason she discharged herself from hospital - against medical advice - after the fateful meal.
• Ms Patterson also told the court her relationship with Simon Patterson had initially remained friendly but turned tense amid conflict over finances from October 2022 onwards.
• She became emotional when talking about Don and Gail Patterson, her in-laws who died within days of being served a beef wellington containing death cap mushrooms, repeatedly telling the court how much she cared for them despite messages entered into evidence where she vented about them.
• The jury also heard about her interest in mushroom recipes – she detailed her love for fungi, especially exotic mushrooms which have "more flavour"; recounted her foraging experience; and explained her purchase of a food dehydrator.

• Ms Patterson told the court she accepted death cap mushrooms were in the meal she cooked, and said the "vast majority" came from a supermarket in town, but some also came from an "Asian grocer in Melbourne".
• She detailed shopping at such stores in the past, and said that "sometimes the bags would say 'wild mushroom mix'" or would otherwise not specify exactly what they contained.

You can read our wrap up of the day here.

Katy Watson
reporting from Morwell

Yesterday we heard Erin Patterson accept that there were death cap mushrooms in the meal of beef wellington she served her relatives - that was the first time we had heard her say that herself.

The defence’s position has always been that the deaths of Don and Gail Patterson, her in-laws, and Heather and Ian Wilkinson, had been a tragedy.

We're expecting to hear more about that from them today.

We'll be covering the testimony from the media overflow room. Because of the huge interest in this trial, seating has to be closely managed, so only six journalists are allowed into the courtroom each day.

There's a little more space reserved for of the public, but not much, and once again this morning there was a queue of them jostling for a seat.

The 14-member jury is weighing up evidence to decide whether Erin Patterson is guilty of three charges of murder and one of attempted murder.

The case centres around a beef wellington lunch she served at her Leongatha home in July 2023.

Three people died shortly after the lunch - Ms Patterson's former in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66. Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, survived after being in an induced coma for weeks.

Prosecutors say Ms Patterson intentionally served the toxic mushrooms - she has pleaded not guilty, saying it was unintentional.

Simon Atkinson
reporting from Morwell

The case is being heard in Latrobe Valley Law Courts - a fairly small and unimposing modern building on the main road through the town of Morwell in regional Victoria.

It is about a 45-minute drive from the Leongatha home, where the lunch took place.

The judge, barristers and some of the court staff are travelling here each week and staying nearby (accommodation had been hard to find!). Court finishes at lunchtime on Fridays - in part to allow out-of-towners to get home for the weekend.

Jurors however have been drawn from the local area.

Our correspondent Katy Watson has been following the case since it started, here's the key things you need to know in under 90 seconds.

Lana Lam
Live reporter

On Monday, we heard from Ms Patterson for the first time since the trial began more than five weeks ago.

The 50-year-old has pleaded not guilty to killing three relatives and attempting to kill another, after she served them toxic death cap mushrooms during a lunch she hosted two years.

Her defence team claims the fatal meal at her home in regional Victoria was a "tragic accident" and any "incriminating" behaviour that prosecutors allege in the days afterwards were the actions of a woman panicking.

Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney

We're kicking off another day of coverage of the closely watched murder trial of Erin Patterson - who cooked a beef wellington meal that left three dead and another gravely ill in July 2023.

She is expected to appear in court shortly, for a third day in the witness box, so stay with us as we bring you the latest updates.