When foraging or excepting foraged food one can't be too careful

[DrHenley]

I only pick the chanterelles.

 

[Brent S]

I only pick the chanterelles.

Those are beautiful for a mushroom.

 

[Brent S]

I've seen kits for growing edible mushrooms. At least I wouldn't poison myself that way.

 

[Brent S]

They were popular here when I was a kid. They made tea from them that was supposed to be pretty potent. I never tried it, mainly because it grew from cow piles....

Yeah, I'm lucky I survived my teen years! On the other hand, I used to drink tea with cow dung in it, now I just spread it around the vegetables I eat. I guess I'm never gonna learn.

 

[WGregMiller]

Yeah, I'm lucky I survived my teen years! On the other hand, I used to drink tea with cow dung in it, now I just spread it around the vegetables I eat. I guess I'm never gonna learn.

Lol! I think the reason for staying away from the magic mushrooms was that I shoveled plenty of manure when I was a kid. I kinda lost interest in being around it for recreation.

 

[DrHenley]

I've seen kits for growing edible mushrooms. At least I wouldn't poison myself that way.

Brent, I have done those a couple of times. While it was neat, and the mushrooms were tasty, I didn't really think it was worth the money and effort.

After this next bout of rain, wait a couple of days, and walk though some oak timber. You should see bunches of chanterelles. The only lookalike is the Jack O' Lantern, but if you read up on the difference, you can spot the difference easily. The main differences are that the Jack O'Lanterns are orange and grow in tight bunches at the base of trees, while the Chanterelles are yellow and grow in loose bunches on the forest floor. The color however can vary, with some orange Chanterelles and some yellow Jack O' Lanterns. There are differences in the gills too, but you have to look closely. Chanterelles don't have true gills, they are more like folds that are forked, with rounded edges, while the Jack O' Lanterns have true gills. But once you have seen them in the woods, they are easy to distinguish from a distance.

On the left, Chanterelles; on the right, Jack O' Lanterns

Chanterelles are a delicacy, as sought after as morels. I can't begin to describe the taste. They are very delicate, so the ones you buy in a market are usually dried. People dry them, grind them up into powder, and sell them as a spice.

The first time I had chanterelles was in the 1970s and a biologist went though our woods picking mushrooms and cooked up a big pot of them. They were absolutely fantastic eating. I didn't think to ask him what kind of mushrooms they were, and have wondered about that ever since.

Last year, my brother in law showed me how and when to pick the chanterelles, and after eating them I realized these were the mushrooms I had been wondering about all these decades.

 

[Kevin L]

As an ex-paramedic and passing good at identifying wild edible (and medicinal) plants, I have a lot to say about this.

In a survival situation, stay away from all wild mushrooms unless you've taken several accredited college courses.

Some mushrooms are perfectly edible in one environment, and deadly poisonous in another because of the different soil chemistry.

This may seem odd, but there are mushrooms that are poisonous to white people and perfectly fine for african-americans. If you consider tetracycline, for example, it increases sensitivity to sunlight. White people exposed to sunlight after eating a specific mushroom will become deathly ill when the sunlight activates the toxins...but black people (and, presumably, some people from India) will have no problems because the melanin in their skin will block enough sunlight to prevent this from happening.

For any poisoning, activated charcoal can be made by burning white bread and grinding up the black ash.

As was mentioned earlier, by the time symptoms of mushroom poisoning show...it's already too late.

The toxins act by (among other things) destroying the liver and kidneys. The deadliest mushrooms belong to the Amanita family...namely Amanita phalloides, amanita virosa, Amanita muscaria, and so on.

Incidentally, lethal mushrooms can serve a very important function: cut up an Amanita muscaria (reddish, with white scale spots, well-defined gills with a notch, a ring halfway up the stem, a volvular cup at the base of the stem, and usually found in pine woods) into pieces, mix it in a dish with milk and honey, and place it in your kitchen on top of the fridge.

All the flies in the house will die when they come to eat the milk...and get fatally poisoned by the mushroom juice.

One final note: many horribly deadly mushrooms actually taste quite good, and I believe that this may contribute to some poisonings. Some toxic species taste like potato or radish, while others taste like apricots. Some mushrooms are perfectly okay as long as you don't drink alcohol with them. With these mushrooms, a single drink of wine will have you wishing you were dead while you hug the bowl...vomiting your guts up until you turn your insides wrong side out.

And so on.

 

[Maverick]

As an ex-paramedic and passing good at identifying wild edible (and medicinal) plants, I have a lot to say about this.

In a survival situation, stay away from all wild mushrooms unless you've taken several accredited college courses.

Some mushrooms are perfectly edible in one environment, and deadly poisonous in another because of the different soil chemistry.

This may seem odd, but there are mushrooms that are poisonous to white people and perfectly fine for african-americans. If you consider tetracycline, for example, it increases sensitivity to sunlight. White people exposed to sunlight after eating a specific mushroom will become deathly ill when the sunlight activates the toxins...but black people (and, presumably, some people from India) will have no problems because the melanin in their skin will block enough sunlight to prevent this from happening.

For any poisoning, activated charcoal can be made by burning white bread and grinding up the black ash.

As was mentioned earlier, by the time symptoms of mushroom poisoning show...it's already too late.

The toxins act by (among other things) destroying the liver and kidneys. The deadliest mushrooms belong to the Amanita family...namely Amanita phalloides, amanita virosa, Amanita muscaria, and so on.

Incidentally, lethal mushrooms can serve a very important function: cut up an Amanita muscaria (reddish, with white scale spots, well-defined gills with a notch, a ring halfway up the stem, a volvular cup at the base of the stem, and usually found in pine woods) into pieces, mix it in a dish with milk and honey, and place it in your kitchen on top of the fridge.

All the flies in the house will die when they come to eat the milk...and get fatally poisoned by the mushroom juice.

One final note: many horribly deadly mushrooms actually taste quite good, and I believe that this may contribute to some poisonings. Some toxic species taste like potato or radish, while others taste like apricots. Some mushrooms are perfectly okay as long as you don't drink alcohol with them. With these mushrooms, a single drink of wine will have you wishing you were dead while you hug the bowl...vomiting your guts up until you turn your insides wrong side out.

And so on.

Good points! though collage courses is a little much but not a bad idea. I've been picking 45+ years but I been taught by some very very seasoned foragers from a young age and only pick what I can identify 100 percent in a very narrow scope of my area, I'm still learning. I don't feel comfortable enough going to any other state and picking mushrooms. Mushrooms is very hands on learning from a reputable forager not books and pictures.

 

[jontte]

we've got some rain here now and there should be soon,very soon the first one popping up and they taste good,as long as you do the properly and I talk about the brain mushroom.

 

[Psalm7]

There are 2 kinds of mushrooms that the old timers taught me to harvest here . Slang / local nams here are murtles (mushrooms that look like turtles at a distance ) and hen of the woods (grow under logs or stumps like a setting hen hideing a nest ) .
As far as magic shrooms . I will say I work very near the bonaroo rockfeast site at a very public place and Im glad that mess is over for this year .

 

[Zach Hadley]

Yes-please be careful with foraged foods and know 100% what you are eating!

 

[brandx]

What do any one of you know of chanterells(sp)? Tis the season and they are selling at the local farmers market.

 

[Maverick]

What do any one of you know of chanterells(sp)? Tis the season and they are selling at the local farmers market.

That's my primary pick here (chanterelle) but be careful of the false chanterelle, some poisonous some not. You have to find someone local that can show you, each region are different in appearances.

 

[DrHenley]

Chanterelles are one of the very best 'shrooms there are, running a close third behind truffles and morels.

Look for them in warm weather a few days after a good rain. They will usually be under the canopy of an oak tree in loose groups, but not right up against the trunk (the false chanterelles usually grow in tight bunches at the base of a tree)
True Chanterelles:

False Chanterelles (Jack O'Lanterns)

 

[Maverick]

In Washington we have more to choose from than I can count.

These are all edible Chanterelles, I can travel a mile radius and pick these all day long.

blue

cayman

cinnabar

golden

cinnabar red

trumpet

amethyst deceiver

 

[Maverick]

When you forage for some fungi don't forget to look for some fiddleheads and ramps while your out!

 

[Brent S]

I saw a show on just last night that had a bit about chanterelles. The guy said the true chanterelles don’t have true gills underneath, but the closest poisonous imitator does. He also said that the poisonous one will make you sick, but isn’t deadly. My advice is take all this with a grain of salt. Try to find someone locally that has experience in your area that you could learn from. I do love mushrooms and always thought this would be a skill worth learning.

 

[jontte]

Mav,you lucky one!!
still remeber when I was kid,I disdn't like rooms,now I put rooms in meatballs,meatlofs,just about any place where I use mince.

 

[Maverick]

I saw a show on just last night that had a bit about chanterelles. The guy said the true chanterelles don’t have true gills underneath, but the closest poisonous imitator does. He also said that the poisonous one will make you sick, but isn’t deadly. My advice is take all this with a grain of salt. Try to find someone locally that has experience in your area that you could learn from. I do love mushrooms and always thought this would be a skill worth learning.

That’s a must, learn from a knowledgeable person for the specific region. Most fungi aren’t deadly, chanterelles is a common name for different species, chanterelles never covered the one type fungi specie (true chanterelles) Even the scientific community recognizes the various species of the chanterelles.

 

[Maverick]

Mav,you lucky one!!
still remeber when I was kid,I disdn't like rooms,now I put rooms in meatballs,meatlofs,just about any place where I use mince.

I definitely like the diverse ecosystem here, we get the right amount of rain and temperatures, out of the 305 popular species here only 5 are deadly (that we know of) it’s estimated we have an upward of 20-25 thousand species here. I don’t experiment I’ll let some other fool do it but the collages are doing a good job checking the toxicity of the fungi and making it available to public and always gets put out before state controlled mushroom harvesting season.