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

[Maverick]

Case(s) in point;

"More than a dozen people in Northern California recently became seriously ill from eating wild "death cap" mushrooms that they gathered themselves, according to a new report."

"The woman had gotten the mushrooms from a stranger she encountered"

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/06/06/death-cap-mushrooms-sicken-14-in-california.html

 

[Danil54grl]

A good reminder of what can happen when foraging and you're not 100% of exactly what it us. There are a lot of look alikes out there so be careful! If you want to do something like this, I would recommend taking along a locally trained person with you. As you have pointed out in another thread, something maybe edible in certain parts but not in other parts of the world.

 

[bigpaul]

especially with mushrooms, I know in the UK whilst there might be dozens you can eat there are hundreds that will kill you.
the only one I will touch and I know is edible is one that grows to the size of a dinner plate and is found in fields and meadows.
i'm not a great mushroom eater anyway, I can take it or leave it.

 

[Brent S]

especially with mushrooms, I know in the UK whilst there might be dozens you can eat there are hundreds that will kill you.
the only one I will touch and I know is edible is one that grows to the size of a dinner plate and is found in fields and meadows.
i'm not a great mushroom eater anyway, I can take it or leave it.

I love them, but not enough to test my skills, or lack there of, as a forager.

 

[Brent S]

One thing I'm curious about. I have a large bag of activated charcoal for incidents like this or food poisoning. It works by being really porous and it absorbs the stuff you ingested, protecting you some. I'm wondering if it will hold it long enough for you to pass it, or would you still need to have your stomach pumped?

 

[bigpaul]

never heard of ingesting charcoal before.

 

[grayghost668]

when it comes to mushrooms I can not tell them apart,,so I leave the wild ones alone,,,it's just not worth the risk

 

[Maverick]

One thing I'm curious about. I have a large bag of activated charcoal for incidents like this or food poisoning. It works by being really porous and it absorbs the stuff you ingested, protecting you some. I'm wondering if it will hold it long enough for you to pass it, or would you still need to have your stomach pumped?

Never heard of using charcoal for mushrooms, it works for many plants and berries though.

 

[Maverick]

never heard of ingesting charcoal before.

Charcoal good for absorbing poisons if taken in short order of ingesting poison, a lot of people have problems swallowing charcoal and in some cases causes premature vomiting. When we gone camping with little kids we saved some charcoal from the fire pit (charcoaled softwood) and powder it out. Though it's not fool proof and timing dependent.

 

[bigpaul]

just never heard of it before, not disputing your theory.

 

[Maverick]

just never heard of it before, not disputing your theory.

It's been used for years, here is a little more info on it just in case you want to add it to the prep list or just knowledge based.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/charcoal-activated-oral-route/description/drg-20070087

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/script/main/mobileart-emh.asp?articlekey=58704

 

[bigpaul]

presumably you cant just use any old charcoal from the fire then?

 

[Maverick]

No, fresh charcoal

 

[DrHenley]

If you start right away, charcoal can help. But with the death caps, by the time you start having symptoms it's usually too late for charcoal.

 

[Maverick]

Unfortunately to many people use books, pictures and internet regarding mushroom picking. Mushroom picking is an on-hands learning trait from a experienced picker for a very specific area, there is no substitute!

 

[Brent S]

With charcoal, yes any form is better than nothing, but activated charcoal is what you really need. It is usually superheated with steam and it causes it to swell and has millions of little crevices and pockets. These are what absorbe whatever it is that you don't want in your system. It won't take it all out of your system, but the idea is to take as much of whatever poison out of you quickly as you can. Emergency rooms use it routinely, but I believe stomach pumping afterwards is the norm too. As far as swallowing it, yuk, but I'm sure it's better than being dead.

 

[jontte]

charcoal is good for some stuff,worhtless for other,sadly,but I have it in my medic bag.
about those "rooms", here in my neck of woods I follow one rule my dad thought me,break a piece from the cap,if the liquid is clear toss it,if it's white you can eat it,
though some "rooms" taste better than others..

poison.org/articles/2015-mar/activated-charcoa

 

[Brent S]

charcoal is good for some stuff,worhtless for other,sadly,but I have it in my medic bag.
about those "rooms", here in my neck of woods I follow one rule my dad thought me,break a piece from the cap,if the liquid is clear toss it,if it's white you can eat it,
though some "rooms" taste better than others..

poison.org/articles/2015-mar/activated-charcoa

Then there's some 'rooms' that make the world seem strange. Watch out for those purple rings around the stem..... when I was a teenager I found a few of those growing in piles of cow dung.

 

[jontte]

aaah,magic "rooms"...

 

[WGregMiller]

Then there's some 'rooms' that make the world seem strange. Watch out for those purple rings around the stem..... when I was a teenager I found a few of those growing in piles of cow dung.

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....