Mushrooms can be deadly, so it’s imperative to know exactly what. Here’s how to stay safe when starting mushroom foraging.
How I Started Mushroom Foraging
I started a mushroom foraging kick a few years ago. I don’t know why these fevers hit me occasionally, but I went through crazy obsessions that kept me falling into weird hobbies again and again for weeks. A few weeks earlier this year, I carved a bunch of wooden spoons out of green wood.At another time, I became addicted to collecting Dioscorea species.Don’t let me start my ill-fated boyhood plastic canvas.
Back to mushroom foraging.
It’s been a wetter than usual fall in North Florida and I’m running a small plant nursery that brings my plants to several farmers markets two days a week for the cool weather.
Other things are also enjoying the cooler weather. mushroom. They are ubiquitous, but are especially abundant on pastures under the shade of oak trees, where one of the farmers’ markets is located. For weeks, the ground was covered with huge, thick brown mushrooms. While I’ve been hunting for wild plants for years, I’ve never dabbled in mushroom foraging.
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Now if you eat wrong plant– with some notable exceptions – you could burn your throat or end up with a stomach bug. That sucks, of course, there are some plants that will kill you like water hemlock or oleander. Still, most plants are weak sauces compared to fungi.
However, eat the wrong mushroom and it will basically melt your organs, even though it may taste and smell good while you’re cooking it.
Fungi often contain some pretty scary toxins.
Only fools, lunatics and hippies eat mushrooms without fear.
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However, right in front of me, near the oak tree, were several pounds of thick, beautiful, aromatic mushrooms all ready to be sautéed with a good steak and topped with cabernet sauvignon.
Unless they are organ-melting mushrooms, which is an obvious possibility.
How do you know which mushrooms are okay to eat and which ones can cause kidney failure?
I must know. Fever hit me, and in its grip I was powerless to resist C’thul’s call… I mean, mushrooms.
I started my mushroom foraging journey with a stack of books. Following my usual approach when learning a new topic, I would buy some of the top books on the topic and read through them. This is a great way to learn because it allows you to absorb the knowledge gathered by experts in a specific field.
For example, if you want to learn oil painting, you can go to Amazon.com, go to the “Books” section, type in “painting”, and look for books that pique your interest and get good reviews. Since Gore invented the internet, this has been my go-to method for learning new topics.
Start by learning as much as possible
I did this through mushroom foraging and bought a bunch of books that can recommend the following:
It’s even better if you can find someone you trust who will recommend books so you don’t have to buy as much!
The first book I read about mushroom hunting opened my eyes to the vast variety of designs in the fungal world. Did you know that there are mushrooms with gills and mushrooms with pores? Or do some mushrooms only grow next to certain trees because they are designed to only live with certain tree species? Others live only on rotting wood. Still others will actually kill trees.
Even stranger, the mushroom itself, which most of us think of as a short-lived plant that appears and then disappears, is really just the fruiting body of a longer-lived organism that grows out of sight and can sometimes cover an acre or more land. The tiny, slender mycelia, like tendrils that pass through the soil, are the actual body of the fungus. Mushrooms are just its means of reproduction and only appear when the climatic conditions are right.
Later, as I read more books, the world of mushrooms became more familiar, and I started browsing material that duplicated what I had learned in my previous readings.
While North Florida isn’t considered a mushroom hunter’s paradise (though cow pie-hunting hippies are looking for a free trip to psychedelic dreamland), it’s not the worst place in the world either. As I learned about where mushrooms grow and how to spot them, I discovered something wonderful.There are puffballs and hard, woody, bright Lingzhi; chanterelles and boletes; weird shelf fungi; even a large, bright blue species called Milkman Indigo I found it growing on a nearby pasture just a few hundred feet from my back door.
Should you eat that mushroom?
But can I eat these mushrooms I found? Dare I try it?
Before trying any rules, I made some rules for myself.
First of all, if I have any chance of getting my identity wrong and poisoning myself, I ignore mushrooms.
Second, if I were Be absolutely sure that mushrooms have no poisonous analoguesI would only eat a little the first time – and always cook it.
Mushrooms with gills (meaning most common varieties found on lawns) are generally more difficult to identify as “safe” than mushrooms with pores. I learned a few lessons about identifying edible boletus mushrooms and was able to start enjoying them occasionally as a dietary supplement.
Luckily, some edible mushroom species are so unique that you can’t possibly poison yourself – the very popular morels are a good example.the aforementioned blue Milkman Indigo is another.I ate some, although I was disappointed to find they were not as good as the regular ones Agaricus bisporus Sold at Publix. On the other hand, when I first discovered and ate chanterelles, I was very pleased to find that they were much more delicious than any other mushrooms I’ve tried.
Here’s How to Identify Chanterelle Mushrooms.
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The first rule of mushroom foraging
I blogged a bit about mushroom hunting and made some videos that gave me a glimpse of how crazy the mushroom hunting world is. Every little detail of mushroom hunting and identification is endlessly debated. There’s almost no way to write any article or video about mushroom hunting that doesn’t get people out of the woodwork and explain why your approach is wrong and you’re going to die – or, or, you’re being too strict, and you’re going from hunting Culling out (insert some random species here) and missing out on the heights of culinary fun.
Mushroom people are weird. Although I think mastering a hobby that can easily kill you, it takes a certain personality type.
Another thing I’ve learned from mushroom foraging research and later articles is that people want to be told they can eat mushrooms growing in their yards. I get a lot of photos of mushrooms in emails with the captions “edible???” and “mushroom id can i eat this?” I try my best to identify the species, but I tell people no! Don’t eat it unless you know it won’t kill you!
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If I share a composting technique and it doesn’t work for you, no big deal. You move on. But if I say “go eat that thing in the blurry picture you sent me” and you eat it and it turns out to be poisonous, you might die.
Just write an essay titled “If a mushroom looks pretty, put it in your mouth!”
Maybe one day, when my world-weariness finally overwhelms my philanthropy, I will.
For now, though, I’ll stick to warning everyone that mushroom foraging can be a dangerous game. It’s certainly fun to learn, though, and mushroom hunting becomes a lot like a treasure hunt once you know a few safe and secure species.
Read it first, though, and keep the organ intact.
What do you think?
What’s your favorite book about mushroom foraging? What’s your best advice for beginners? Share them in the comments below!
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