Mushrooms
- Thread starter Mount Sweetness
- Start date
This August, off my own little acreage, I collected velvet foots, scaly hedgehogs, honey mushrooms, chicken of the woods, giant clitocybes, shaggy manes, puff balls, coral mushrooms, various ink caps and whole whack of edible boletes. Other than the shaggy manes and ink caps, most were dried in the dehydrator and are being used in soups, stews and pates. I use three different field guides when foraging and KNOW what I am eating. If there is any doubt that it might be a deadly poisonous shroom, I leave it alone.
Being able to ID wild mushrooms in the field is no harder than being able to ID eclipse plummage waterfowl on the wing at dawn.
With practice and attention to detail, you can do both.
Being able to ID wild mushrooms in the field is no harder than being able to ID eclipse plummage waterfowl on the wing at dawn.
With practice and attention to detail, you can do both.
No. If you cannot positively identify the species, do not eat it.
Interesting side note: many guides list the mushroom as poisonous, but are really magic mushrooms. You won't get sick, you'll get ####ed up! The guides are misleading on purpose. Luckily this is the internet age.
You'll get both actually. Yes, you might encounter the #### monster from the Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction album, but you will probably ####/puke yourself during the encounter.
As an aside, the seeds of the ground hemlock are a cathartic and really mellow a person out. Too much though and your heart rate slows to dangerous levels.
The poison is all in the dose.
Not true. Red pores can be deadly. Don't trust any conventional wisdom. Buy at least 3-4 guides and cross-reference before you munch. ####ting out your liver isn't pleasant I'm sure (nor is it possible, but keep the image of your liver failing). Some of the deadly species don't even take effect until 10-14 days after eating.
Picking wild mushrooms, or at least identifying them, is not my forte! I know just enough about them to leave them alone, except for morels and puffballs.
Once spent a few days in the wilderness hunting, with a teacher who taught mushroom identity, and whatever. It was a real eye opener. He said they sometimes encountered mushrooms that could only be identified by slicing them through the middle and transferring the "fingerprint," to a paper for lab examination. He also showed us an inoccent looking mushroom that was very poisonous.
I have also read many times that if one needs a book for identification, he/she shouldn't be picking wild mushrooms.
Once spent a few days in the wilderness hunting, with a teacher who taught mushroom identity, and whatever. It was a real eye opener. He said they sometimes encountered mushrooms that could only be identified by slicing them through the middle and transferring the "fingerprint," to a paper for lab examination. He also showed us an inoccent looking mushroom that was very poisonous.
I have also read many times that if one needs a book for identification, he/she shouldn't be picking wild mushrooms.
RiverCitySlicker
Regular
- Location
- Winnipeg, MB
Well the internet helped you get it half right, the "magic mushrooms" are the variety with psilocybin compound in them. It happens to be a poison, but when taken in smaller doses the poisons effect can be enjoyable for some, and horrible for others. All depends on the person, and the shroom, because a cap from one mushroom does not contain the same amount of psilocybin as a cap from another mushroom even if they grow next to each other.
I should add that the lethal dose of psilocybin is almost unatainable in humans, depending on the strain/variety of shroom you would have to eat between 1.4 to 1.8 kgs at once to reach the lethal dose for rats in test labs.
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canadian hunter312
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Brant County
shaggy manes, puff balls and morels are very easy to identify and taste great. for any newbies thinking about getting into mushroom hunting id start looking specifically for these and study other mushrooms you come across until you are capable of positively identifying them.
here in ontario there are all kinds of tasty wild shrooms.
here in ontario there are all kinds of tasty wild shrooms.
last time I ate mushrooms out of the bush, I woke up in the ditch 2 days later. That was a long long time ago
BTW don't worry I found my pants on the other side of the road...and never ate another mushroom again..
Serious subject but at the same time I have to say thanks for the laughs guys. Boy did these posts make me howl!
I stay away from all the mushrooms but I would love to study all teh wild plants etc to learn whats good and whats not so good.
Cheers
Be very cautious!
I used to study mushrooms, and grow a few
The only advice I can give is: Having a book to HELP identify is NOT enough! You can destroy your liver in two hours with the wrong kinds. If you want to make collecting mushrooms a part of your life, you need to study. You need to be able to classify and identify mushrooms, and compare similar species. Many people have become sick from eating an "edible" mushroom, but it was actually just a few gill segments away, and was a Death cap.
It can be very enjoyable and fun, but learn your stuff!!!
Get three or four books from the library, read them, go out identifying. Several times. Take mushrooms home and identify them, and scrutinize them. After enough of this you will note the differences.
Another note, on the Amanita Muscaria, or toadstool mushroom. The one with the huge red cap and little white freckles on it. It is very easy to identify, very widely known, is very psychoactive, and is also very poisonous.
I used to study mushrooms, and grow a few
The only advice I can give is: Having a book to HELP identify is NOT enough! You can destroy your liver in two hours with the wrong kinds. If you want to make collecting mushrooms a part of your life, you need to study. You need to be able to classify and identify mushrooms, and compare similar species. Many people have become sick from eating an "edible" mushroom, but it was actually just a few gill segments away, and was a Death cap.
It can be very enjoyable and fun, but learn your stuff!!!
Get three or four books from the library, read them, go out identifying. Several times. Take mushrooms home and identify them, and scrutinize them. After enough of this you will note the differences.
Another note, on the Amanita Muscaria, or toadstool mushroom. The one with the huge red cap and little white freckles on it. It is very easy to identify, very widely known, is very psychoactive, and is also very poisonous.
Would be kinda funny to feed to your friends one night
You mean unwittingly?
Probably not as funny as you think. Aside from most likely being very illegal, I remember reading a article about a boy whose drink was spiked with LSD (Not the same I know, but still) without his knowledge. He went insane for 3 months, and the doctors weren't sure if he would ever recover.
