Mushrooms

[rayne]

Wild mushrooms grow everywhere here in the woods. How do I tell which ones are safe and which ones are deadly? Is there a mushroom book out there anywhere?

 

[Barney]

My advice for you would be to stay away from mushrooms if you are 100% sure that they are not poisonous. Even then I would advise you to stay away from them.

 

[Michael]

There are lots of mushroom books. Look for one as local to your area as you can find, preferably one with full colour photographs. Really well done illustrations can be as useful, but photographs are better. If there aren't really good pictures, a guide is a lot harder to use.

Even better, look for a local course. Nothing beats first hand instruction from someone who knows what they're doing in regards to the environment you'll actually be looking. A lot of colleges offer one-off nature courses on things like edible plants and mushrooms.

Either way, be super careful. There are mushrooms that will kill you if you take a bite of them. If you're not 100% certain, don't even touch the things. They can be very, very bad news.

 

[dinosaur]

There are a lot of really good mushrooms out there. I pick sheepshead, elephant ear, button, popper, puffball, and morel in my area. Still, your best bet is to go with someone who knows what they are doing. I learned from my father, my uncles and one other guy.

You have to know when to go and how to recognize. And some, like the puffball, are like poke salad. After a certain point, they become poisonous.

Good luck.

 

[uday]

I've tried eating button mushrooms and Shiitake mushrooms. They are the edible ones so far. I don't know any other mushrooms aside from these two.

 

[carmen]

Is it one thing I will not eat when we are out, just to be on the safe side. With my luck I would mix up which is which and I would much rather not take that joyride if you know what I mean.

 

[CozInCowtown]

I refuse to eat anything that grows on a turd!

 

[southerngal]

We actually watched Into the Wild this afternoon which is a great reminder about mushrooms. That guy died because the mushrooms he ate were poisonus, but looked similar to some that were not. If you want to mess with mushrooms you need to go out with a very skilled guide.

 

[Mudder]

One of my buddies is a mushroom guru, and you'd be surprised of how many mushrooms that you see that are edible. He has a couple text books and a couple field guides that he learned from. Personally, I don't trust myself enough to trust myself to try to hunt them, except for the morel mushrooms. It's a great hobby though if you get into it. The books go into a ton of detail that'll keep you safe.

 

[monde]

Those mushrooms you see at local supermarket stores are edible and safe before their expiration date. But if you see them at the forest or in the woods unlabeled and you have no idea if they're edible or inedible, just stay away from them.

 

[Mudder]

Those mushrooms you see at local supermarket stores are edible and safe before their expiration date. But if you see them at the forest or in the woods unlabeled and you have no idea if they're edible or inedible, just stay away from them.

Hence the textbooks and field guides and internet to learn from

 

[dinosaur]

Those mushrooms you see at local supermarket stores are edible and safe.

Are you quite certain of this?

 

[Michael]

We've been having an okay crop of sulfur shelf mushrooms (aka chicken of the woods) around here lately. I brought home about a pound of the stuff yesterday. Some went into my stir fry last night, some into my eggs this morning, and I'm saving the last for tomorrow.

It's very good stuff. I highly suggest that people do some research on the things.