Wild Fungi

I heard a thing on the radio the other day which completely took me by surprise.
They said that if you are unsure of what the wild mushroom is then get a pocket guide or good book to help you identify them.
NO NO NO is my immediate answer.
If you were to join a local club, there the people who can and will help you with enjoying the right foods from the wild not the books which give a guide not always the correct answer.
I have never picked any fungi from the wild unless I was advised by a person with the right knowledge and background in this area.
Please to be safe and not go out to pick wild foods without the right knowledge, I lost a good friend years ago through their lack of understanding and do not wish for this on anyone.

 

I agree 100%, especially with fungi, which can be extremely toxic, and very difficult to ID.

There was someone a while ago, I think it might have been on here, asked for confirmation that something was field mushrooms, because what they saw fitted the description exactly. I suggested they look up the description of death cap/amanita phalloides, which also fitted the description exactly, except one is fine to eat, the other is so toxic that one mushroom contains enough poison to ensure certain death for at least four grown men in their prime, and there's no known antidote.

 

Basically unless your an expert don't touch it

I feel pretty confident in ID'ing some mushrooms but that confidence usually evaporates at the thought of eating them I'd be quite confident in eating a fungi which I was absolutely positive was in the Bolete family only because they are quite distinctive and only one species growing in the UK will make you slightly ill the rest are edible and some even delicious.

A well known case here in the south is of two Thai ladies who picked what they thought were Paddy Straw Mushrooms (a very common edible mushroom eaten in southeast Asia)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ath-cap-mushrooms-picked-Botanic-Gardens.html

 

i've got a garden full of mushrooms (i think!), but i would never pick them as i don't have a clue as to whether they are edible or not. If i find someone to tell me, i could have enough for a month of meals, must be due to all the rain. Don't know many people who know about mushrooms in this country anyway.

 

I'll only eat fungi if i'm 100% certain on the id. Which is more than just ficking thru a book & seeing what looks similar. I'll do spore prints, with a microscopic check,cross reference for possible species they could be confused with, check all those out as well and if i'm not 100% certain they don't get eaten.

Its been said before, there are Old mushroom pickers and there are Bold mushroom pickers, but there are no Old Bold mushroom pickers.

I must be doing something right, as i've been picking since I was at school & i'm now 50.

Only been hospitalised once & that wasn't a mis identification, that was eating 200 instead of 30

 

I used to pick field/horse mushrooms without hesitation as a child and we were never wrong. But then, we had one field that was full of them and their season and habitat were totally familiar to us to us. These days I'd hesitate to eat anything I'd find in the wild. It's not worth the risk even if I'm 99% sure.

 

A few that are hard to confuse with poisonous ones.



Giant Puffball, there is a poisonous Puffball, but it won't get this big.

Sorry, thats the only one i've got a pic for, but there's also Cauliflower Fungus, grows to the size of a Chicken on tree bases, delicious.

Beefsteak Fungus, looks much better than it tastes.

Jew's Ear Fungus.

Winter Fungus, grows on trees, even in frost.

Quorn, although it comes in a wide variety of shapes & flavours, it always says Quorn (TM) on the packet.

 

Before someone says Parasol Mushrooms, there is a Poisonous one of those that looks the same but grows on compost heaps & wasteland.

 

Distantly related to the mushroom, it used to say in the advertising blurb.

Like athlete's foot, then.

 

Thrush, thats the one I was trying to think of Madahhlia

No confusing that one.

 

Tell a lie, just found a pic of Jews Ear Fungus.

 

Yeah never been tempted to try that one to be honest

 

The last of the great adventurers

 

Stew it in a little milk and stock for about 45 mins