mushrooms

[mrs.puff]

hey everyone-- don't forget that it's mushroom season right now. We just dried a bunch of Hen of the Woods mushrooms, and had a big mess of Oyster mushrooms. It's time for sulfur shelf, puffballs, and other fall delicacies.

 

[me&thegals]

Hey--thanks! Do you have any pictures of each or a good site for identification? I don't now any of wild mushrooms except spring morels... But I've been seeing piles in the woods and would really like to find the edible varieties!

I'm in south-central WI, by the way.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Again, when I lived up north, the only mushrooms I harvested wer boletes and morels. I'm not too familiar with any other types, and sown around here, there's not much growing--at least I haven't found any.

 

[hoosier girl]

Had puff balls with dinner the last two evenings. Hopefully with a little rain, we'll get some more! Oyster mushrooms aren't here yet, but the days and evenings are just starting to get a little cooler so hopefully not much longer!

 

[mrs.puff]

Well, I don't have any websites, but you could try looking at several books: "Wild Edible Mushrooms of North America" is excellent. Another is "All the Rain Promises and More...". If you're a mushroom freak, you can try "Mushrooms Demystified". It's the bible of mushrooms. Mostly western varieties though. I'm sure there's some websites you could use to ID some varieties.
Happy Hunting-

 

[patandchickens]

It's maybe not so smart to try learning mushroom foraging out of a book... what you want is to learn IN PERSON from someone who's been doing it a long time and knows what they're doing. (The two things are not necessarily synonymous )

There are just WAY too many things that look pretty closely alike but are "quite edible" versus "quite poisonous".

Even morels, you have to make sure they are true not false morels (the latter will not kill ya but can make you fairly unhappy), and puffballs should be cut open to make sure they are not "fledgeling" amanitas, and so forth.

Mushrooms are VERY variable in appearance, you can't just look at pix in a book and compare to what's in front of you.

Just a thought,

Pat, who *does* eat some wild mushrooms but only the coupla things I am absolutely dead certain about, not all of which grow where I live now.

 

[Zenbirder]

Is anyone here growing their own mushrooms? I would really like to have a go at it, but need more info. Our climate is generally so dry that we rarely see any mushrooms in the wild. I am envious of those of you who can eat from the wild!

 

[miss_thenorth]

I have the first book mentioned, but i also learned from a seasoned , experienced mushroom picker. There are alot of shrooms out there that could be mistaken for edible ones and the only way for certain to distinguish them is the do a spore test (? I think that is what it's called--it's been many years)

That being said, i only eat the ones I know FER SURE.

 

[RTRChick]

I would love to try mushrooms, but after one of my bosses scared me to death talking about her that friend died eating a mushroom he thought would give him an acid trip, I'm scared to eat the ones you see in the grocery store..

 

[k0xxx]

I love mushrooms! However I only eat those that are store bought, as I tend to shy away from any food that that trusts on my failing eye sight not to kill me.

I just don't have enough confidence in my ability to tell them apart to go pick my own. I wish that I did, though.