Page 216 - The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods
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Mushroom Foraging, ID, and Safety
Good harvesting practices and mushroom safety go you should always obtain an expert opinion before
hand in hand. Here are some guidelines for foraging consuming a wild mushroom.
wild mushrooms: Hunt Prepared
Learn Your Land Materials to bring with you when you’re out mush-
Mushroom foraging demands an ongoing engagement room hunting are:
with fungi and the natural world. The best way to ○ A sturdy knife
practice smart, safe mushroom hunting is by learning ○ A pen and paper for making notes
about the edible and poisonous mushrooms in your ○ Waxed paper or paper bags
area and how to identify them. This will sharpen your ○ A sharpie for labeling
identification skills, give direction to your foraging, ○ A basket
and help you stay alert to possible dangers. ○ A mushroom field guide
Know the Risks ○ A magnifying glass (recommended)
Get the Whole Mushroom
It is useful to remember that the many inedible and
poisonous mushrooms that grow in the wild vastly To identify a mushroom accurately, make sure you
outnumber the edible wild mushrooms. If a mush- are dealing with the entire mushroom by digging the
room is simply inedible, it won’t necessarily harm you, whole fruiting body up. Important evidence may be
but there are poisonous varieties that may indeed be hidden underground.
lethal. Don’t experiment with eating mushrooms Poisonous members of the Amanita genus, for exam-
you don’t know. ple, have a characteristic volva, or sack, that sheathes
The effect a poisonous mushroom can have on the hu- the underground portion of the stem base. Without
man body varies depending on the species of mush- digging up the mushroom in its entirety, you’d miss
room and often on the person who has consumed it. out on a crucial identification feature that, in the case
In North America, there are no mushroom toxins that of a deadly Amanita, could mean the difference be-
can be absorbed through the skin by touching or han- tween life and death.
dling a poisonous species. However, eating a poison- For mushrooms that grow on the ground, insert a stur-
ous mushroom - or even a small piece of one - can be dy knife or trowel into the soil about 1 inch (2.5 cm)
enough to hospitalize or even kill a person. Some of from the stem and use it to carefully lever the mush-
the deadliest mushrooms, including members of the room up. Some mushrooms that grow on wood can
Amanita genus, inflict damage on the cellular level, be twisted or trimmed from their stem bases. Do re-
eventually shutting down the body’s major organs. plant the stem once identified and spread mushroom
Non-lethal poisonous species can cause a range of un- spores if possible, for future harvests (do not breathe
pleasant symptoms. them in).
If you think you have accidentally eaten a poison- If Possible, Get the Family
ous mushroom, call your nearest hospital or poison Harvesting a collection of mushrooms from a single
control center immediately.
site will give you further clues about your specimen’s
Some edible mushrooms may cause adverse reactions
identity. Ideally, you want to acquire samples of the
in sensitive people. If you are trying a confirmed edi-
same kind of mushroom at different stages of life,
ble mushroom for the first time, it is best to start with since mushrooms can transform significantly from
small portions until you have a better understanding button stage to maturity.
of how your body responds to it. Always cook mush- The poisonous False Parasol (Chlorophyllum molyb-
rooms. This book contains information on key poi- dites), for example, has white gills when young and
sonous look-alikes, which you should be on the alert is easily confused at this stage with similar-looking
for when you are hunting for edible mushrooms. edible mushrooms. As it matures, however, its gills
Bear in mind that this section is not an exhaustive turn greyish-green. So, the presence of a green-gilled
list of all the poisonous species that grow in the mushroom among a group of seemingly-edible white-
wild. Inedible mushrooms have not been included. gilled ones can act as a warning.
Remember that no mushroom is foolproof and that Keep in mind that key features of a mushroom’s anat-
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