Do you find, pick and saute wild mushrooms safely?

I’d research them very carefully before you eat them, and answer this question first. ;-)

@JilltheTooth I was just thinking of writing the obit first, then picking the shrooms.

I wouldn’t dare do it myself, but we have friends that were brought up mushroom picking and know what they are doing and it is yummy when we go there for dinner. You need to know what you are doing, for sure. There was a family here that all died because they ate the wrong sort and it just killed their kidneys… they survived a bit on dialysis, but in the end, it killed them. We have very toxic varieties here in Norway so I wouldn’t even try.

I use in high school but the pickers were biologists. The wife taught Jr high science and the husband was a “rocket scientist” .

I have been a mushroom hunter for many years.

There is an adage among us- there are old mushroom hunters, there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters.

Many mushrooms are safe and delicious. Many others are deadly.

If you truly want to learn abut mushrooms and mushroom hunting, the best short introduction is David Arora’s All The Rain Promises- And More. His Mushrooms Demystified is a bigger, better book for even more knowledge.

As much as I love mushrooms, I would never consider going out to pick wild ones. Every few years or so I read in the paper about some group of people, usually young people who die from liver failure because they picked and ate the wrong ones.

Here’s something cool I found out though. You probably know how expensive some of the fancy mushrooms are at Whole Foods or other specialty shops, but there are a few Asian markets in my city that have all sorts of the same mushrooms, but because they are considered staples in the Asian diet, and not delicacies, the prices are ridiculously low. I got some organic bunashameji mushrooms for 99 cents for a bunch! At whole foods, the same bunch was about $6.99. So if you love mushrooms, check out your local Asian markets.

Thanks everyone!

@Kardamom

The culprits in most poisoning deaths are mushrooms in the genus Amanita. They look very similar to mushrooms in the genera Volvariella that are dietary staples elsewhere in the world; especially in Asia. Amanitas have white spores, the Volvariellas have pink ones.

Agreed about the Asian markets!

I am a mushroom hunter, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t willing to put a lot of time into researching and carefully identifying the mushrooms they hope to eat. I second @crisw‘s book suggestions. In fact, Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora is the only book I would recommend if you’re interested in eating mushrooms. Otherwise, you can always enjoy mushrooms for their visual beauty.

@Anemone I do enjoy photographing wild mushrooms! I could just never trust myself, or anyone else to pick wild mushrooms to eat.

But I recently discovered a new Korean market in my town that has all sorts of exotic (but not wild) mushrooms for really good prices. My Korean friend said that the prices are better (than say at Whole Foods) because are not considered to be exotic, they’re just regular stapes for Koreans.

Anyway, I found these incredible organic Bunashameji mushrooms like these for 99 cents for a package, where as at Whole Foods they were $3.99! And they had some wonderful giant trumpet mushrooms which I’m dying to try. I’ve never tasted them and I need to find a recipe before I take the plung. They’re HUGE!

@Kardamom, I understand. It’s always best to be cautious! Anyway, I think that cultivated “wild” mushrooms are great. All the yum and none of the worry. Like you, I’ve found that Asian markets tend to have them at far cheaper prices than regular stores or specilty stores. Ditto for seaweeds, but that’s another thread…!

Personally, I enjoy foraging for mushrooms, but I am very careful and dedicated to meticlous identification. The dangers of wild mushrooms are usually overstated, but that doesn’t mean people should just go out and start eating them. Not by any means! Like @crisw said, there are some deadly ones. Most that aren’t edible will just make you sick, though. (Sometimes very sick.)

There are also some mushrooms that have no or few toxic lookalikes and are good for beginners- morels and chanterelles., for example.

My favorite in this category in my area is Agaricus bitorquis, a flavorful cousin to the supermarket mushroom that grows partially underground in packed dirt in places like ballfields. Very few others grow where it does, and none of them look like it. Pain to clean, though!

@Anemone Yes, I do love me some good cultivated “wild” mushrooms.

@crisw I have never actually eaten a morel or a chanterelle. I think those two mushys should be on my list of things to try in 2011. I know they’re supposed to be super yummy.

@Kardamom

They are pretty much nonexistent in my neck of the woods right now (Southern CA>)

But when we move to WA- ah! That is a mycophile’s paradise! We own an old apple orchard, and those are usually prime hunting spots for morels! And tomorrow we are leaving for Oregon and I am going truffle hunting- I can’t wait!

@crisw That sounds like so much fun! Am I correct that they don’t actually cultivate morels and you can only get them in the wild? If so, why is that?

P.S. My dear aunt (sweet woman) made for me especially, because I am a vegetarian, a mushroom tart as part of Xmas dinner. It was sooooo good.

@Kardamom

I just had a lovey six-course vegetarian mushroom dinner at the Joel Palmer House -not cheap but worth every penny! What an experience!

Morels have been cultivated but it’s very difficult. Many other mushrooms, such as matsutake, have not. The main reason is that many mushrooms are symbiotic with certain plants- their mycelium actually grows into the plant roots and they exchange nutrients. These are called mycorrhizal fungae. They have to grow with their hosts, and that’s difficult to do artificially. The common supermarket mushrooms, like button mushrooms and portobellos, are all non-mycorrhizal.

@crisw That makes sense about the host plants. Thanks for the info because I have been wondering about that for awhile.

That mushroom dinner at Joel Palmer House sounds divine. Right now, my stove and oven are sitting in the middle of my living room (due to a water leak in the kitchen) so I haven’t been able to cook for 3 weeks. I’m looking forward to doing something with mushrooms once that problems is resolved.

One of my favorite restaurants, Au Lac in Fountain Valley, CA serves the most luscious hot and sour soup that has some type of “black mushroom” in it. They are thin black shreds that kind of have the consistency of rubber bands, but I love them! I’m sure they are some type of Asian mushroom, because the restaurant is a vegetarian Vietnamese place. Any idea what kind they might be?

@Kardamom

Yes, that’s black fungus, sometimes also called “cloud ear fungus.” Any Oriental market will sell it, and it’s really cheap.

@crisw Oh, ok. I thought cloud ear mushies were great big things. But I guess if you cut them up into thin strips they would look like the ones in my soup. So far, I think I like them the best.