Mushroom Haul
Mushroom Haul
I can't remember what we found, but we concluded from various cutting/bruising and reading through pages and pages of mushroom keys that none of them were sadly edible.
Still fun morning though!
Haha this is how I started and it's not very productive. There are so many mushrooms in the world and many are very difficult to identify.
A mushroom picker early in my journey gave me this advice, which I think was good.
Eat like a peasant. Pick things that are abundant and easy to identify. Don't worry about trying to become a mycological master right away--if that interests you, you can work on those skills but it takes many years to get there. If you want to get started at picking for the table, learn what the common edibles are in your area and seek places where they grow. Picking random mushrooms will just be a huge time sink and can be discouraging.
Some common and easy to identify edibles in the northern hemisphere include morels, chanterelles, black trumpets, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, and porcini.
If you are in the eastern US, I think chanterelle season should be now or soon, depending on how warm it is. So that would be a great one to learn to get started.
Ooh I saw a nice chicken of the woods hanging off high up a tree the other day. Massive thing, could feed a small family. Was gone by the time I came back to it haha
And thanks for the advice, I'll take all I can get at this point!
I see a Russula on the right, was anyone brave enough to taste and spit to see if it was one of the mild or shrimp flavored ones?
Bunch of Paxillus there, those look really edible so they're tempting to pick up. People ate them for a long time before it was discovered that they have a poison that builds up in your body over time.
I might be mistaken but the ones on the left look like they might be Pluteus. I think most of those are edible but they have surprisingly little flesh for how big they are and not much flavor so many guides won't bother mentioning it.
I recall one of them tasting a bit shrimpy, but wasnt brave enough to try more!
Decent chance that Russula was in the Xerampelina group then.
The only Russula which should be avoided are the ones that turn black when damaged or old (the one in the photo looks fairly beat up but isn't blackening at all so it's probably not one of those). The rest are edible so long as they're well cooked, though many are disgustingly bitter, extremely spicy, or both.
Good on you for giving it a go and going through the keys!!