Mushrooms for Beginners

[Moonraker]

Starting out as a mushroom forager can be pretty daunting and quite rightly people are aware of the potential dangers of eating the wrong fungi (the scientific term for mushrooms), which can be off putting. One of the best articles I have read for the beginner is written by Hugh Fearnley–Whittingstall (well known TV personality and champion of wild food etc in the UK) and it can be found online over on his Rivercottage.net web site. It is not strictly a guide to fungi but it sets out what it is all about, discusses safety sensibly (read this carefully!), and talks about the most common edible mushrooms to be found in Britain, in a way which should help explain to someone starting off. The article can be found here:

The Magic of Mushrooms

As I said it is not illustrated nor intended as a specialist guide to the subject but is well worth reading and should set you off in the right direction. For recommendations on good guidebooks or courses for mushrooms/ fungi just search this forum where the subject has been widely discussed.

There are few more satisfying things than mushroom hunting and eating the results Just remember the important rule "if in doubt, leave it out!"

Happy foraging

 

[storm]

i have been eating wild mushrooms for about four years now--got about 300 species under my belt (literally... ) so far. i wanted to share a few with you. i took these pictures in Olympic National Park a couple years ago when i taught at an outdoor school up there.

The Prince (Agaricus augustus) and a dead Varied Thrush:

i found the bird by the fungus--apparently the bird crashed into the mushroom

A Lepiota--possible one of the deadly ones:

Thelephora palmata--tastes like smoke:

Turkey Tail:

A species of Pycnoporellus:

This is possibly a species new to science--it's DNA is getting sequenced at the USDA Forest Products Laboratory. what to name it...

A Red-Belted Conk and Hemlock Varnished Conk--with my head for scale:

 

[Biddlesby]

Impressive fungi .

Good link, I found some mushrooms in the garden, and put a bit of wire around the area to stop them being mowed. Unfortunatly, a sunny day frazzled them so I'll never know what they are.

I'll keep an eye out for the 'shrooms he mentions.

 

[Mutley]

Impressive fungi .

Good link, I found some mushrooms in the garden, and put a bit of wire around the area to stop them being mowed. Unfortunatly, a sunny day frazzled them so I'll never know what they are.

I'll keep an eye out for the 'shrooms he mentions.

I have some in the garden too, grow in the same spots every year. Not a fan of mushrooms but would be intrested to find out what they are and if edible.

Will try and get a picture up, see if anyone can help me identify them.

 

[andyn]

Personally I wouldnt even attempt to learn what mushrooms are edible from a book as depending on the time of year and how ripe the fungi are can make some them look like other fungi.

Unless I was to go on a course with a well trusted and reputable instructor I would just leave them out of my "menu"

Not worth the risk.


P.S Those are some pretty cool photos Storm.

 

[baz979]

im pretty new to collecting mushrooms but i can recognise a few like jews ear and oister fungus. I spent the day in the woods today and i was surprised by how many mushrooms there were but the only ones i could identify were puff balls so i picked a couple to see what they tasted like, i fryed them but they didnt have much taste

 

[JoshG]

I'm a newb as far as fungi hunting goes, my expertise mainly lies within psilocybin containing species But yeah, nice going man. Awesome beard, storm!

 

[pumbaa]

I picked up a book from "The Works" called The Practical Mushroom Encyclopedia by Peter Jordan & Steven Wheeler ISBN 1-84309-017-1 Its not exactley pocket size but at £2.99 is worth adding to your Bushcraft libary . It has 100 recipes including some vegetarian ones . Well recomended .
Pumbaa

 

[CLEM]

Never mind impressive mushroom,that is a damn impressive beard Nice shroom pics.