Who's finding edibles BESIDES morels?

[DufferinShroomer]

wow!

[DufferinShroomer]

Calvert,

there have been a few articles around that have pointed the finger at some of the Leccinum. I have seen enough of them that I simply avoid them. Here is one of the articles...

http://web.mac.com/diannasmith1/FUNGIPHOTOS/BILL_BAKAITIS_Articles/Entries/2009/8/17_DIAGNOSIS_AT_A_DISTANCE__Issues_raised_by_a_recent_case_involving_GI_Distress_and_life_threatening_symptoms_attributed_to_edible_mushrooms..html

There are others as well although I cant lay my hands on them at the moment. My understanding is that while no one has been able to say AHAH! That guy ate a Leccinum and dropped dead from it there have been deaths where Leccinum has been strongly implicated as the guilty fungus. I have seen speculations that there is a toxic close look alike in the Colorado area because of an apparent concentration of problems in that area. I am very far from being an expert in this area but I can nonetheless still be a coward. Huge numbers of people eat Leccinums with no apparent ill effects. I think I put Leccinums in a group with Tricholoma equestre which is another mushroom eaten with impunity by thousands. T. equestre was sold commercially all over Europe until a pile of folks in France got sick and one or more of them died. The evidence was clear enough that France (and I believe some other countries) banned the sale of T. equestre. Speculation is that the north american T. equestre is not the same mushroom as the Euro version and therefore it is Ok to eat but I havent seen anything that looks like proof of that. From my perspective, I can pick more mushrooms than I can use without picking any species that has any sort of shadow of doubt associated with it. I admit to having second thoughts every year when I see folks wandering around the woods with 5 gallon pails full of this stuff but so far I have managed to resist joining them.

[Calvert]

Two days of the best picking I've ever had.

Wow! Nice haul..thanks for sharing..

[zora]

Nice haul indeed! I am having a breakfast with my first chanterelles. I actually found my first on last Weds but found some nice ones yesterday.

[Calvert]

Calvert,

there have been a few articles around that have pointed the finger at some of the Leccinum. I have seen enough of them that I simply avoid them. Here is one of the articles...

Dufferin, thanks for the link.

I would probably hesitate eating them if they were new species to me. But now that I've been eating leccinums and T. equestre for years, I doubt that I will stop. Leccinum has the added bonus that they are easy to reconnize, and so is one of the first mushrooms you indroduce to initiates as a "safe" one that they can pick by themselves. Perhaps I will stop doing this, or at least add a word of warning.

But if your finding all the edibles you want, then so much the better!

In other news, my test spot of chantrelles, a small patch ( ~20 mushrooms) 5 minutes walk from the house, has started growing, although they are too little to pick. I must have killed about 20 slugs yesterday, I will go back to check today, and if the slug traffic is too much, I may as well pick them. But this means it is started! As Feral Boy once said, There is just something that feels right about picking bright yellow fungi in the woods.

[DufferinShroomer]

Ya Calvert, pretty much everyone eats the red caps and the T. equestre with impunity. I freely admit to being a coward and there is no way I am going to be eating any amanita either thank you very much. The good news for me is that my area is blessed with really large numbers of some mushrooms. I still have about a gallon of dried mushrooms from last year left over. So far this year I have stashed away a couple of quarts of dried morels and a couple of quarts of dried oysters. In a normal year I can pick a bushel of lobsters each week all summer long if I put my mind to it. Chanterelles are less plentiful but I still generally stash a couple of quarts of dried ones. Most years we can also harvest more honey mushrooms than we know what to do with. Add in the lactarius especially the plentiful L. indigo, maybe a chicken or a hen, some assorted boletes and I just dont need anything else. In a decent year we get puffballs, blewitt, hedgehogs and other good stuff. It would be really hard to lay on my deathbed and try to explain exactly why I ate that mushroom when I KNEW it had a dodgy reputation. I dont want to have to endure that level of embarrasment.

[Feral Boy]

Ya Calvert, pretty much everyone eats the red caps and the T. equestre with impunity...

What I had read about the T. equestre poisonings was that the victims had eaten a LOT

of them at once, and possibly multiple large meals -- maybe up to a pound! Same thing

with the angel wing poisonings in Japan, a wet year & they grew REALLY large and in

huge numbers, and the ones poisoned again overindulged. (Also, almost all of them

in Japan were older, and possibly had liver problems beforehand).

You should be pretty safe if you are eating reasonable amounts, and also not eating

them day after day ... save some for later.

[Dave W]

I also heard that the people poisoned by the T. equestre had possibly eaten at least some of them raw.

These are very odd incidents (France and Poland). T. equestre has been a favorite in Europe for many years.

About two pounds of smooth chants yesterday, a couple handfuls of trumpets, one Xanthoconium separans, and one really nice X. affine. I've found some large and unusually bug-free X. affine recently. And also X. purpureum.

Going to some B. edulis spots tomorrow, and for a 3 mile hike along my favorite mushroom trail... favorite for observing a great diversity of fungi.

[Calvert]

I also heard that the people poisoned by the T. equestre had possibly eaten at least some of them raw........

.....Going to some B. edulis spots tomorrow, and for a 3 mile hike along my favorite mushroom trail... favorite for observing a great diversity of fungi.

Raw? That's the first time I heard that! Actually, I have not heard any (semi-)official reporting on the recent deaths in France. I have heard spoken of it in this forum, and most from what I understand they ate a TON...like two meals a day, 7 days in a row...overcomsumtion...if some of them were raw...

I'm pretty sure if I ate only raw potates for a week I would die too!

Dave: I wish wish you some faintly familiar colourful agarics...you know, the kind that keep you all night wondering...heheheh

[Feral Boy]

We had a great foray at Hawn S.P. yesterday. Found lots of different Amanitas, some chants,

boletes (including Frost's), and the smooth chants are out there. I got about half a basket

after hunting a couple other places, and near the end I found one of these:

Here's one of the Amanitas:

And another of my favorites, A. jacksonii

[Dave W]

Nice photos of some cool mushrooms, FB. I have found A. jacksonii only two or three times here in NE PA. Last year in the Laurel Highlands (with zora) I ran across one which was about 9 inches tall. I still haven't found even a single Indigo Lactarius.

Got some Smooth Chants, Chestnut Boletes, Lobster Mushrooms, and Cinnabar Chants yesterday.

The Cinnabar Chants were found on my property. These are about the largest I've seen.