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Hello from Los Angeles, CA


Whothatchineze

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Hey everybody! My girlfriend and I just started out learning to forage in the wild and mushrooms sort of took the lime light. We're beginners, so we started by reading up several books about mushroom hunting and carrying pocket guides with us when we forage. We're really excited to be part of a forum on mushrooms!

Our first mushroom hunt was out in the Bay Area in the San Pedro Valley Park in San Mateo just after the recent storm. We gathered some Candy Caps (lacarius rubidus) and what we think is a Man on Horseback (tricholoma equestre). We snipped at the gills of each potential candy cap to observe the milk bleeding. As for the Man on Horseback, while it was drying, a million little white worms came out from within, so we threw it away. Heard it was poisonous but not poisonous?

Anyways, we're really grateful to be part of this community and look forward to sharing our finds and learning from everyone here!

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Hi, Whothatchineze; glad to have you on board! We can use some more west coast representation because most of the members are from the east. I'm from Vancouver, BC, pretty far north of you. I've been interested in Candy Caps for a long time but have come to the conclusion that their range doesn't extend up to here. I hope that you looked at some characteristics other than the milk in them, because there are a lot of Lactarius species that are pretty similar.

As far as the edibility of Man on Horseback, they have been eaten for years in North America without adverse effects. The specimens that caused problems, even deaths, were all from Europe; so they may have a different species or variety there. I tried them a few years ago and had no reaction, but I didn't think that they had as much flavor as other mushrooms that are more abundant here; so I haven't eaten them since then.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you haven't already, check out Hank Shaw at hunter angler gardener cook. He's over in Sacramento and has a great foraging site. One of his last podcasts was on mushroom foraging.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nice to have a new person here especially from the West Coast. I spent most of my life living in a small suburb that's part of the urban agglomeration that is Los Angeles called La Crescenta. I learned to love nature hiking the hills and mountains in the valley.

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