Looking over the wikipedia page on this mushroom and all the similar, very edible ones...Yeah I'm never foraging mushrooms.
Is the main visual difference just the stem or whatever it's called being much longer?
IIRC, the only definitive way to ID mushrooms is by making a spore print - and even then you need to know what you're doing.
Just doesn't seem worth the risk to me.
nah it's generally fairly easy to ID mushrooms, the problem is just that if you miss a feature and mistake it for another, you'll fucking liquidize from the inside out.
This is the same reason that you never touch something that looks like a carrot plant in the wild, because it could be that one plant that kills you 3 times over.
I agree that it's generally not worth the risk though, hence why those who pick mushrooms (which is pretty standard to do here in the nordics) stick to like 5 species who have no dangerous lookalikes and actually taste good and are easy to find.
Here in sweden 90% of what people pick is chanterelles or boletes, whose entire families look effectively the same and at worst simply don't taste good. Boletes have ONE slightly toxic species in sweden, and it's bright red and only grows on one island in the baltic sea.
This is the same reason that you never touch something that looks like a carrot plant in the wild
That's funny. I was just thinking to myself "Fuck all this mushroom noise. I'll just stick to eating carrots, no way to mistake those for something else." I guess I'll die quickly in the coming apocalypse.
This is why we befriend the people who can reliably ID plants and know what is safe to eat, you wouldn't survive an apocalypse alone regardless.
If anyone is curious about the carrot mention, Google where the phrase "Sardonic Grin" came from.
This is untrue. Spore print can be useful for some very similar species or when you are first learning but I’ve been picking and eating wild mushrooms for about 15 years now and I basically never do a spore print anymore. Once you learn it’s pretty unnecessary. The ones I pick are easy to ID anyway. Most people can learn to identify them fairly quickly with some instruction though I have noticed that some people lack the attention to detail to be good at it.
Yah -- and to add certain edible mushrooms or families of mushrooms are very distinctive (e.g. hedgehog fungi in the UK), and I would recommend novices start out with. Others I wouldn't touch with a barge pole even if I was relatively confident with an id, purely because it isn't worth the risk (e.g. miller Vs fools funnel).
Lots of differences but the simplest one would be that button mushrooms would typically have color to their gills—depending on the species they usually start out pinkish or pale brown and move to dark brown as they get older. Destroying angel has pure white gills.
But button mushrooms are actually not very beginner friendly despite their familiarity since there are other poisonous lookalikes in many areas.
There are old mushroom foragers and then there are bold ones. There are no bold, old mushroom foragers.
There are no bold, old mushroom foragers
Sure there are, they just have to not eat what they picked up.
Source: friend's mom once gave food poisoning to the whole family by serving them an omelet made with mushrooms she found, but didn't eat it herself. Fortunately it was merely mushrooms of the "fucks up your stomach" variety.
"Once" has no effect on my statement. There are no Bold, Old mushroom foragers.
In his story, his friend's mother boldly picked mushrooms from her backyard, cooked them into an omelet for the family, but DID NOT EAT the omelet herself.
Nothing would stop her from growing old while continuing this pattern of bold collecting, although a stint in prison might make for an earlier retirement than expected from the foraging scene.
Looks like a destroying angel (e.g. Amanita virosa) to me. This and the death cap together account for the vast majority of mushroom poisonings in the world. Cooking it will not destroy the toxins, nor will acid. Symptoms tend to appear 5-24 hours after eating, too late to pump the stomach. Half a mushroom can be enough to kill you.
I don't recommend going out to pick mushrooms unless you know what you're doing. If you do, stay away from the white ones. You can still get terrible stomach cramps and diarrhea from other colors of mushrooms, but the white ones have the most dangerous species.
Easiest way to avoid problems I've heard is to never pick any mushroom with ribbed underside. If the underside looks like a sponge, it's usually safe to eat. At least where I'm from.
Might be valid advice for some regions, I don't know. But mushrooms tend to vary quite a bit in appearance. Sometimes ribbed species don't have very visible ribs, or younger mushrooms don't quite have all the characteristics of their mature form. If you really want to get into picking mushrooms, there's often local groups you can join with a resident expert who can tell you which ones are safe.
Rule of thumb with mushrooms is that these id tricks tend to be regional and not always accurate unfortunately. Nature is a bit more of a kaleidoscope.
Exactly. Don't trust a stranger on the internet to help you avoid death.
Easiest way to not die from bad mushrooms is to not eat them because they're fucking disgusting anyways
You're technically correct on one point, and totally entitled to your opinion on the other. But brown mushrooms (not from a can) sauteed into a hamburger steak gravy will kick it up about 14 notches, give or take.
Neural networks are magical anywhere that near misses are good enough.
Companies keep using them as if they're infallible, when lives and fortunes are at stake.
Tech is not the problem.
If you give out hammers to everyone, some people will end up with smashed balls.
I love fungi facts.
This guy sees the most terrifying description of a toxin killing someone and goes "Yep, that's a fun mushroom facto"
To be fair, that is basically what's to be expected from myshrooms
this guy so into mushrooms they added myco to their mushrooms (myshroom) for more mushroom per mushroom
Deleted
Once.
They said you die one or two days after eating. You could definitely eat more than once in that time.
My fucked up brain goes like, "woah, I wonder what death tastes like."
Probably bitter and followed by a slow agonizing death by liver failure.
As somebody who has been through liver failure and transplant, it really sucks. I do not recommend it.
Wikipedia says the death cap tastes quite pleasing, reportedly.
Someones' last words
Saute in a pan with butter and garlic. Death will taste fabulous.
That's cheating. Anything will taste great with butter and garlic.
2 mushrooms hard to fuck up in America.
I remember selling like 5 lbs of morels when I was a kid and getting like $200. That was without even driving to the city to make the real money.
I remember being on a wilderness weekend many years ago and being told that when you cut the stem on some poisonous shrooms they discolour a sort of blue tint. I'm lucky, I hate the taste and texture of mushrooms.
I remember years ago reading you can tell if a mushroom is "magic" by blotting it on paper towel and seeing if it stains blue or purple. Unfortunately, that is also how many things say you can tell it's toxic. Maybe you'll trip balls. Maybe you'll die. 🤷🏻♂️
I wouldn't be surprised if the poison and the psychoactive part are the same thing in different doses, or just function similarly.
Funny you say this, there is actually a mushroom that does this color change but is edible. Allegedly doesn’t taste very good, though.
Best not to eat any wild mushrooms at all unless a verified mycologist can look at them first.
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