299769 Fri Feb 04 13:03:48 -0800 2005 50 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1662673 A co-worker of my husband sent home a jar of wild mushrooms in vinegar that his wife makes all the time. She goes to certain place in Riverhead to pick them. My husband says she grew up in Poland picking wild mushrooms with her greandmother and knows what she's doing. Of course I had to taste some last night, and they were delicious! Like little portabellas but softer and tastier. Then this morning I put a few in my omelette, and they were great. Then just for fun I looked on the internet and scared myself to death.   Just curious how many of you out there are into wild mushrooms? I wouldn't mind if they were "magic", but I don't want to die a slow death!!! But they were really good.   Fri Feb 04 13:03:48 -0800 2005 0 coll 1 1662676 I'm familiar with the "magic" ones and of course morels, but beyond that I'm overly cautious. Some kids a few years younger than me, while I was just entering college, then ate some they found. One died, the others were left in bad shape. But for morels, the only fungus you have to actively try to outwit while hunting them. Fri Feb 04 13:38:57 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Dennis S 1 1662679 I am not into risking my life for good food. There is plenty of good food I can eat without risking my life. I am certainly no expert but I understand even experts sometimes can't distinguish poisonous ones from non. Fri Feb 04 13:58:39 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Peter 2 1662685 OK, if you all stop hearing from me, say a prayer! Fri Feb 04 14:16:14 -0800 2005 1662679 0 coll 1 1662692 You are placing your life in this person's hands. You can absolutely die, or almost worse be horrifyingly crippled for life, from eating the wrong mushrooms. It happens all the time. Many people do indeed have the expertise to pick mushrooms, but you need to be very confident indeed in their skill to be eating what they pick. Fri Feb 04 15:06:14 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Buford 2 3772290 The same advice goes for any food at all. Mushrooms are not especially dangerous. Fatal mushroom poisoning actually is not very common-- far less common than fatal food poisoning from eating E. coli or Salmonella contaminated meat or produce. The vast majority of 'bad' mushrooms produce nothing more than an upset gut and perhaps a nasty bout of vomiting. Of course there ARE lethally poisonous mushrooms, just as there are deadly poisonous berries and green plants, but avoiding poisonous mushrooms is no more difficult than avoiding any other food danger. Anyone who can learn to distinguish a raspberry from a strawberry is more than capable of distinguishing a delicious chanterelle from a deadly destroying angel. What poisonings do occur generally are the result of people pushing their luck, or of using knowledge of European or Asian mushrooms to identify American mushrooms. Wed Jun 11 19:01:19 -0700 2008 1662692 199176 Hematite 3 3781252 <My husband says she grew up in Poland picking wild mushrooms with her greandmother and knows what she's doing.> Hopefully she is not using her knowledge of European mushrooms to identify American mushrooms... My freshmen year biology teacher told us that while he was getting his doctorate he would forage for food (bulbs, greens, 'shroom, etc.) He still did it and would bring random things he picked for us to taste.I think I am the only person I know whose teacher used bulbs and 'shrooms that he collected as "rewards" for correct answers instead of candy. Sat Jun 14 19:20:31 -0700 2008 3772290 14495 viperlush 1 1662693 If you got them from a someone that knows nothing about mushrooms and just went out collecting and cooked and asked you to eat them I would not eat them. If the person knows enough about mushrooms and can tell what kind of mushrooms they are and they have collected them before then you most likely have no problem with them. If you have not eaten that type before you might not want to eat a whole lot of them until you find out it you are allergic to it are not. Since you and the person that made the pickeled mushrooms has eaten them already and have had no problems with them then I would say it is safe to eat them. The only way I could see having a problem with these mushrooms if it was mixture of different kinds and one of the mushrooms was a poisonous Amanita species. Amanita are easy to identify so you do not pick them. Some species of mushrooms are very distictive and are not confused with anything else and these are very safe to eat. Amanita on the other hand some are eatable, but other are deadly, so it best just to not eat any Amanita at all. Fri Feb 04 15:11:26 -0800 2005 1662673 0 ScottE 2 1662740 I agree with Scott that if you are sure the person knows what they are doing, there should be no problem, especially if they have already been eating them. There might be the occasional problem of a jar that is canned improperly, but that kind of problem can happen with many canned veggies and the poor mushroom should not be singled out. As you said, she goes to certain place in Riverhead to pick them. So it is the same place and you are using this family as your personal food tasters. To top it off, she's Polish. We may not know how to screw lightbulbs in, but we know mushrooms. Not me, of course. Being third generation, I'd probably kill you with mushrooms I selected from the grocery store .. button mushrooms even. Since you mentioned elsewhere there is a Polishtown in Riverside, get down there and get yourself some dried Polish mushrooms. Try to find a place that sells them in bins and not prepacked. Ask to smell them. They are the all time great mushroom experience. Use them in any dish you would use a dried mushroom to kick it up several notches. Ask about where to get the best dried Polish mushrooms on your board. Sat Feb 05 02:57:23 -0800 2005 1662693 0 Krys Stanley 3 1662743 That sounds like a great option. PS I'm still alive! Sat Feb 05 08:20:40 -0800 2005 1662740 0 coll 3 1662761 Yes my Great Grandmother(who came over from Poland when she was 18) Picked wild mushrooms all of the time, she lived to be 106 and did not die of mushroom poinsoning. That being said - she tried to teach me and my cousins how to ID mushrooms without much success. I couldn't even grow mushrooms from the shitake kit I bought a few years ago. Sat Feb 05 15:34:06 -0800 2005 1662740 0 AimeeP 1 1662703 FWIW, I learned in a recent lecture that mushroom varieties vary from area to area. A wealth of knowledge about mushrooms native to Poland may not necessarly apply to the states. I recently had some shiitakes cultivated from a mushroom kit that were the best mushrooms I've ever had, and totally safe. They were not even a day old when we cooked them up. Absolutely delicious. Fri Feb 04 16:58:30 -0800 2005 1662673 0 tedm 2 1662704 Yes, mushrooms vary from place to place. However, if you have a good familiarity with a particular kind of edible mushroom, then you know how to identify it based on where it grows, what the season is, physical characteristics, how it bruises, smell, false "friends", etc. For example, I grew up hunting chanterelles, morels, hen of the woods, etc. in the US. Each is very, very easy to identify. I know these mushrooms like the back of my hand. I now live in Spain and I wouldn't hesitate to pick one of these mushrooms if I ran across it. However, there are many (incredibly tasty and widely available) species of mushrooms here that I didn't grow up with. Even with a book in hand, I wouldn't pick these without the benefit of a local mushroom hound's expertise. Fri Feb 04 17:31:35 -0800 2005 1662703 0 butterfly 3 1662714 There are some risks with that approach. There was a Chinese woman in Oakland CA who died last November after picking Death Cap mushrooms which she thought looked like mushrooms she used to pick in China. Link: http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/3426196/an/0/page/9 Fri Feb 04 19:01:53 -0800 2005 1662704 0 cornflower 1 1662705 I collect wild mushrooms quite a bit. It's a bit of a risky game - I admit - but very very addictive. There is absolutely nothing that beats the thrill of coming upon a patch of beautiful wild mushrooms in the deep dark forest. But it's an occupation that must be approached with due respect. Yes, it can kill you. So - I pick morels in the spring. Easy as pie to identify. Not so easy to find. They are like the holy grail of mushrooms. When and where they come up is a closely guarded secret and this information is passed on like the combination to the lock on the door of Fort KNox. I have been sent on wild goose chases - to spots where morels were supposed to be abundundant and there were none. I suspect it was intentional. On the other hand, I have done the same to others, so I guess it is karma. In the late summer I collect puffballs. I personally hate them and they make my extremely ill, but others love them and eat them with impunity. So I give them away. Finally, in the fall I collect porcini and porcini-like mushrooms (all in the boletus family). They are fairly easy to identify, but not all the varieties are equally delicious. I also have started collecting another mushroom which I was shown by a professional picker - she calls them Ontario Pine Mushrooms but they have a scientific name that sounds like a deadly disease: Tricholoma Myomysis. It's a delicious mushroom but a bit dangerous to pick as it can closely resemble something poisonous. This mushroom makes my husband violently ill, but I can eat it with no problem. Go figure. So yes - it's kind of worth it. A little danger is good in our all-too-pasteurized lives. But just a little. Know what you're picking or trust your source. Fri Feb 04 17:40:13 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Nyleve 1 1662721 I've seen mushroom books that have photos of harmless mushrooms next to photos of dangerous ones which look almost exactly the same. I couldn't see any difference for most of the paired photos. Fri Feb 04 20:16:27 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Lee 2 1662747 That's right, you can tell very little from a photo. That's how people who don't know what they are doing get poisoned. Where the mushroom grows (a log, the trunk of a tree, under leaves, at the edge of the forest), the season, the physical location (northern exposure vs. southern), smell, pattern of the pore or gills on the underside, the color that the mushroom turns when you scratch it, the type of imprint it makes against paper, whether it produces "milk" etc., etc. are all important factors when you go mushroom hunting. If you grow up hunting mushrooms, all this knowledge gets passed on and you can use a good guidebook for reference. If you are just learning and winging it, then you need to get the best book available (with all of the above info and more) and you should only hunt mushrooms that don't have deadly look-alikes. Sat Feb 05 11:57:58 -0800 2005 1662721 0 butterfly 3 1662753 The one thing is that even though someone may SAY they are a mushroom expert, I'd really want to make sure of that. Some people consider themselves experts on all sorts of things, but mushrooms are nothing to fool with. I personally would not suggest taking it up as a hobby. This is knowledge that really is passed down from generation to generation ... the people who made a mistake ... well, so much for that branch of the family. That particular knowledge and the mushroom picking gene never got passed down to me, so as I said, I personally wouldn't pick cultivated button mushrooms. However, people eat all sorts of food that is dangerous but delicious. What about Japaenese fish that will kill you if you slice it up wrong. Taking all precautions, I would not pass up the sublime experience of wild mushrooms. Even real mushroom experts fail occasionally, but that is rare. However, people have died from eating at fast food salad bars. BTW, changed my Chowhound name to Krys. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/34185#154039 Sat Feb 05 13:17:37 -0800 2005 1662747 0 Krys 1 1662742 When I was a teenager living in Germany, my biology teacher went mushroom hunting and died. That was the only lesson I really needed. Sorry to be so negative. Sat Feb 05 07:47:36 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Pat P 1 1662760 Since you've already eaten some of the mushrooms, I would go ahead and eat the rest. People who end up eating the "death cap mushroom" only need to eat 1 and they are off to the hospital. I would be a little more cautious in the future, but chances are this particular batch is safe. Sat Feb 05 15:32:48 -0800 2005 1662673 0 felice 1 1662805 Wild mushroom "hunting" and eating is very common throughout Eastern Europe, and fatal poisonings are pretty rare. Besides, many mushrooms lose their toxins in the cooking process, and pickled mushrooms are cooked mushrooms. I think that if this woman picks mushrooms on a regular basis and her family eat them, you're fine. Mushrooming is a great hobby and you can start by picking only the absolutely safest mushrooms there are, like cepes/porcini, which are pretty much impossible to mistake for any poisonous kind, and are also delicious (and perfect for drying). There are beautiful colorful mushroom atlases available in the US; there are hundreds of varieties of mushrooms out there, in all kinds of colors and shapes. It has always surprised me how uninterested people are in mushrooms here in the US. Mushrooms are beautiful, mysterious and fascinating. Sun Feb 06 10:42:59 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Sir Gawain 2 1662818 Thanks for the advice, because my husband invited them to visit next time they're out (they come to Riverhead from Brooklyn), I would never try it myself but I'd love to see where she goes, etc. PS I'm still alive!! Sun Feb 06 15:58:10 -0800 2005 1662805 0 coll 1 1662825 I've eaten quite a few wild mushrooms and am looking forward to the up-coming mushroom season. In the fall with the right conditons we get beautiful chanterelles too. In the northeast we used to get giant puffball. They grew at my in-laws camp. Fresh, cut into slabs and fried in butter, they were delicious. You need to know what you are doing when gathering mushrooms and get a good teacher. Sun Feb 06 17:44:07 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Candy 1 1662861 This reminds me of something a friend of mine who is in the Bay Area Mycological Society told me: "There are old mushroom hunters and adventurous mushroom hunters, but there are no old, adventurous mushroom hunters." I believe poisonous mushrooms show their effects within 24 hours or less. Mon Feb 07 15:02:01 -0800 2005 1662673 0 Jonathan Saw 2 1662872 Thank you, I was still a little nervous as I saw one mushroom that took 10 days to take effect. PS I'm still alive after 4 days! Mon Feb 07 17:35:47 -0800 2005 1662861 0 coll 1 3772755 Depends on where you live, and the expertise of the pluckers.. Morels, I understand from Michigan friends, are easy to differentiate. Here on the West Coast, there seem to be fairly frequent stories about people who eat wild mushrooms and wind up on the critical list or worse. I pass. Wed Jun 11 21:36:08 -0700 2008 1662673 55316 mpalmer6c 1 3777250 My wife is Russian and an avid mushroom hunter, as are most all the Russians we know (there is a huge emigre community here in my town). They grew up learning what to look for, and no one ever gets sick, they stick with the types they know (it helps that the woods here in New England are very similar to those near St. Petersburg where she grew up). I've learned to help her spot them - it's really fun hunting for them in the spring and fall - but would never eat one unless she'd OK'd it first. Fri Jun 13 07:52:14 -0700 2008 1662673 14386 BobB 1 3777567 I learned how to ID wild mushrooms from my father and a HS biology teacher who liked to lecture in the 20 acre forest just outside the back doors of the school. It isn't easy to mistake a morel for the poisonous once you are familiar the markers, and the price of your knowledge can be quite tasty. Ive found wild chanterelles and even the very rare and succulent wild porcini on very rare occasions. Fri Jun 13 09:18:25 -0700 2008 1662673 22220 Kelli2006 1 3780484 Before it breaks through its egg shaped capsule, an juvenile amanita can look very much like a small puffball if the rain has washed off those crumbs on the cap. If you cut through it you see the embryonic curled up amanita instead of the solid interior of a puffball. So yes, you need to know them all under all conditions, as the stakes are pretty high. Sat Jun 14 11:33:25 -0700 2008 1662673 120073 cassis 2 3781352 The central market in Budapest has a table set up with two or three experts in white coats (at least the day I was there) who will identify mushrooms. Also pharmacies in France and Italy have posters in the window illustrating good and bad mushrooms, which makes sense because pharmacies double as emergency rooms and deliver first aid. Any mushroom with gills is problematic, since porcini, chantrelles and morels don't have gills, but as others have noted, expert foragers look at a lot of factors. Sat Jun 14 20:32:24 -0700 2008 3780484 120073 cassis 1 3781026 Risk reward. What's the reward? Some good tasting mushroom. What's the risk? Death or life time health problem. You decide on whether the reward is worth the risk. I live in a city with a large number of eastern European immigrants, and each year one or two of them dies from eating poison mushrooms that they identify as safe in their home country. Sat Jun 14 16:34:23 -0700 2008 1662673 12082 PeterL 1 3782333 It's a slow, agonizing death with a lot of rolling on the floor clenching your gut (and other horrible bodily functions gone bezerk), for days before you go.... I know. In my dreams, of course! We've bought lots of books and have gone out with experts and after a while we find that there are just a few shrooms that are good to eat, at any one time of the year, under a certain kind of tree, etc. and that it is not quite rocket science or that scary. Most you don't eat (or you can grow some that are better), so you are narrowing it down to just a few specific mushrooms you are looking for. I don't know where Riverhead is, but I think you will find something similar in your area. Sun Jun 15 12:54:58 -0700 2008 1662673 137946 Scargod 2 3782512 But I hear the colors one sees just before death are awesome! Sun Jun 15 14:24:29 -0700 2008 3782333 93538 Passadumkeg 2 3782545 OP is not out foraging for mushroom. He is trying to decide whether it's safe to eat mushroom foraged by someone else who claims that she did it back in her home country. Sun Jun 15 14:40:29 -0700 2008 3782333 12082 PeterL 3 3782560 Life is proof. But how much and how long have they foraged in their home country? I live in Maine, grew up picking w/ family in NJ, but more importantly, I course in Norway ( In Norwegian!) and harvested w/ experts in Finland. The flora and fauna, thanks to plate tetonics & climate are very, very, similar, so what I picked there is what I pick here. Sun Jun 15 14:48:56 -0700 2008 3782545 93538 Passadumkeg 3 3784911 No, "She" is asking what others think and feel about picking/eating wild mushrooms. She even said she would not mind hallucinogenic ones (but they taste pretty bad). I suggested she not fear them. Fear is from the unknown. Mushrooms can be known and can be your friends. Especially when you're small, coll. As a follow-up, it is important to note that people react differently to mushrooms. Just like people can have a reaction to eating too many escargots at one time, the same can happen with mushrooms. One person might have no ill-effects while another might have gastro-distress or nausea. The rule is to always cook wild mushrooms and only eat a small amount the first time. It's also a bad idea to eat an unusually large amount of mushrooms at one sitting. More info: http://limyco.org/ - The Long Island Club. The Northeast Mycological Federation site: http://www.nemf.org/files/menu.htm Mon Jun 16 12:33:21 -0700 2008 3782545 137946 Scargod 1 3782579 I grew up in the Thumb of Michigan and was trained by my Mom and Dad which mushrooms were safe and those that were not, or those my parents didn't fully understand and avoided. The poisonous fungi were called Toadstools and we were taught to look at the underside to determine whether eatable. Even so, my parents were extremely cautious, not allowing some fungus I later found out was highly yummy --like the so-called Snow-Balls. I prefer safety. I now live in California and don't know the first thing about the fungi growing here .... and while I may miss a delicious 'room, I'll not forget the lessons my parents taught me. (Funny reflecting above: My Mom was of Polish decent, my Dad, Irish). They both (and their relatives), took the same precautions. I've often wondered: Who were the brave souls who tasted the first mushrooms and how did our cultures pass down the information? Sun Jun 15 14:58:40 -0700 2008 1662673 15678 eartha 1 5160785 by the sound of it, the mushrooms that yourecieved pickled are called "slippery jacks" they're a good mushroom, and they usually grow in glades where there are some small pine trees. i myself have picked them from the age of 4 on. they're NOT poisonous NOR are they "magic". the beauty of the slippery jack, is that there is no poisonous counterpart (i.e. a mushroom by simialar look, smell and texture) so there is no way to have the confused with an inedible one. enjoy the marinated mushrooms, and i may just crack open one of the 15 jars i have. :) Fri Nov 06 08:18:00 -0800 2009 1662673 1122221 Goddesslikewoman 2 5162068 Reminds me that of the handful of the most common, good tasting, wild mushrooms, most will not be mistaken for something else. A hunt or two with an expert and a good book or two will show you what I mean. Certain ones (usually), grow in certain places, and at only certain times of year. This helps narrow it down. Avoid guessing and ingesting all the others. Yes, there are others that are edible, but few taste good enough to fool with! They are not worth the effort or the risk. Please do not take my advice as gospel for any of this. Join a mycology group and get your own books if you intend to pursue picking wild mushrooms. Fri Nov 06 14:54:36 -0800 2009 5160785 137946 Scargod 3 5162137 If she learned which mushrooms to look for in Poland then she know what to pick. There is maybe 5-8 types that are v. common and popular in Europe (Poland) and these are quite distinct and not that difficult to distinguish. There is a large number of mushroom types in Europe and North America that are identical but ther are some varieties that are unknown to me and the rule I follow is that if I don't know it or it doesn't look right you do not pick it. Fri Nov 06 15:16:08 -0800 2009 5162068 19117 Pollo 1 5162430 Back in the early 70's, I had a French friend in D.C. who was chef/proprietor of a very nice restaurant. One spring, his brother came to visit and the two of them went mushroom hunting. They picked only the ones they "recognized" from France. The brother ate them and died. I eat mushrooms that one of my friends forages, but she's been doing it around here for many years. There are only two varieties that I feel confident picking: morels and chanterelles. Fri Nov 06 18:08:13 -0800 2009 1662673 11995 pikawicca 2 5162683 Well, I guess the lesson is not to go mushroom picking with the French.... Fri Nov 06 21:14:44 -0800 2009 5162430 19117 Pollo 2 5162849 In the US there is a look alike for the chanterells, the Jack 'o Lantern, that does not exist in Europe. There is also the false morel which is poisonous. More Darwin Awards? We have our own chanterelle patch behind the house. Boletes are easy to recognize as well. Sat Nov 07 02:57:34 -0800 2009 5162430 93538 Passadumkeg 3 5162952 However, chanterelles rarely grow in dense clusters, and they feature false gills. The Jack O'Lantern is usually clustered and features true gills. These are some basic patterns and characteristics any mushroom hunter needs to learn. Sat Nov 07 05:55:56 -0800 2009 5162849 137946 Scargod 4 5163044 Yeah, but to the novice they look like chanterelles. Check out false morels, Mr. Wizard. I boil the poisonous ones, then eat them. :0). Sat Nov 07 07:07:34 -0800 2009 5162952 93538 Passadumkeg 5 5163504 Someone told me that if they grow on a tree, they're not poisonous. Ever hear of that? Sat Nov 07 11:46:49 -0800 2009 5163044 11097 coll 6 5163676 Chanterelles will never be found on grassy areas where no trees are present. http://www.mushroom-collecting.com/mushroomchanterelle.html Sat Nov 07 13:19:38 -0800 2009 5163504 137946 Scargod 6 5163788 Jack 'O Lanterns grow on rotting stumps. Sat Nov 07 14:19:27 -0800 2009 5163504 93538 Passadumkeg 7 5163959 I had a feeling he was lucky, not knowledgable. Sat Nov 07 16:08:16 -0800 2009 5163788 11097 coll 1 5162838 Well I'm still alive and well, four years later. Have gotten into dried ethnic mushrooms since this post but was never offered wild mushrooms again. I did get a book at Borders on sale with all the mushrooms in the world listed, but just glanced through it, so not ready to pick any myself. Where I am is all small pine trees so you're probably right about the type of mushroom. Thanks for all the replies, at least next time (hopefully there will be one) I will go in with my eyes wide open! Sat Nov 07 02:06:00 -0800 2009 1662673 11097 coll 2 5164252 Well good for you. Positive: good tasting food. Negative, liver transplant or death. In my book the negative far out weights the positive. Sat Nov 07 19:05:23 -0800 2009 5162838 12082 PeterL