There are all kinds of mushrooms that grow in the wild --- some delicious, some deadly. But how do you know what is safe to pick and eat? I've always wondered this, and thought it would be cool to know, in sort of a surviving as a hunter-scavenger sort of way. I'd always been afraid to try mushrooming on my own --- what if I mixed up the poisonous and non-poisonous ones? oops! I knew that some of the deadly ones looked deceptively like the tasty kind. So when I saw a posting for a mushroom walk with people who knew what they were looking at, I signed up right away!
What fun, to wander through the woods and find food to eat! We spent the morning patrolling the woods for hidden gems poking up through the ground cover. We started at a known patch of oyster mushrooms:
Red russulas
Lactarius, exquisitely tasty (so I'm told) Chanterelles, boletes, amonitas, and more I didn't learn the names of!
Not sure what this is...
And a tiny, bright orange salamander!
Comparing mushrooms we found throughout the woods.
I had a great time learning about mushrooms, and can't wait for the next fungal foray!
A note about mushroom gathering: Don't try this unless you really know what you're doing! There are some really deadly fungi out there. Also, you can't gather mushrooms just anywhere. Make sure you know the rules and regulations before picking mushrooms on public lands.
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