it's been a while since I've been mushroom picken' and it's good to what one's eating out there(MY GOD,IT'S FULL OF STARS!)

-- zoobie (zoobie@zoob.zab), April 30, 1999

Answers

1. a field guide to the mushrooms of North America Orson Miller

2. The Peterson field guide to the mushrooms of north america

3. The Audobond Society field guide to mushrooms of north america.

Avoid the Simon and Shuster's guide, a LOT of the species are primarily European.

I just bought a 4th guide, but haven't really used it and I'll be darned if I can remember the name of it. I've used the 3 above for about 21 years. I've probably gathered and eaten about 80 different kinds of mushrooms during that time.

Some cautions: BE SURE about what you've picked. Do spore prints. Be cautious. You can be allergic to an otherwise "edible" species. Mushrooms can spoil quickly in the field or after gathering. If they are questionable, pass on them.

-- Jon Williamson (pssomerville@sprintmail.com), April 30, 1999.

thanks!!

-- zoobie (zoobie@zoob.zab), April 30, 1999.

Hi!

Please be REALLY careful. Using field guides I selected some innocent looking mushrooms and even had my "experienced mushroom hunter" biology teacher look at them also - ate loads of them and vomited all night long......You might want to start with small quantities even of those that appear ok. (ughhhh....it took me years to eat shrooms again - now I love 'em!).

Bye!

-- Kristi (securx@Succeed.Net), April 30, 1999.

Kristie:

Yes, even the same species growing in different parts of the country can contain toxins or not.

Much wiser to start with a small amount of a new type to test for reactions....

-- Jon Williamson (pssomerville@sprintmail.com), April 30, 1999.

Make sure that you have the references for your region!!!! We have a family in Clevburgh that has ALL gotten new livers due to the assumption that the mushrooms they gathered were the same as at home, in Asia. they were not. They were nearly the most deadly available. OOOPsie. And the symptoms took a day and a half to manifest. C

-- chuck, a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), April 30, 1999.

The red ones are thermonuclear, the yellow ones are neutron, and the whitish gold ones are hydrogen. All of these varieties should be avoided as they are extremely hazardous to your health.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), April 30, 1999.

Hydrogen?

(Pay no attention to his silly answer - everybody knows hydrogen mushrooms are lighter than air and float right out of the atmosphere up to the moon.)

It's the dirty ones you gotta watch for - they're buried underground and are all moldy and mildowed - no wonder people get sick - you have to wash all the mold off first. After you wash off all the fungi, they're perfectly safe. Unless they're armed, then they're dangerous.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), April 30, 1999.

Hey Jon,

Lots of fallen oak trees around here with fungi growing on them. Is anything growing out of an oak log poisonous? I had heard no but would like someone with knowlege to answer.

Also heard that there are no poisonous shelf fungi, is this true?

LM

-- LM (latemarch@usa.net), May 01, 1999.

Gallerina can grown on oak. Deadly poisonous.

Yes, some shelf mushrooms are toxic as well.

There is no substitute for knowledge, no easy rules. I suggest you read several good mushroom books and go picking with a local expert (better to join local mycology group, if you've got one). That is the way to learn.

I've picked and eaten wild schrooms for 20 years. Never got sick (and never died). But that's because I'm cautious and careful ...

-- ms (ms@nope.com), May 01, 1999.

In the western states, David Arora's "Mushrooms Demystified" is considered "the Bible". After that, his "All the Rain Promises & More"

The Southeast Asian community often mistakes our deadly Amanita Phalloides mushroom [AKA the Death Cap ] gor their beloved, edible Paddy Straw mushroom. Why we haven't done an outreach info program to this group about this terrible problem I'll never know. In the west, we have two deadly poisonous mushrooms,[both Amanitas] out of thousands of species. Learn their field marks first.

-- sporemistress (Fungophilic@duff.spore), May 01, 1999.

For anyone out on the westcoast click over to The MycoWeb http://www.mykoweb.com/ Lots of great info, wonderful photographs, links to lots of mushroom sites.

-- The Old Mushroom Hunter (fungalfriend@mushroom.spore), May 01, 1999.

This could be an old wives tale, but sometimes there is a grain of truth in old tales. If you've found a shroom you think is safe after your best try at identification, don't eat it but rather take a very small peice and put it in your lower lip like tobacco. If you feel anything negative spit it out right away, obviously. If nothing happens then spit it anyways, if you feel fine after 2 days then consume a little bit. If still OK then its edible. Personally, from a nutrition standpoint I don't think most are worth the risk are they?

-- Will (sibola@hotmail.com), May 02, 1999.

Mrs Driver and I gather only one breed, Puff balls, and kind of like them in the volly-ball size, long before they dry enough to puff.

C

-- chuck, a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), May 02, 1999.