UKC

It's reminding me of a time in Font when I got in a conversation with a french lady about why so many people were carrying baskets in the forest (she asked why so many people were carrying mattresses - so it was a good exchange of knowledge when you consider my lack of french and her lack of English)

I Saw 4 different species of wild mushrooms/toadstools on a short walk yesterday through the local heath. It's made me wonder about how to learn which ones I can eat, and I'm probably going to go foraging next weekend.

Any other foragers about care to pass on any advice. (yes I know if I can't ID it don't eat it!)

A small book is not a bad start but going with someone who knows what they are doing will give you the actual confidence to cook and eat what you find. Fortunately the only mushroom I'm interested in is pretty easy to tell apart from anything else as it's quite unique. Unfortunately it's also quite small so finding them is often easier said then done even when you know they grow where you are stood. 

Buy Roger Phillips' Book - Mushrooms.

It has them all in. I've had lots of tasty new species this season - delicious.

You must expect to be at least as good at identifying what you don't want to pick, as that which you do. As a beginner you will be extremely vulnerable to wishful thinking and seeing what you want to see, rather than what it is - and with mushrooms... well it can be fatal.
The other related point is that if you develop your 'botanical vocabulary' (e.g. stipe, glaucous, pinnate), your eyes will see things it didn't see before. In other words - the more you learn about plants and fungi, the less you will have 'plant blindness' ( https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190425-plant-blindness-what-we-lose-wi... ). Overcoming this will help a great deal.
The previous point is that it's also not just about the fungi - the forest species composition, micro-climate, aspect, rainfall pattern, age of the forest - all of these things are used to determine ideal and unlikely locations.

As an aside, it's relatively easy (well, I haven't done it yet, but I've seen it done) to cultivate shiitake on logs using bought dowel-spawn. This is an easy controllable process, and may give you a much better supply if you intend to share with friends and family.

Fortunately for me it's not just about eating them... I like them as photo subjects too. 

The 2 Fly Agaric's in this album were from yesterday:

https://www.irista.com/gallery/mh8kpa4akjve

There's a nice crop of those in a field nearby me

It ought to be mushroom season but we have only had 2mm of rain ( Gers, South-west France) over the last four weeks. I've never known things to be so dry. Last year was pretty much the same. There were some cepes in July after heavy thunderstorms, then nothing else. We had 30°C yesterday ! The forcasted thunderstorms have not materialized, just a spot of light rain this evening; not enough to get the cepes sprouting ! 

Found a massive stand of Giant Funnels yesterday but it seems they aren't wrth the trouble ( at best)  and liable to induce illness at worst.

The crusties are out in their droves at stanage apparent North  

Same here in the Champsaur, had thought that a storm a week or so ago might have helped but almost no fungi so far

Find some eastern European friends to take you, it's a normal family day out in much of eastern Europe. In fact, when I started learning Russian, "mushroom picking" was a phrase we learnt very early on when talking about hobbies.

They are all over the place this year. We got about 200 caps in a couple of hours at that very spot about 3 weeks ago. Never seen so many in patches before, 20-30 in some. It was bobbins last year so it's making up for it. I only eat once or twice a year so that will probably do me but I just can't resist if I see a cap and I don't get any bloody climbing done that day haha. 

Pretty rubbish for them all where I live, had a couple of ceps a while back and picked a single, lone parasol in a field today. That's about it for me - but I am no expert and stick to the very few that I am 100% confidant with.

Yes, Russians are big on mushroom hunting but even with their tradition some years over 200 die from their passion!

Yes, I guess there is still risk.

In France you can take your picked mushrooms to a pharmacist for identification to be sure they are edible! Not sure our pharmacists have this sort of knowledge though!

There should be a word for the butterflies you get in your stomach when you about consume a mushroom you just picked and your only 90% certain what you have. May as well be a Russian word. It's nothing compared to the feeling of knowingly eating a poisonous one (fly Agaric). I know you can get high on them but we picked some and they are just so grim I just could not do it. They are bloody red. After about 3 hours of bottling it we dried them out and made tea. And I didn't drink that either. I still get the willys when I walk past one in the wild now. 

That fly agaric is in the same family as the wonderfully named Destroying Angel and Death Cap. I'd suggest the OP learns to identify those first, and the symptoms, before foraging.

It used to be easy to find parasols in a local park/wildish area, but for a good few years this has been banned because of some people taking them in 'commercial' quantities.

Given that identifying fungi is not easy remember this -

Any fungi you have picked should be divided into three portions.

The first is for you, the second is for the doctor and last is for the coroner.

Let's be careful out there.

Dave

Mushroom picking is something I started a few years back when I moved to Sweden (everyone does it here). A few friends took me out one day and we picked some boletes and chanterelles. Since then, I've stuck entirely to picking chanterelles. Funnel chanterelles grow abundantly in the forests here, and they're really easy to ID, with little chance of error (they have hollow stems). Once you get your eye in to find them you can collect loads very quickly. The yellow chanterelles are also easy to ID, but are either less common here or just get foraged quickly by locals who know the good patches.

http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/winter-chanterelle-edibility-identificatio...

Best book for beginners by a mile is the River Cottage Handbook.

The season feels like it's being a bit slow to start this year, but so far we've found chanterelles, a few ceps, loads of tawny grisettes, hen of the woods, amethyst deceivers and a few others. 

Very little beats an early walk on a Sunday morning followed by a breakfast of whatever mushrooms you've found on toast.

To be fair, you'd have a hard time mistaking either of those for a fly agaric! That said, I avoid all three. 

You can't always go by name... Death Trumpets are delicious and quite sought-after!

In Europe and North America it is almost impossible to seriously poison yourself if you stick to boletes and their relatives (i.e. mushrooms with a spongy rather than lamellous underside). There are a few mildly to moderately toxic species, but they all look like you don't want to eat them anyway (blood red veins on a yellowish stalk, etc...), but even most of these are edible when cooked.  Just make sure you taste a slice of every single on going into the pan, there are a couple of bitter tasting species that can ruin the whole dish!

All highly toxic species, in particular death caps and other Amanita species have lamellae on the underside of the hat, and almost all lethal poisonings in Europe involving food (rather than drug) mushrooms involve one Amanita species or another, usually mixing them up with parasols or Agarics and their relatives. Easy to tell apart, in principle, but lethal when you get it wrong.

Also, it is important to remember that I pick mushrooms, everybody else is merely stealing them...

CB

I got my girlfriend a foraging course for her birthday this year with these guys

https://www.wildfooduk.com/foraging-trips/

We really enjoyed it (we did it at Glamis castle in Angus), and I'd say there are two or three mushrooms I would be confident in identifying now. The instructor emailed a load of follow up info with pictures which I'm intending to make into a small waterproof booklet to take out with me when I finally get around to it.

The elderflower champagne and freshly foraged mushroom dish at the end of the day were really good.

I was hunting for a rather distinctive but very small variety on Sunday. Possibly too wet, maybe too warm but there was nothing in a usually reliable spot.

Maybe we'll have a more liberating experience in a couple weeks.

A relative in Europe nearly killed his entire family by picking the wrong mushrooms and putting them in a family meal. 

I am constantly told that mushroom eating is dangerous and 'I wouldn't take the risk'.

I just don't buy it. Its an area with real potential danger, which can be almost completely negated by the right amount of skill, education and prudence. Its a bit like people saying climbing E1 is dangerous, or driving a car is. It could easily be dangerous for the incompetent. However that is not a good enough reason not to start learning (or not climb, or not drive).

Firstly, we need good information, teaching yourself is the hard bit.

Going out with someone experienced is great, you'll get a feel for it, and recognise some of the main groups. But you will never find good examples of all one the ones you need to know, for eating, and avoiding.

This is where Roger Phillips Mushrooms book comes in. Its got them all, with good photos, and dense descriptions.
Prior to getting this book, I'd use books with hand drawings, that looked nothing like what I'd found. The books contained only 50 species. I could never be confident enough to eat anything.
With the book; I can go though every single small yellow mushroom that looks anything like it. Sometimes it takes ages to get a solid ID, but you get better at it with time, and recognise the families quickly.

Occaisionally, I'll not get a clear ID. Sometimes I'll take a photo for reference, or ask for opinions from the mushroom spotter facebook group.
 

There is some really good advice in this thread - and some really, really terrible advice too!

- There are plenty of 'shrooms out there in the UK countryside which will cause you serious harm
- There are over 1000 species in the UK - you'll be passing a lot of inedible and toxic species over the coming weeks. 
- There are plenty of over-confident feckwits who happily encourage others to go out and forage for mushrooms without giving realistic advice - it's the Dunning-Kruger effect writ large.
- You'll need a minimum of two guidebooks; one for identification (a field guide that helps you narrow down what it is based on visual characteristics) and another that is steered towards foragers/cooking and preparation. There are a few UK-specific mushroom foraging guides that talk freely about the edibility of mushrooms that field guides list as being toxic. It's a big subject and a little bit of knowledge is dangerous.
- Photos alone aren't reliable enough, you need to carefully read descriptions for each species too. On my courses I always try and point out a colony where you have several individual examples of a single species all in different stages of development. They can go from small balls just emerging from the soil right up to full parasols with 10" diameter in just a few days - which stage of development would you expect to find in the guidebook photo?
- People often tell stories about other nationalities being much more accomplished mushroom hunters than we are in the UK. When you look a little more closely you learn that they are often only targeting 10-15 species and ignoring the 1000+ other species found commonly in Northern Europe. There are just more people out doing it than you see here.
- Rather than trying to identify everything you come across you will be better off targeting a few really good and easily-identified edible species. Look them up, learn where/when/how they 'grow' and then hunt them down. The edible boletes, jelly ear, chanterelles, shaggy inkcaps and a few of the bracket fungi are good starting points for this time of year - depending on your location.


It's a massive subject, but if you approach it in the right way it's actually not too difficult to get into mushroom foraging safely. I manage to put a few hundred people through my foraging courses every year, plus working with instructors and media types and I have yet to kill anyone with something fungal.

 

All excellent advice vvvvvvvvv

What have you killed them with?

Yes the the Psilocybe species are good at hiding...

CB

I'd be careful about the inkcaps

Only if you ignore the 'shaggy' part

Boredom probably

We have the rotting roots of a felled birch just under our lawn so this year and several years past we have had an astonishing crop of attractive pale brown mushrooms. I'd love to have eaten them but have zero faith in my ability to identify them so I'll just stick to the species that comes in a plastic tray. 

i knew inkcaps with alcohol was not advised (never had a reaction myself tho) but latest recommendation is to avoid consumption altogether:

The Common Inkcap causes severe poisoning if consumed with alcohol 48 hours either side of eating the mushroom. Even applying alcohol based aftershave after eating it can cause a reaction. It was still listed as edible in some guides if alcohol was avoided. Recent studies suggest that it contains toxins with a carcinogenic potential and some authorities advise it shouldn’t be consumed at all, therefore we can’t recommend eating it.

other shrooms seem to react with alcohol-I had a bad reaction with chicken of woods..

There are two different species which are often confused as they are referred to as 'inkcaps'. 

Common Inkcap (Coprinopsis atramentaria): http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/common-inkcap-edibility-identification-dis...

Shaggy Inkcap (Coprinus comatus): http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/shaggy-inkcap-identification-distribution-...

Mark at Galloway Wild Foods is a better source that the one you refer to IMO, but nothing inaccurate in their description.

Roger Philips has a damn good book on the subject. I've been forgaging for years and always stick to easy to identify species

The mushrooms around South Wales are massive at the moment, we saw some parasol mushrooms a foot high last week but we didn't know anything about them so left them and bought the Roger Phillips book when we got home. Yesterday we found massive bunches of mushrooms growing on tree stumps. They smelt and looked delicious but when we checked we identified them as Shaggy Scalycap mushrooms which are annoyingly inedible.

Great thread.  

Are there any fungi in the UK which can kill you and what would be the lethal dosage?*

*I'm not planning anything, to be clear.

Multiple species in the UK. Death caps have a potential  lethal dose of half a mushroom.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8574915.stm

My relatives go mushroom picking all the time in Europe but this one time a relative who was an idiot picked the wrong ones and nearly killed his entire family by accident by putting them in the family meal that night. 

That's a well argued post, something which sticks in my mind is being told about 2 mushrooms which (as far as humans are concerned) are just about impossible to tell apart visually, with one being sticky on the underside in a way that the other isn't, with this piece of info being essential to know because one of them can kill you.

It sounds like you approach things in a sensibly cautious way.

Iv an app on my phone. You just point it at the mushroom and it identifies what its seeing.   It also brings up any similar ones in case . It also let's you know at a glance whether edible 

Found a great crop of parasols the other week in NE Wales.  Breakfast and a stroganoff for 3, lovely job. 

How do you prepare them ? I only eat them very fresh and then grilled. They have a lovely hazelnut taste.

Just taken a look of what's on offer. They don't appear to do more than a good book would do.  

I would definitely not rely solely on an app for mushroom identification - especially one that bases it's decision on just a photo.

Always double check everything.

Concerns about these apps have been raised by experts too...

https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/28/16054834/mushroom-identifying-app-machin...

Let's be careful out there.

The nutty taste is very distinct, lovely. Mine go straight in a frying pan (usually for breakfast), one large parasol takes up the whole pan, and overlaps the sides if a really big one!

Similar to the two species of Pipistrelle bats then. They look identical, and were classed as they same, until someone noticed that their ultrasonic calls were so different that they had to be different species.

Regarding the apps. Google lens, (possibly already installed if you have Google photos) can point you in the right general direction, sometimes.

If you eat anything based off it then you fully deserve your Darwin Award. 

DNA studies are making fungal classification very fluid. eg my '80s Collins Gem has the two inkcaps mentioned above in the same genus Coprinus, but in latest gem guide (best pocket guide imo) they have been assigned to different families..

The apps aren't to be relied upon, certainly. I'm on/in a couple of facebook groups, and nobody seems to have had any reliable success while using the apps.

Please don't rely on an app to keep from being poisoned or killed. No pun intended, but the mushroom field is full of unknown unknowns, in a way that some others aren't. I've not come across anybody who has used an app who has found it to be 100% successful. 

Happy eating...

I agree, but I do find it very useful as I always have my phone to hand. The app I use doesn't always recognize the mushroom.  I always Google any one I'm going to eat  as an extra check

On other thing... Be careful about using google images for mushrooms.

The googles results page is basically any images it finds on pages about the mushroom your searching for. These pages often include images of similar but poisonous mushrooms you need to avoid, and those images will get included in the search results.

my advice is learn the tastiest 5 and the few poisonous ones they might be mistaken for.

ignore the rest.

I spent hours trying to id every mushroom one year to find the edible ones and most of the time could only narrow it down to "edible but not nice" but could be mistaken for a "not seriously poisonous but might give you a gippy tummy".

It didn't seem worth the time.

But sticking to learning the tasty ones and finding exactly when and where to look has reaped great rewards of ceps, parasols, blewits, chanterelles, morels, oyster, chicken of the woods........

on a similar note i recently noticed images of alex huber and honnold under a related search header entitled 'famous free solo deaths'..

Lots of mushrooms and pickers in the New Forest this weekend.

Carrying a PMR446 radio whilst assessing DofE seemed to spook quite a few of them; saw one Polish chap as I was assessing, and the girls happened to be talking about mushrooms, and I said 'this chap will know', but he denied he was after mushrooms. I came across him later, with wife and two kids, knife in hand, and a bag full of mushrooms... I reassured him I wasn't some official NFNP mushroom police, and we had a bit of a chat.

Later, I saw a couple leave the wood and stand by a gate, as if waiting to be picked up. They had little wicker baskets, so I asked them how they had got on. 'Bonjour', they said, apparently unable to speak English. So I spoke to them in French, asking what they had found. Reluctantly, they gave a Linnean name for what they'd found (one of the clitocybes, IIRC). Now, if, like the Polish chap, you were living in England, you'd have enough English to hold a simple conversation. This French couple apparently could not, which leads me to think they may have been part of a commercial picking crew, over from France... That and standing waiting to be picked up...

Possibly "Modern Slavery" situation?

Certainly sounds like a commercial operation which would be illegal wouldn't it? (not that it's likely to be enforced)

We just fried them in a little butter for breakfast while they were still very fresh, and for stroganoff fried before adding into the rest of the bits. I have to say they didn’t fare as well in stroganoff and broke apart quite a lot. Taste was still good but they went quite mushy. 

Found a bunch of Shaggies once and they made good eating; main problem is getting them home before they start to liquefy.

Best season here (Germany) in while, picked 2.5 kg of Boletes in less than half an hour despite leaving all the bigger ones standing. Currently drying them , should be enough for cooking venison for the next year!

CB

I'm going to head out for some, which ones make you feel great again?