How to Do More Mushroom Hunting Safely

In an earlier posting I talked about mushroom looking in Alaska. On the finish of this text I’ll add nonetheless a couple of extra recommendations on the way to collect these most delectable fungi. First, let me describe to you one particular mushroom looking for incident that I uncared for to say in my earlier article. It occurred to me and my then nearly eighty yr outdated Dad alongside the banks of the Taku River again within the mid 1970’s. My buddy, Ron Maas, had invited us to go to him and his spouse, Kathy, at their then owned household enterprise, Taku Glacier Lodge. Provides often arrived on the lodge by boat or barge, however folks often received there by float airplane. Not solely was this Dad’s first ever flight in a small airplane, it was additionally one of many few occasions since arriving in America that he ever strayed various miles from his residence in San Francisco. His laughable remark to our hosts was, “My son telephones me to say that we’re going mushroom looking collectively, however I’ve to fly all the way in which to Alaska on a jet after which take a float airplane to get there – absurd.”

Ron and Kathy operated the lodge and the adjoining roughly 20 acres of closely forested land as a vacationer attraction, however this present day the lodge was closed to the general public. So, the 4 of us have been going mushroom looking. Ron had earlier seen some giant white puffballs (calvatia gigantea) and he needed us to see them and to guarantee him that they have been edible It was alongside a path barely huge sufficient to accommodate Ron’s outdated jeep truck that we rode alongside trying to find the puffballs however secretly hoping to seek out the elusive, deliciously well-known king boletus (boletus edulis). After hours of fruitless tramping within the bear signal crammed woods, I steered that we must always maybe give it up for the day – the mushrooms simply weren’t rising but. When Ron noticed a pile of scat that was nonetheless steaming, he agreed. He received again into the jeep in a rush. The remainder of us have been shut behind – Dad and I now sitting on the open tail gate and driving backwards however nonetheless in search of mushrooms. As we neared the open grassy space across the lodge however nonetheless inside the surrounding forest, Dad yelled out a loud “STOP.” Ron did simply that, and Dad hurried off again into the woods. When he returned he had in his arms one of many largest and prettiest king boletus that I’ve ever seen earlier than or since. How he noticed that mushroom with these outdated spectacled eyes of his is past me. Suffice it to say that one very comfortable outdated man took that mushroom to the kitchen of the lodge, brushed it clear (you by no means wash mushrooms), lower off thick slices, dipped them in eggs and melted butter, after which breaded them. I feel he added some garlic or onion salt for additional taste. The ensuing fried up feast fed all 4 of us till we have been utterly and blissfully sated. Dad departed for these bountiful mushroom crammed forests in Heaven in 1986, however these sorts of remembrances will stick with me eternally.

Now, listed below are some further ideas. They’re principally discovered through the use of the major search engines obtainable right here on the internet. A couple of are from private expertise:

1. If you’re unsure in regards to the specie, do not even attempt to eat any of it.
2. Should you do not heed the recommendation in #1 above, style solely just a little little bit of it. If it seems to be toxic, you’ll in all probability solely find yourself with a foul abdomen ache.
three. Learn all you’ll be able to in regards to the numerous species – the edible and the non-edible. Books with footage of the assorted varieties of mushrooms are most useful.
four. Keep away from the Amanita muscaria specie. There’s one in that household that’s scrumptious and extremely beneficial. A lot of the others of the identical specie typically look an identical, however are both non-edible or downright deadly. Even old-timers have made errors with that specie – some lethal.
5. Depend on new texts when studying about mushrooms. Among the older volumes usually are not as encompassing on the subject of information on toxicity, and many others.
6. Lastly, in case you are looking mushrooms in bear nation, be alert. These animals can generally do you extra hurt than the chew of even probably the most suspect fungi.