Foraging - How to forage / foraging discussion

[Cane Skretteburg]

Well, my only "wild source" for mushrooms is a city park so not exactly a good place to try out either way. It's not just the plants, I think mushrooms can be very tricky to spot because you have lookalikes that are, as the name implies, really similar. But one is poisonous. I know most aren't fatal anyway and would just give me stomach cramps so that trial and error is a way of learning. So, does spiderwort taste really bad? What did you think it was that you were consuming?

I don’t even remember. Day lily bulbs or something. I ate two bites and I was doubled over with dizziness and stomach pain for about 45 minutes. It didn’t taste bad— like a very vegetable-y potato.

 

[A random street in Duluth]

NEVER take any risks with mushrooms. Do not gather them at all if you lack the skill or access to a professional mushroom inspector(Europe in luck) because many of them will very reliably KILL you. Death caps for example look great, smell amazing, rich and mushroom-y and even taste amazing and you can eat them with no problem at first. No vomiting, no shitting, you have an amazing meal, maybe even share it with friends and family and go on your way. The next day nothing happens. Then the next day too. Then the next day you might feel a little uncomfortable, be a little nauseous. Then on the next day, you turn yellow as your liver and kidney are fully destroyed and you die. A tiny bite from a cap would be far enough to kill you, except it will take more time and possibly just leave you a wreck on a dialysis machine for the rest of your life. Or there are ones like panther caps which look so nice thick and edible but depending on species, strain, location, local soil, rainfall and a gorillion other factors they could be 10.000 to 1.000.000 times more potent than your average psychoactive mushrooms and can fry your brain into permanent psychosis. It also causes a variety of other symptoms, including panic attacks so hard that people break their wrists tied to hospital beds trying to escape and heart related ones, so you might just die from fright. Its something straight out of an eighties drug PSA. There are also webcaps, which have an insidiously long latency period, of weeks even up to a month, and it just causes light flu-like symptoms at first, before you stop producing urine as your kidneys balloon up, blacken and rot within your body. These are also all commonly mistaken for edible mushrooms all the time, as they are very similar to many, and several morphs exist.

You do not fuck with mushrooms and you do not get to be cavalier about mushroom safety. Don't piss your life away in a very painful way just because you wanted to cut corners or felt like a hot shit expert because you watched a youtube video on it. There's also a bunch of stupid old wives talkes like every mushroom becomes edible if boiled, silverware blackening shows poison, slugs eating it means its not poisonous, etc. which all can very reliably kill you. Don't let this turn off from foraging, as mushrooms are delicious and literal free food found on the ground, just bear in mind that nature is not a toy.

 

[TooManyKittens]

. Do not gather them at all if you lack the skill or access to a professional mushroom inspector(Europe in luck)

Ive said this elsewhere on the forums and i will repeat it here. I am not a forager, but do know a little. And two seperate professionals have taught me the exact same thing.

1. Foraging knowledge is very local. What might be reliably one species in location A in SE asia, is almost certaibly toxic species B in Midatlantic USA. Every year or so this kills some family who relocated and did not realize their experience no longer applied.
2. If in doubt fuckin dont. The level of discernment needed for mushrooms *is* hyper autistic in some cases.
3. In many locations there are easy to identify "beginner" species. These will have some quality that makes them different from all else that a microscope isnt needed for. Or they will have only non toxic lookalikes whose worst downside is not tasting good or being tough/chewy.

#3 i used to know several only recall reliably one but would have zero issue differentiating it even now from so called lookalikes.

Every year too though some idiot ignores some reliable rule in hopes of something tasty and gets sick or worse. And thats the obvious shit.

The difficult stuff is best left yo people who have worked their way into that knowledge with mentors and using microscopes and such as backup. Until they too are the professional.


Also also: for *North America* - there is no mushroom toxic to pick up in your hands. If you need a better look, take one. Even a death cap cannot hurt you if all you do is look, pickup, and toss that fucker back. You actually have to nibble on them to be deadly.

And for those of you foolish enough to want the "fun" shrooms - foraging is not the hippy clever move here. Gallerina marginata exists and will kill you. If youre going to be a degenerate, dont be a retard at the same time.

This does not apply globally *or* to plants/molds/anything else for the holding ok rule. I know for sure its untrue in some asian countries

 

[Taser Confetti]

And for those of you foolish enough to want the "fun" shrooms - foraging is not the hippy clever move here. Gallerina marginata exists and will kill you. If youre going to be a degenerate, dont be a retard at the same time.

There's many, many websites that sell you the spores for the fun ones for "research" purposes along with many videos on YouTube showing you how to grow them. Or just go on here - https://www.schedule35.co/us/

Literally no reason to die horribly because you listened to too much Joe Rogan and wanna be a goober.