How to IDENTIFY WILD MUSHROOMS without a FIELD GUIDE! A personal account..

Op...what ate your mushrooms?

various critters and wildlife

Ok....if that's the case I would think those same animals would forage for those growing mushrooms and leave very little to be found for picking. Just my opinion.

Op...what ate your mushrooms?

AC #####8315 ..... WE ARE in the animal kingdom, and just like us, they are lazy when it comes to work/gathering. SO .... if someone does ALL the work for us, why forage ?

Eagle

man you got lucky, there are many different types of annimal which eat poisonous mushrooms.

When I was 12 years old I lived in Alberta on a large acreage. I lived there for several years. And from a very young age I enjoyed cooking and eating. Mushrooms, as any cook knows are essential flavour builders in the kitchen. I love mushrooms and wild ‘shrooms give the best flavour.

Having seen several wild mushrooms growing in the wooded area section of our acreage, I wanted to learn which ones were poisonous and which were edible... but this is pre-internet and I had no field guide.

I spent a few hours picking as many different kinds of mushrooms as I could find, I found about 30 different varieties.

I spread the 30 different types over our picnic table we had near the fire pit in the same area where I picked the mushrooms. I placed them in rows of 6 across and 5 down. Each was assigned a # between 1 and 30.

Sadly as this was pre-digital camera and I didn't own a polaroid.. I had to draw the mushrooms on the table with their respective #'s. Now I had a chart of 30 different mushrooms.. but which ones are poisonous??

I realized at that moment what the answer was, smiled and went back home for the night.

The next day, around the same time as before, I returned to the picnic table where only 12 mushrooms remained. The 18 that had disappeared must have been eaten by the various critters and wildlife and therefore safe to eat.

I crossed out the 12 mushrooms on my hand-drawn cart and searched for the 18 varieties that remained.. I cooked with them, they were great and I never got sick.

Sometimes a little logic is all you need.

- Russell Scott

There are lots of different animals who can eat all manner of stuff that would make us very sick.

Just follow a country dog around for a day and see if you'd judge the edibility of something on whether or not he downs it.

Fun experiment and creative but you missed the bigger picture.

various critters and wildlife

Excellent year for mushrooms in Southern BC. Too bad prices are kinda shitty.

When I was 12 years old I lived in Alberta on a large acreage. I lived there for several years. And from a very young age I enjoyed cooking and eating. Mushrooms, as any cook knows are essential flavour builders in the kitchen. I love mushrooms and wild ‘shrooms give the best flavour.

Having seen several wild mushrooms growing in the wooded area section of our acreage, I wanted to learn which ones were poisonous and which were edible... but this is pre-internet and I had no field guide.

I spent a few hours picking as many different kinds of mushrooms as I could find, I found about 30 different varieties.

I spread the 30 different types over our picnic table we had near the fire pit in the same area where I picked the mushrooms. I placed them in rows of 6 across and 5 down. Each was assigned a # between 1 and 30.

Sadly as this was pre-digital camera and I didn't own a polaroid.. I had to draw the mushrooms on the table with their respective #'s. Now I had a chart of 30 different mushrooms.. but which ones are poisonous??

I realized at that moment what the answer was, smiled and went back home for the night.

The next day, around the same time as before, I returned to the picnic table where only 12 mushrooms remained. The 18 that had disappeared must have been eaten by the various critters and wildlife and therefore safe to eat.

I crossed out the 12 mushrooms on my hand-drawn cart and searched for the 18 varieties that remained.. I cooked with them, they were great and I never got sick.

Sometimes a little logic is all you need.

- Russell Scott