Mushroom Hunting?

wintermute

wintermute

Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
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I'm a junkie for new hobbies, especially ones in the outdoors, especially when interesting implements are involved. Anyone know anything about mushroom hunting? Any good books on the subject? Is it a waste of time? What's the chance of poisoning myself? Is it even possible to do this anywhere near the NYC area?

Hopefully someone can tell me it's not fun, I'm going to poison myself, and I need to be in Scandanavia to do it so I can go on my merry way.
 
I go in Missouri whenever the conditions are right for mushrooms. Ive never got poisoned, however, got a pretty good belly ache from eatin to many! They seem to grow in the same places year after year. I go with my wifes grandpa, he has several secret spots. We got several trash bags full last year. When I say secret, I MEAN SECRET! Those old timers guard their spots like a state secret!!!
 
I used to hike through Central Park and Van Cortlandt Park in NYC and I often saw people gathering mushrooms.

Once in Van C., I saw a man with a big paper shopping bag on the trail not far from me and I called to him, asking if he were looking for mushrooms. He was and I pointed out some near me, a simple sort growing out from a fallen tree in little ledges, which he got very excited about.

There are many edible varieties you can easily find in woods anywhere, and you should be able to get a decent handbook on them.
 
Yeah the main ones I try to find are Oysters, chicken of the woods, and Morels. Puff Balls are good if you get them before the interior turns to dust.

I'll kick up the wild plant mushroom thread for you if I can find it.
 
It's very interesting to do bro but you do have to be very carefull, even with a good book in front of you it is still sometimes very hard to possitively ID them !!!
I have several books, the ones with photos in as opposed to drawings are ,I find, the best.
My best tip to you is study no more than say 6 common variety in your area so that you are 100% sure when you see these and stick to just those !!!
Some like Cauliflower Fungus are easy to spot and hard to mistake while others have very similar but poisonous relations !!!
Another tip is only pick when they are dry !!!!

Good hunting !!!!!!!!!
 
Also be sure to know the difference between morels and the false morels. If you cut a morel vertically you will see it is all one piece, stem attached to cap. Stem is solid, and cap is pitted vertically and ranges in color from tan to almost black.

The false morels have a cap that is attached at the very top of the inside of the cap. The stem is hollow and filled with cotton like stuff. The pits on these are more wavy than vertical. Thats all I know about them, I hope it helps.
 
hollowdweller said:
Yeah the main ones I try to find are Oysters, chicken of the woods, and Morels. Puff Balls are good if you get them before the interior turns to dust.

I'll kick up the wild plant mushroom thread for you if I can find it.
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I can't find it.

For some reason I can only go back to page 24 and I think it's a little farther back.
 
Learn the "foolproof four" and the "fatal five" and stay away from everything else until you get some experience.
 
I used to do a lot of this. (Less these days for various reasons.) I was lucky in that mycology expert Roger Lyons taught classes at Sheffield University (about 100 yards from where I lived!) For a few £ I could enrol on a part-time course with a couple of field trips and 2 or 3 tutorials/lab sessions. Must have done his course at least 5 times between 1982 and 1991. Myself and my fellow students always felt very confident with Mr Lyons in tow! Obviously, those sort of opportunities aren't always available though unfortunately. There's some good advice above, it's better to stick with a few edible varieties that you are confident positively identifying and which can't be mistaken for any poisonous varieties. It's also better to have a more experienced friend to teach you about fungi in the field than to rely solely on book learning.
 
I've eaten mushrooms that my old boss in Germany gathered- he was an old hand at it & knew his stuff- still I was a little nervous at first until I realized that I didn't die or see anyone else keeling over.
 
wintermute said:
Anyone know anything about mushroom hunting? Any good books on the subject? Is it a waste of time? What's the chance of poisoning myself? Is it even possible to do this anywhere near the NYC area?
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absolutely - mushrooms are everywhere including city parks.

wintermute said:
Anyone know anything about mushroom hunting? Any good books on the subject? Is it a waste of time? What's the chance of poisoning myself?
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The chance of poisoning yourself is small but very real. There are lots of good books but DO NOT rely on books alone - find someone knowledgeable and go mushroom hunting with them. Pay attention to what they tell you and what they show you and you'll be fine. A good place to start is joining a mycological society. Don't take the DIY (do-it-yourself) approach to mushroom identification - it's one of those skills that, given how much a mistake will cost, you really need instruction from others.

http://www.newyorkmyc.org/nymsfusion/viewpage.php?page_id=3

EDIT: When I say the chance of poisoning yourself is small, I mean fatal poisoning. Poisoning yourself so that you're so sick you think you're going to die or you severely damage your liver but still live is not small. Most mushroom poisonings don't result in death.
 
wintermute said:
I'm a junkie for new hobbies, especially ones in the outdoors, especially when interesting implements are involved. Anyone know anything about mushroom hunting? Any good books on the subject? Is it a waste of time? What's the chance of poisoning myself? Is it even possible to do this anywhere near the NYC area?

Hopefully someone can tell me it's not fun, I'm going to poison myself, and I need to be in Scandanavia to do it so I can go on my merry way.
Click to expand...

Wildman Steve Brill runs foraging tours in NYC city parks and surrounding areas. He's quite a character and the tours cost 10 or 15 bucks. I've been on a few, very interesting. One of the tours I did was after a rain storm and we found lots of mushrooms, and he would tell us things like, "That's deadly poisonous, that will kill you in two weeks, that's edible but not tasty, those are delicious" To be honest I would have to go on many many more tours before I felt comfortable identifying edible mushrooms. It is fascinating and you should check out his website: Wildman Steve Brill
 
theonew said:
Wildman Steve Brill runs foraging tours in NYC city parks and surrounding areas. He's quite a character and the tours cost 10 or 15 bucks. I've been on a few, very interesting. One of the tours I did was after a rain storm and we found lots of mushrooms, and he would tell us things like, "That's deadly poisonous, that will kill you in two weeks, that's edible but not tasty, those are delicious" To be honest I would have to go on many many more tours before I felt comfortable identifying edible mushrooms. It is fascinating and you should check out his website: Wildman Steve Brill
Click to expand...

You really can't beat getting this kind of knowledge first-hand, sounds worth every penny. I used to really enjoy going on these kind of foraging expeditions, and it's amazing how many edible varieties you find - and even some that are really tasty! The liked the down-to-earth approach of the mycology expert I learned from, he'd say stuff like, "Well, it won't kill you, but it tastes like s**t." Or: "It's not really poisonous, but you'll certainly hallucinate." He seemed to have tried just about everything (the really nasty ones aside.)
 
I do eat certain ones that are easy to spot. The only problem is that they have very little nutritional value. Minerals and I think some vitamins but very little calories or food value. Other than that, I really like lots of them. As a survial food though they have little to offer other than maybe as a morale booster.

I am no expert on this. If someone has better information I would appreciate hearing a correction.

KR
 
Wow, thanks for the help! I'll definitely try to get on one of Steve Brill's tours and contact the Long Island Mycological Society (Since I live on L.I.). Now if I can only get my family in on this venture.
 
I'd be inclined to advise you to leave them alone unless you have walked and studied with an expert in person to identify them. Even then, if you're tired or distracted, it's easy to let a poisonous lookalike get in by accident. Morels are an example: false morels look very much like regular ones, and you have to carefully i.d. the grain pattern and direction close up to differentiate. There are a few that have no poisonous lookalikes, though.
 
Hunting mushrooms can be perfectly safe if you use the right equipment. Nobody has ever been poisoned by a "mushroom" that they bagged with a 12 gauge shotgun.
 
Akennedy is right, be careful and make sure you learn from somebody with a clue. The Poison Control Center has a saying:

"There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters"
 
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