In article ,
Christina Websell wrote:

I did have a bad experience with one that came up in the garden, it nearly
turned me inside out, so I do tend to buy mine from the supermarket now.
I have a mushroom book and I thought I'd identified it as safe, but
apparently not. I wouldn't risk it again. No way.

As many of us have posted, eating them is perfectly safe IF you
know what you are doing - which does involve both book reading
and getting someone to show you a range of them as they grow.
Also, the MOST dangerous are field mushrooms, because there are
so many nasties that are fairly similar.

To a naive person, the fungus that grew in my garden that I
couldn't identify might have been taken for a horse or even
field mushroom. It was a suitable shape, with suitable gills,
whitish and the gills went pinkish brown as it matured. But
I think that it was a Hebeloma, all of which are poisonous
(though not lethal). I knew enough to be damn sure that it
wasn't an Agaricus, even if I couldn't tell what it was.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.