On 06/15/2012 12:25 AM, wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:
There are also lots of other types, ...

We're /fairly/ sure they're safe, as one of our neighbours eats them!
But mushrooms still scare me when they're not from the supermarket. :-(

Any thoughts?

Wise. I wouldn't eat wild mushrooms unless I was absolutely sure of
its identity. There are some that look *very* similar to each other,
some of which are edible and harmless others lethal.

As there are "lots of other types" around get your neighbour who eats
them to positively identify the ones he eats and confirm no ill or
psychedelic (unless you are into that sort of thing) affects from
them.

I wasn't going to go near any of the others. Did you look at the other
photos in the directory? (I'm assuming Nick did, as he looked at the
flat/mature ones) There are some pretty inside-out-looking pinky purple
ones, and some parasol-shaped ones, which don't look in the slightest
edible, but they're pretty all the same.

parasol - http://comps.org/vicky/mushrooms/IMAG1387.jpg
flat - http://comps.org/vicky/mushrooms/IMAG1390.jpg

Looks like a Russule of some sort. Leave it.

pointy - http://comps.org/vicky/mushrooms/IMAG1386.jpg
purple - http://comps.org/vicky/mushrooms/IMAG1384.jpg

These look like "Amethysts", which are a kind of Cortinaire that is
edible, but pretty much dissolves on cooking. They're used raw in
salads sometimes. The problem is that Cortinaires vary widely in
coloration, and the bad ones will finish you. So there's really no
particular interest in eating them.

On 06/15/2012 12:48 AM, Sacha wrote:
Mushrooms in shops are not expensive to buy. Ask yourself how much your
health is worth compared to a punnet of mushrooms.

A kilo of Cepes costs 50 to 75 EU in a French market. Cheaper far to
gather your own if you can. We put up many kilos for use during the
coming year. And they're much tastier than the standard supermarket
mushroom.

I do agree with the second sentence though, and we never eat anything
we're not 100% sure about.

On Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:12:56 -0700 (PDT), Steerpike wrote:

http://www.shroomery.org/5298/Mushroom-Hunting

Might be of help to anyone not sure of what they are looking
at..................

Lot's of pictures but pictures are not quite the same as seeing
several examples in the flesh and being shown what to look for and
the natural variations that can be gotchas.

If there where mushrooms about up here I'd go on a wild mushroom
picking course with an expert. There aren't very many mushrooms about
up here so not worth it, Too cold I suspect, no ants either.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 06/15/2012 10:59 AM, Sacha wrote:
On 2012-06-15 08:34:45 +0100, Emery Davis said:

On 06/15/2012 12:48 AM, Sacha wrote:
Mushrooms in shops are not expensive to buy. Ask yourself how much your
health is worth compared to a punnet of mushrooms.

A kilo of Cepes costs 50 to 75 EU in a French market. Cheaper far to
gather your own if you can. We put up many kilos for use during the
coming year. And they're much tastier than the standard supermarket
mushroom.

I do agree with the second sentence though, and we never eat anything
we're not 100% sure about.

And in France you have the bonus of pharmacies which have an expert who
identifies fungi.

That's probably true in some places, but no longer so much in the Perche
and surroundings. Surprising given that there are more species of
fungus than anywhere else in France, IIRC there are nearly 250
identified locally. Our pharmacist did the training at the but admits
she is pretty clueless. (http://www.mycologiades.com/ in French sorry).
I guess the younger generation of pharmacists just cant be bothered.

When we first moved to our village, which is called The Coffin (in
French of course) the mushroom expert was the undertaker!

-E

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
On 06/15/2012 12:48 AM, Sacha wrote:
Mushrooms in shops are not expensive to buy. Ask yourself how much your
health is worth compared to a punnet of mushrooms.

A kilo of Cepes costs 50 to 75 EU in a French market. Cheaper far to
gather your own if you can. We put up many kilos for use during the
coming year. And they're much tastier than the standard supermarket
mushroom.

Define 'put up' please? Do you dry them or use other methods?



I do agree with the second sentence though, and we never eat anything
we're not 100% sure about.



--
--

http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On 06/15/2012 01:22 PM, Ophelia wrote:


"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
On 06/15/2012 12:48 AM, Sacha wrote:
Mushrooms in shops are not expensive to buy. Ask yourself how much your
health is worth compared to a punnet of mushrooms.

A kilo of Cepes costs 50 to 75 EU in a French market. Cheaper far to
gather your own if you can. We put up many kilos for use during the
coming year. And they're much tastier than the standard supermarket
mushroom.

Define 'put up' please? Do you dry them or use other methods?



Hi Ophelia,

It's way too humid in our house to dry mushrooms, or much of anything
else! But I do know a couple of people who string them on a thread
and hang them to dry.

We freeze them, either uncooked for the best quality cepes or cooked for
mixed bolet, girolles, hedgehog etc.

Cooked is very easy, just saute until done in butter, cool, and bag in
around 200gm quantities. You can add these later to soups, sauces etc,
sometimes without even thawing.

For the raw frozen ones, we clean carefully and cut into about 5mm
slices, then lay out on trays which go into the freezer at -36C. The
frozen slices are then bagged as for the cooked. The raw frozen ones
can be sauteed directly for omelets etc and are pretty much
indistinguishable from fresh cepes.

HTH

But field mushroom is ones with the most easily confused non-edible/poisonous alternatives.

There are other fungi which are much less risky.

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
On 06/15/2012 01:22 PM, Ophelia wrote:


"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
On 06/15/2012 12:48 AM, Sacha wrote:
Mushrooms in shops are not expensive to buy. Ask yourself how much
your
health is worth compared to a punnet of mushrooms.

A kilo of Cepes costs 50 to 75 EU in a French market. Cheaper far to
gather your own if you can. We put up many kilos for use during the
coming year. And they're much tastier than the standard supermarket
mushroom.

Define 'put up' please? Do you dry them or use other methods?



Hi Ophelia,

It's way too humid in our house to dry mushrooms, or much of anything
else! But I do know a couple of people who string them on a thread
and hang them to dry.

We freeze them, either uncooked for the best quality cepes or cooked for
mixed bolet, girolles, hedgehog etc.

Cooked is very easy, just saute until done in butter, cool, and bag in
around 200gm quantities. You can add these later to soups, sauces etc,
sometimes without even thawing.

For the raw frozen ones, we clean carefully and cut into about 5mm
slices, then lay out on trays which go into the freezer at -36C. The
frozen slices are then bagged as for the cooked. The raw frozen ones
can be sauteed directly for omelets etc and are pretty much
indistinguishable from fresh cepes.

HTH

Thank you, that is most helpful I have a dehydrator but have never been
happy with reconstituted dried mushrooms.

Your way sounds much better ) I treat other veg in some similar ways,
but never have done so with mushrooms!

Thank you again!!!

O

--
--

http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On 06/15/2012 03:13 PM, Sacha wrote:
On 2012-06-15 10:29:36 +0100, Emery Davis said:

On 06/15/2012 10:59 AM, Sacha wrote:
On 2012-06-15 08:34:45 +0100, Emery Davis said:

On 06/15/2012 12:48 AM, Sacha wrote:
Mushrooms in shops are not expensive to buy. Ask yourself how much
your
health is worth compared to a punnet of mushrooms.

A kilo of Cepes costs 50 to 75 EU in a French market. Cheaper far to
gather your own if you can. We put up many kilos for use during the
coming year. And they're much tastier than the standard supermarket
mushroom.

I do agree with the second sentence though, and we never eat anything
we're not 100% sure about.

And in France you have the bonus of pharmacies which have an expert who
identifies fungi.

That's probably true in some places, but no longer so much in the Perche
and surroundings. Surprising given that there are more species of
fungus than anywhere else in France, IIRC there are nearly 250
identified locally. Our pharmacist did the training at the but admits
she is pretty clueless. (http://www.mycologiades.com/ in French sorry).
I guess the younger generation of pharmacists just cant be bothered.

When we first moved to our village, which is called The Coffin (in
French of course) the mushroom expert was the undertaker!

-E

Slight of conflict of interests there - keep 'em alive, or increase his
earnings?!! I'm sorry to hear that useful service is on the slide.
given the number of people who go mushroom picking in France, I've
always thought it a really sensible idea to have experts in many areas
of the country. I would think clueless but still offering an opinion
would be more dangerous than no advice at all!

We always assumed he had himself a nice little earner! And, never
asked him for advice...

I too would be happy to eat the button mushrooms with the pink gills as they certainly appear to be Agaricus, the only danger of confusion in the Agaricus, family is between the horse mushroom and the yellow stainer which might give you an upset tum, but it only affects some people others can eat them wit no ill effects.

Get yourself a copy of Roger Philips Mushrooms book and you'll soon be able to make positive ID's of fungi, although some of the small frail ones can be a right pain but you can ignore them anyway. Just go for the ones that look like normal mushrooms and learn to tell the different families apart, then learn which in those families can be eaten and which cant and which families to leave totally alone.

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2012-06-14 23:25:03 +0100, said:

Dave Liquorice wrote:
There are also lots of other types, ...

We're /fairly/ sure they're safe, as one of our neighbours eats them!
But mushrooms still scare me when they're not from the supermarket.
:-(

Any thoughts?

Wise. I wouldn't eat wild mushrooms unless I was absolutely sure of
its identity. There are some that look *very* similar to each other,
some of which are edible and harmless others lethal.

As there are "lots of other types" around get your neighbour who eats
them to positively identify the ones he eats and confirm no ill or
psychedelic (unless you are into that sort of thing) affects from
them.

I wasn't going to go near any of the others. Did you look at the other
photos in the directory? (I'm assuming Nick did, as he looked at the
flat/mature ones) There are some pretty inside-out-looking pinky purple
ones, and some parasol-shaped ones, which don't look in the slightest
edible, but they're pretty all the same.

parasol - http://comps.org/vicky/mushrooms/IMAG1387.jpg
flat - http://comps.org/vicky/mushrooms/IMAG1390.jpg
pointy - http://comps.org/vicky/mushrooms/IMAG1386.jpg
purple - http://comps.org/vicky/mushrooms/IMAG1384.jpg

Mushrooms in shops are not expensive to buy. Ask yourself how much your
health is worth compared to a punnet of mushrooms.
--

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.

Tina

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
On 06/15/2012 12:48 AM, Sacha wrote:
Mushrooms in shops are not expensive to buy. Ask yourself how much your
health is worth compared to a punnet of mushrooms.

A kilo of Cepes costs 50 to 75 EU in a French market. Cheaper far to
gather your own if you can. We put up many kilos for use during the
coming year. And they're much tastier than the standard supermarket
mushroom.

I do agree with the second sentence though, and we never eat anything
we're not 100% sure about.

My German friend gathers boletes and other mushrooms and dries them. She
seems expert in knowing what is safe and what isn't. She's a homeopath,
maybe it comes into their extensive training, 6 years I think.

Tina

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.

wrote in message
...
Farmer Giles wrote:
I'd be very wary of them myself for the simple reason that 'common'
(field) mushrooms are not usually about for a few weeks yet.

Well, it's been a funny year. But I thought they were cooler weather
critters, spring and autumn. These pop up almost all year round.

Please don't do it, Vicky. I was lucky to get away with my stupidity as I
was told quite clearly on here a few weeks ago.
After only a few hours of eating it I was on the toilet constantly for what
seemed like days with terrible stomach spasms and pain.
I have no idea what it really was, but obviously not what I thought.
I do sometimes get parasol mushrooms in my garden, but would I eat them now?
No, in case I haven't identified them properly.
You can die if you make a mistake.

Tina

wrote in message ...
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.


Maybe that was what I had. I don't know, it really did look OK.