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Mushrooms in my backyard – are they safe to eat?


Nomina

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Hi everyone,

With all the rain we have been getting in NY, my backyard has sprouted a ton of mushrooms. They smell delicious and I would like to eat them but I don't want to eat something poisonous. Does anyone recognize these and can they be eaten?

Thanks in advance.

2011-10-22 20.42.07_Oceanside_New York_US.jpg

2011-10-22 20.41.43_Oceanside_New York_US.jpg

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I wouldn't eat them if you offered me a billion dollars.

Even mycologists die from misidentifying mushrooms. I wouldn't trust the advice of ANYONE who comments based on two pictures.

Throw them out. Buy some mushrooms if you're in the mood. Mushrooms are cheap. Life isn't.

Who cares how time advances? I am drinking ale today. -- Edgar Allan Poe

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I immediately said "this is a dangerous topic".

Do not eat.

It is amazing that mushrooms that look very similar too ones grown in farms or foraged by a professional are very toxic.

A friend got sick from one small bite of a shroom resembling a button with a wider, flatter cap.

Mushroom Poisoning.

Edited by ScottyBoy (log)

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I have an awsome mushroom "fairy ring" in the middle of my yard in NJ....not gonna eat 'em

tracey

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Don't eat those for sure.

Even experts have been fooled by lookalike mushrooms. The results are extremely bad.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Don't eat them. Take them to your local extension office for a tenative ID, but even professionals are wrong (as others have pointed out) and it's pointless to play with your health that way. North America has so many toxic mushrooms that it's not even remotely safe to try those.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

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Mushrooms are as much fun to identify as wildflowers. Get yourself a couple of good mushroom books* (I find the books are much easier to use than internet pix, but there are good sites on line, too). Learn the vocabulary, learn how to do a spore print, check your ID's in several books, and THROW THEM AWAY IF YOU ARE NOT ABSOLUTELY SURE of what you have. Some mushrooms will kill you, some will just make you wish you were dead.

Don't let that stop you from enjoying the hunt--just know that you might be getting your mushrooms from the store, after a day in the field looking at pretty mushrooms.

As mjx said, there are some that are easy to identify, but I tend to avoid any that look like the one in your picture--that is, like an umbrella. Most of the ones that are easy to identify, like morels and oysters, are not umbrella shaped. Most of the toxic ones ARE shaped like umbrellas.

*Peterson and Audubon field guides are good, and your state natural resources office may have a good book--Illinois and Missouri both have excellent color field guides with big pictures. I work for Extension--your chances of finding a mycologist thru your extension office are kinda slim. We call the state mycology club when we have an ID question. Of course, at work, I tell folks not to eat anything--don't need to be sued if they have an allergic reaction, or pick a deadly 'shroom by accident and toss it in the pot with good ones. :shock:

sparrowgrass
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I'm going to have to jump on board with the rest and agree they should be tossed. I only forage very obvious mushrooms, chanterelles, lobsters and matsutakes, that I was taught to identify by a professional and I sometimes still get a bit hesitant when it's time to eat.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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"----I only forage very obvious mushrooms, chanterelles, lobsters and matsutakes,--"

And morels?

dcarch

I probably would but they don't often show up in big numbers around where I live. I'm not quite dedicated enough to roam around for hours for 5 or 6 mushrooms... although I have when matsutake hunting.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Yesterday's NY Times had this article: Nature Adds Water, and Everything Mushrooms.

About the explosion of mushrooms in New York City this year. Due to the near-biblical rains. The article states:

While some edible mushrooms are so distinctive that even a novice can pick them without fear — giant puffballs, or chicken-of-the-woods, a yellow-orange explosion that appears on logs (and does, indeed, taste like chicken) — mycologists recommend that amateurs not eat questionable specimens without confirming their identity using a guidebook and spore prints. This includes the varyingly hallucinogenic species known to grow in the New York area, most of which are legal to possess.

You could always go to a class at the New York Botanical Garden, or give the New York Mycological Society a call.

Just don't eat the damn things without being absolutely certain.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

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I ask myself the same thing every week, but the answer is always NO, you can't eat them, because even if they look exactly like a safe mushroom, they might not be that. The only way to know for sure is to KNOW THE ANSWER YOURSELF beyond a doubt. If you have to ask, don't eat it. Maybe take some classes from your local university's ag center or something. I've never done that, so I don't eat mushrooms from my yard, but they sure look good, and I think they would partner well with some snails in my yard, too :)))

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I am self taught, and not dead yet. I do have a botanical background, but mostly I bought books, picked mushrooms and tried to figure out what they are. The Peterson guides have a list of 'lookalikes', dangerous or unpalatable mushrooms that look like safe ones. My guideline is, if it has a lookalike that will kill me, I am not eating it.

If you are a 'what the hell, just do it' sort of a person, mushrooming is probably not for you. If you take your time, use your books, do spore prints, and toss any that you are not absolutely sure of, you will be all right.

If you find several different kinds of mushrooms on your field trip, keep them separate. Some of the bad ones are toxic enough to rub off on other shrooms, or little bits could get confused with the good ones. A big flat basket is the best carrying case for foraging. It keeps the mushrooms intact better than a bag.

The first time for ANY unfamiliar mushroom, eat only a small amount--a teaspoon full, maybe. Anybody can have an allergic reaction, and mushrooms can certainly trigger allergies. Wild mushrooms generally should be well cooked, in a an open pan. Some (inky caps and maybe some morels) destroy an enzyme that allows you to process alcohol, so you cannot drink when you eat them, and this effect lasts longer in some folks than others. (I love inky caps, and they are a mushroom that is really easy to identify. So I skip the booze for a couple days.)

Wild mushrooms are good for you--they get you out into the fresh air and sunshine, even if you don't find any for dinner.

sparrowgrass
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Now that we've gone through the requisite dire warnings and prophecies of doom, would anyone care to speculate on an ID?

Definitely not porcini. :biggrin:

Who cares how time advances? I am drinking ale today. -- Edgar Allan Poe

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