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gulfporter

gulfporter

On 2/28/2019 at 11:15 AM, gfweb said:

And herein lies my fear of inexpert foragers. Its one thing if the chef or sous does it.  I kinda trust that.

 

Another thing entirely if they buy the stuff from some guy, out of the trunk of his car.

 

If nobody died, chances are that this never would've been detected...people get sick all the time.  You feel lousy and then you feel better, nobody does tests to find the kidney or liver damage, and you figure it was just a bad mussel.

 

I feel the opposite....foraging by chefs is relatively new and many of the chefs are young and from non-agrarian backgrounds.  The guy selling out of his car may (and I say, may) be a seasoned mushroom picker for decades and more knowledgeable than a recent culinary school grad.  

 

As kids we were sent to the nearby hills and culm dumps (coal mine leavings) to pick mushrooms.  Before going home with them we always stopped at a neighbor's house where "Aunt Annie" would inspect them.  While she rarely found a reject, it was part of our routine.  Only exception was if my Dad was with us as he was also well-versed in mushroom identification.  They didn't refer to any books to ID, they just knew.  No mushroom-related deaths in our family 😄

gulfporter

gulfporter

On 2/28/2019 at 11:15 AM, gfweb said:

And herein lies my fear of inexpert foragers. Its one thing if the chef or sous does it.  I kinda trust that.

 

Another thing entirely if they buy the stuff from some guy, out of the trunk of his car.

 

If nobody died, chances are that this never would've been detected...people get sick all the time.  You feel lousy and then you feel better, nobody does tests to find the kidney or liver damage, and you figure it was just a bad mussel.

 

I feel the opposite....foraging by chefs is relatively new and many of the chefs are young and from non-agrarian backgrounds.  The guy selling out of his car may (and I say, may) be a seasoned mushroom picker for decades and more knowledgeable than a recent culinary school grad.  

 

As kids we were sent to the nearby hills and culm dumps (coal mine leavings) to pick mushrooms.  Before going home with them we always stopped at a neighbor's house where "Aunt Annie" would inspect them.  While she rarely found a reject, it was part of our routine.  Only exception was if my Dad was with us as he was also well-versed in mushroom identification.  

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