Mushrooms from the garden

[ponytug]

It's the "all over" that is the danger!

NB

I have "tried" some other "edible" wild mushrooms.
Most of them taste a lot like DIRT.

As mentioned in the OP. Why bother?

You might try a morel some time. Even store bought dried they are, at least to me, pretty tasty.

All the best, Peter

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I have grown shiitake in the past. And would never give up the chance to eat some morels, they are delicious. My neighbor across the street is a big mushroom forager. She eats all kinds of stuff. I have heard two mushroom foraging horror stories so I am very wary.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

NC state had a program where they provided the spores for Shiitake's. I cut 125 5 ft length sweet gum trees. FIL, Wife and I drilled inoculated and sealed em all, stacked into 5 ft 4x4 and rows. Then about 6-8 months later we got the blooms. The next blooms we got as much as 60#'s of mushrooms.

Couldn't hardly give them away. Around here folks think of any mushroom cept store bought as toadstools. We ate a lot, froze a lot and powdered a lot. Added to soups and such they were good.

I had a morel looking one pop up where I had cut down a black walnut last year. Was sooooo tempted to try it. It was about the time several experienced morel hunters got sick and or died. I couldn't bring myself to try it.

BUT if you want to grow your own, Forestry and Field has all the supplies and spore types you would need to get started.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

WOW!! Yeah, 125 logs will grow A LOT of Shiitake. You need to get really creative to use that many.

 

[newbury]

Story about mushrooms
When I first started working at the Army Lab in 1975 there was a young researcher there who had been a refugee from Hungary. Now the lab is at Ft. Belvoir, Va. an ideal climate for mushrooms, and it had about 2 acres of well maintained lawn. He would pick mushrooms in the morning, then cook them for lunch in the lab. This went on until someone pointed out they maintain the lawn with plenty of chemicals.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

...noli facere...

I delivered morning newspapers as a boy and would read the front page headlines and stories as I folded and tucked the newspapers for delivery.

Headline: Family of 6 Dies From Foraged Poison Mushrooms

55 years later, the story is still fresh in my head when someone talks of eating wild mushrooms...

Good Luck!

About 10 years ago after retirement my wife and I sitting on our front porch drinking iced tea and she brings out a large salad for us. It was fantastic and had everything...except mushrooms.
We had lots of rain and I saw some in the yard so I got my mushroom book and one the book had pictured said very delicious with almond flavor, so I picked it. It was delicious so I cut it up putting in salad. I tried coaxing wife to try it but she refused.
All was well for about half an hour then I felt weird. Dizzy and disoriented, finally about to collapse. Wife said go outside and force vomit which I did. I had just enough presence of mind to put that same type mushroom in a zip lock bag as she called 911.
We live close to a rescue squad, ambulance was there in minutes. I took sample and a 5 gallon bucket with me because I couldn't stop vomiting.
At the hospital I gave them sample to analyze before I passed out. A nurse came by for me to sign a Do Not Resuscitate form. There was a restroom nearby and wife helped me there, continuous regurgitation.
I asked about the mushroom sample and they said the almond flavor was cyanide and it contained "every poison known to man and then some". Apparently it wasn't my time to go and I credit my wife having me vomit.
Back home I looked at the mushroom book again. In small print it said do NOT confuse this mushroom with the deadly ******!
To this day my wife won't eat a mushroom and used to love them because it reminds her of the day she almost lost her husband.

 

[newbury]

Forestry and Field

Are you sure you didn't mean Field and Forest?

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Yes that was it, went by memory, the mind is a terrible thing to waste.

 

[Jstpssng]

I have a couple of good mushroom ID books and spend time looking at mushrooms saying "I think this is OK."
I only eat 2 wild species though; chantrelles, and Bear's Paw. i spent several years looking at the former, then asked a friend who has eaten them all of his life.You can hear all sorts of generalizations such as "if it grows on a hardwood log" So I will pass on the one rule I'm sure of; if it comes in a can it's safe to eat." I take that one step further and will only eat 'shrooms from the USA.

 

[5030]

Just Morrels here, under our pine trees and not many get picked anyway. SE Michigan is big Morrell country.