Calling all mycophiles 🍄

[Guybrush]

Hey you fun guys!

Yesterday, we went to a lake to have a swim and coincidentally, we found some edible mushrooms in the area.

Unfortunately, the shrooms came real early this year and snails and other crawlies had already gotten to these, but sometimes you can still salvage parts of them.

We pick toadstools every autumn and I figure maybe some of you guys do as well? I thought a thread might be fun.

So here are some of the things we found yesterday:


Boletus edulis



One of those we always search for, this is one of our favorites. It might be called a Penny bun in English? We call them rock shrooms. Supposedly, it's the only fungi you can eat raw here, although we're of the opinion that eating fungi raw is generally a nono.


Cantharellus cibarius



The golden chanterelle is another favorite, sometimes referred to as forest gold here.

It's also one of the most common fungi for people to pick as it's easy to recognize, seldom appear alone and the risk of confusing it with something poisonous is relatively tiny.


Hydnum rufescens



We call this yellow reddish spine-shroom due to the soft spines on the spore producing underbelly. This is yet another favorite with Norwegians, though maybe not quite as highly prized as the two above. Still very nice.


Suillus variegatus



We call this sandshroom. Wikipedia says it's called Velvet bolete in english. This is another good one for eating, although most people don't seem to pick it here.

It's often more common than the more prized shrooms people look for so it's a good one to know.


Russula sp.



This is a small, edible fungi of the genus Russula. Beginners usually stay away from these sort of mushrooms because they can be hard to pinpoint to species and can, due to their general shape and white gills, be confused with deadly poisonous Amanitas.

The usual way to check if what you got is good for eating is to have a little nibble of the raw shroom. If it tastes very spicy/peppery, it's best to avoid.

We ate some Russulas last year, but to be honest, I'm not sure they're worth it. At least I don't rank them highly in terms of taste.

But they're often very pretty and less bug-eaten than other shrooms.


So are you a mycophile? Which ones do you pick?

Share a picture of your toadstool!

[degrassi.knoll]

The area I live in produces an extraordinary variety of mushies throughout the year, and my stepdad is an absolute expert on hunting and identifying them - and he is particularly at cooking with them. Here are some lovely shots from last winter:

Chicken of the Woods - Laetiporus






Pigs Ear - Gomphus clavatus

[Guybrush]

Ooh, very interesting!

I'd guess that's Laetiporus sulphuraeus which we also have here. It's not a popular fungi for eating here, but I might try it if you'd recommend it. Any tips in that regard?

I've never seen anything looking like your Pig's Ear here. Very cool!

This was the single best find of last year. A big penny bun / rock shroom. Yes, they do get bigger, but this one didn't have a scratch on it. Beautiful!

[DJChameleon]

Cantharellus cibarius



The golden chanterelle is another favorite, sometimes referred to as forest gold here.

It's also one of the most common fungi for people to pick as it's easy to recognize, seldom appear alone and the risk of confusing it with something poisonous is relatively tiny.

Idk jack shit about mushrooms but I was always under the impression to stay away from colorful mushrooms. I would never touch a mushroom out in the wild since I know nothing about them and don't wanna get poisoned or high unknowingly.

[Lexi Darling]

Ooh, this thread is right up my alley!

I first became fascinated by fungi a few years ago when I discovered this guy's Youtube channel. He uses a phenomenon called biosonification which involves taking organic material and hooking it up to a synthesizer to use the innate patterns and frequencies in the living tissue to control the parameters of the synth. It just so happens that mushrooms make really good organic material to do this. I've always wanted to do this myself, but modular synthesizers are expensive.

Here's a performance by his mushrooms...

And here's a very nerdy video of him going through his setup.

This stuff absolutely mesmerizes me, it's like techno-witchcraft and I love it.

[degrassi.knoll]

^ very cool

Reminds me of an artist that somehow "biosonified" a molding film reel, then paired the audio with the video from the damaged film. Absolutely ethereal.

[Guybrush]

Weird what some people think of 🙂 and cool!

Idk jack shit about mushrooms but I was always under the impression to stay away from colorful mushrooms. I would never touch a mushroom out in the wild since I know nothing about them and don't wanna get poisoned or high unknowingly.

AFAIK, color is a poor indicator of how poisonous a mushroom is. There's the red Fly Amanita and a red Russula, but at least the most poisonous shrooms here that cause the most trouble are a little more anonymous, like the deadly webcap.

I would assume the reason for the advice is the Fly Amanita. I took this picture of one last year:



So pretty!

Eating it will likely make you throw up and have a trip, but won't kill you. Its cousin Amanita virosa (Destroying Angel) certainly can, though.

They're very common here, so I took this pic a couple of weeks ago.



I believe it's the cause of most shroom related poisonings in Norway. I think the most common problem is some immigrants mistaking the very young ones for delicious Agaricus fungi, even though Agaricus have darker gills.

[DJChameleon]

I believe it's the cause of most shroom related poisonings in Norway.

The fact that this sentence exists is why I just choose to steer clear unless I go mushroom picking with someone clearly more knowledgeable than me but even then I'm still a bit cautious.

[Guybrush]

The fact that this sentence exists is why I just choose to steer clear unless I go mushroom picking with someone clearly more knowledgeable than me but even then I'm still a bit cautious.

I understand you completely. In my uni courses, mycology was taught by two professors. One of them came into biology from being doctor who worked with and was interested in fungi poisonings, so there was a lot of focus on that in the curriculum. I had some health related anxieties back then and was basically just scared of shrooms, particularly if they were picked by someone else.

I don't have those exaggerated anxieties anymore, but a little bit isn't a bad thing to have. For example, we're two biologists picking shrooms. I think we're able to identify Russulas from Amanitas. Yet, I was still a little worried as I was eating those Russulas last year. The worrying makes me check and double check again and that's probably a good thing 🙂

[degrassi.knoll]

A woman in Australia I believe recently was charged with murder for doctoring the meals of her ex husband, mother-in-law, and someone else while having brunch at a restaurant with Destroying Angel (I've also heard it referred to as Deathcap, Angel of Death, Dark Angel, etc). She literally sprinkled them on the meal and was like "actually I'm not hungry" and they were all three dead within the week!

[Guybrush]

^Holy shit, that's cold. And kinda clever too.

Some Amanitas are of course edible. Some years ago, we found lots of beautiful Amanita rubescens (called Blushers in english?) which are edible after cooking and probably good. Here's a picture I took.



But even though we knew what it was, we basically noped it for fear of confusing it with A. pantherina (Panther cap).

We're probably going picking tomorrow and if we see some, I'll consider grabbing it this time.. especially if I can get a professional controller to look at it.

[FETCHER.]

Has anyone grown their own? I don't feel confident in picking wild mushrooms, I would definitely end up in hospital.

[Guybrush]

Has anyone grown their own? I don't feel confident in picking wild mushrooms, I would definitely end up in hospital.

I haven't tried it myself, but one of our friends have tried just buying a kit for growing shiitake or some other fungus popular in Asian cuisine and said it was real simple.

I think you just set it on the kitchen counter and wait basically, perhaps watering it now and then.

[FETCHER.]

That is interesting. This thread might give me the nudge to try growing some.

I'll try my best to remember and take pictures to share from my walks as well. It would be cool to see if everyone gets similar ones or not.

[Lexi Darling]

I have a pretty crazy story about me growing mushrooms actually. Its a long'un and I have to get started on dinner now so watch this space.