Is this mushroom edible?

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Hi Roger, I've been collecting and eating wild mushrooms for years, don't recognise that one as being one of the half dozen or so that I am familiar with that are good to eat.

Don't know what one it is, I tend to focus on the few types that are good to eat and the few that will kill you, and not bother with the several thousand others inbetween :lol:

Reminds me though, must get out and see what's around on my local patch !

Cheers, Paul
 
I concur with paulm.

If in doubt do not eat it.

I collect and eat a small number of mushroom species (Puffball, Parasol, Chicken of the woods, Chanterelle, Ink Cap spring to mind - I think there are a couple of others). They are all unambiguously identifiable by obvious features. The rest I leave well alone.

You could do worse than get a copy of "The Easy Edible Mushroom Guide", by David Pegler [ISBN: 1 84510 631 7]. He describes the edible ones, the ones that you might pick by mistake, and the poisonous ones (complete with gruesome details of their biological effects).

Good luck, and good eating.......
 
I never eat mushrooms unless they come in a packet with Tesco or Sainsbury's on - The day I dont see the packet I know my missus is up to something!! :mrgreen:
 
We are very lucky this side, because when we want to know if fungi are edible we take them to the local pharmacy and they tell us. They are all trained in what you can and what you can't eat.

There are some lovely, tasty fungi out there that we British are told that if it don't come in a supermarket pack then you can't eat it.

When we lived just outside Stroud we used to occasionally get some HUGE pufff balls in the field just outside the garden. They are a cross between a white mushroom and a savoury marshmallow when they are sliced and fried in butter. One I got took me a week to eat in 3/4" slices for my breakfasts. I haven't seen them here, YET!

Giantpuffball.jpg


Not sure if that's one of them because there were several. Wonderful stuff and most people see them and just kick them around like footballs 'cause that's their size. Every bit is edible, but it can cause some slight stomatch upsets in some people, but not serious at all. Wonderful eating :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
Unless you are sure of its identification then do not eat it. Some species can be difficult to distinguish and there are some deadly species that closely resemble edible types.

Although a lot of species aren't harmful many are said to be tasteless or unappetising. Also, several of the poisonous varieties actually contain narcotic type chemicals that won't actually kill you but will make you very sick or badly disrupt your body chemistry (including hallucinogenic effects).

After university I worked for 8 years as a taxonomist (specialising in tropical south-east Asian ferns) at Kew Gardens Herbarium and was alongside the mycologists that very regularly called on to rapidly identify fungal fruiting bodies that people had ingested and were suffering from the after effects. So be careful.

Misterfish
 
A couple of years ago there were two Chinese ladies died here on the Island because they misidentified local mushrooms/toadstools.
Most fungi would be edible, the trick is surviving the eating.
 
Jonzjob":1rrz7sfh said:
The Hygrocybe conica is the Conical wax cap and not recomended for eating. The Blackening wax cap is edible, but the Latin is Hygrocyb nigrescens. So the names don't go together..

Tricky init :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

They are both now considered the same species.
 
Think I'll stick to my favourites

IMG-20110827-00003.jpg


Penny buns (ceps or porcini if you're French or Italian !), Orange Birch Boletes and Oyster mushrooms :D

More of the same minus the Oysters

IMG00073-20101009-1104.jpg


Other favourites are Chanterelles and Giant Puffballs when I can find them and occasionally Chicken of the Woods and Cauliflower Fungus and sometimes Bay Boletes too.

Some of them we eat fresh, many we dry and store and use in pasta sauces and casseroles for the rest of the year, even tastier dried for some reason, must concentrate the flavours =P~ :D

Still to get out this season though.

Cheers, Paul
 

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