Mushrooms

[ChrisGreaves]

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These things are spreading like wild mushrooms!
I suspect that the mountains of sawdust from firewood logs has helped them to spread. They are under my artichoke plants!

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I bent the artichoke stems away to take this photo.

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Here they are, trying to hide in the shade. This image reminds me of a forest glade with mushrooms and alpine flowers in the shade of the towering trees.

Every man and his dog has a web site or a book, or a message for me, basically, don’t eat any mushrooms you don’t know for a fact are edible” and yet to date I have found no-one who is prepared to identify mushrooms.
“More specifically, there are mushrooms in this province that might kill you, so do not eat anything unless you are 100 per cent sure you've identified it correctly.” But how do I get to be 100% sure?

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who is owed a favour by a person who knows their mushrooms.

In the past I have reached out to mushroom experts, but they all are scared to death of giving advice. So many “experts” caution against death, but I have yet to Find an expert who can guide me to 100% certainty of identification.

My mushrooms are quite possibly spored from a house lot near me in Bonavista. Or else the mushrooms in my house lot have arrived with a load of firewood logs from a nearby forest.

I could do what the Holistic medicine people do and literally water-down the mushroom juice until it is about 1:1,000,000 and then gradually reduce the ratio until I feel slightly dizzy or nauseous.

I live frugally, and have an inclination towards self-sufficiency. It bugs the heck out of me to have a 30’ by 10’ plot of mushrooms and not fry them up with onions and pork (or onions and liver, or onions and eggs, or onions and tomatoes)

Please don’t advise me to be careful; I am awash in that advice, and haven’t eaten my own mushrooms for three summers now.

Thanks, Chris

[stuck]

The tone of your post suggests to me that are determined to taste these mushrooms regardless of what anyone says.

In which case, since it won't be practical for me to attend your funeral, I'd like to say now, it's been a pleasure knowing you and conversing with you over many years here in The Lounge. You will be missed.

Ken

[StuartR]

[GeoffW]

The tone of your post suggests to me that are determined to taste these mushrooms regardless of what anyone says.

In which case, since it won't be practical for me to attend your funeral, I'd like to say now, it's been a pleasure knowing you and conversing with you over many years here in The Lounge. You will be missed.

Ken

He was a fun guy.

There's not much room for any others like Chris.

[ChrisGreaves]

The tone of your post suggests to me that are determined to taste these mushrooms regardless of what anyone says.

Ken, you are correct in your analysis of my tone. I am determined to taste these mushrooms (unless some individual can tell me that they are toxic), but NOT regardless of what anyone says.

Our small part of the world is full of fear-mongers who typically shudder, turn away, and say "You won’t catch ME eating wild mushrooms”, and I too will not be caught eating wild mushrooms – unless and until a credible source can give me assurance.

A hundred years ago people in Bonavista went picking wild mushrooms, foraging for food. These outports were visited by one ship every six months, so food-gathering was part of the culture.
Today most everyone buys shrink-wrapped plastic packages freighted from Bakersfield California. I feel sure that you know the equivalent whereever you live.

I am told that there are people who pick mushrooms. I know people who pick berries. I believe that such people exist and are alive right here in Bonavista.
But how to track them down?

I ask everyone everywhere. Two of my neighbours (Kerry and Jennifer) say that Sherry knows her mushrooms, but they don’t have a phone number or an email address. Kerry remembers me pointing out these mushrooms the past two years.

On my way back from Swyers I chatted with Gary and Colin (grass clippings) and they suggested Mark Fudge in the pink shop. Over I go and a lady from Quebec with poor English is asking the sales girl about how to recover deleted images from her smart phone.
Ultimately I ask the sales lady and she hands me an email address. Mark, Gary assures me, knows twenty different kinds of mushrooms. I await Mark’s reply; if any.

This is the third season that I have watched the mushrooms grow. Please credit me with some sense. I have not yet made any effort to eat them, in any form – cooked, diluted or whatever.
I am NOT rushing into this.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who is owed a favour by a person who knows their mushrooms. After reaching out in Bonavista for three seasons I now reach out to Eileen’s Lounge which is a group of people who know people ...
Please don’t advise me to be careful; I am awash in that advice, and haven’t eaten my own mushrooms for three summers now. I am as intelligent as you and have just as much self-control.

I daresay that every member of Eileen's Lounge has no idea of what is or is not toxic. If that's the case then all that members can say is "I's be careful if I were you", and i am already careful.
I was hoping that someone here might know of an expert in mushroom identification.

Please don’t worry about not being practical for you to attend my funeral. There wouldn’t be enough room in the boat for you!
Cheers
Chris

[stuck]

...I am determined to taste these mushrooms (unless some individual can tell me that they are toxic), but NOT regardless of what anyone says.

Our small part of the world is full of fear-mongers who typically shudder, turn away, and say "You won’t catch ME eating wild mushrooms”, and I too will not be caught eating wild mushrooms – unless and until a credible source can give me assurance...

It's not just your part of the world that advises caution over eating wild mushrooms, it's the default here too, and I suspect globally. It's NOT fear-mongering. People die from eating mushrooms they thought were safe, you must get specialist advice.

To which end, a search on:
    newfoundland mycology specialist
found this page:
    http://www.nlmushrooms.ca/

They're not exactly on your doorstep (Torbay appears to be about a 3.5 hour drive from Bonavista) but at least they are on Newfoundland. I urge you to seek advice there.

Otherwise, after we've had a whip round here, where do we send the flowers?

Ken

[GeoffW]

Otherwise, after we've had a whip round here, where do we send the flowers?

... and be careful of what sort of flowers. Preferably not hemlock, oleander or several others.

[StuartR]

... and be careful of what sort of flowers. Preferably not hemlock, oleander or several others.

[ChrisGreaves]

... People die from eating mushrooms they thought were safe, you must get specialist advice.

Hi again, Ken.
Well, yes, I know that people die from eating what they thought were mushrooms. And I understand "100% sure". I was raised in Australia, land of toxic plants, insects, and animals. We had an Oleander shrub AND a Castor Tree in our garden in Gawler, South Australia.
That knowledge is, in part, why I am still alive; years of caution. And after my stay in France, I now "Look Right; Look Left; "Look Right again ; Look Left again".

They're not exactly on your doorstep (Torbay appears to be about a 3.5 hour drive from Bonavista) but at least they are on Newfoundland. I urge you to seek advice there.

yes. Torbay is essentially St John's. We had our own Mycelium specialist right here in Bonavista until a year ago. I spoke with her. She and her husband were raising mushrooms as a substitute for (leather) fabrics. They left to set up closer to a research hub such as can be found in Toronto. This lady, probably an expert on mushrooms like Bonavista has never seen before, would not pronounce on my mushrooms. Such is the level of fear.

My previous communications with web-based groups is that they love to put stuff on their web pages, but will not pronounce unless they see the thing in the soil. That, I think, is why so many groups organize tours on their own turf; they will pronounce on things that they gather and eat.

Otherwise, after we've had a whip round here, where do we send the flowers?

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No need for that. We have flowers here. (This photo was taken at eight yesterday morning, a day of record-breaking temperatures in Bonavista)

My email from two days ago has received a response, a request for more photos of my mushrooms. Since the fellow lives in town I am optimistic that he might drop by.

Like most people I rely heavily on the internet as a source of knowledge. Yet I am aware that practically every web site on composting and vermicomposting stresses that "you cannot {vermi}compost dairy and meat products}", and that this is a lie. After all, what happens when a lactating mammal dies in the forest? Nature's workers break down the animal. Municipal sites are particularly fond of saying that "cat and dog feces will not vermicompost", I suspect that scaremongering lawyers are behind both these mistruths. A third big myth is that "you can't vermicompost on a balcony in Toronto because the worms will all die in the -20c temperatures of winter".
Happily I was able to disprove all these myths with documented web pages. (The worms do die, but only after they have laid a flurry of eggs which DO survive the winter!)

Now I grant you that death-by-fungi is a different matter from rotting-meat-in-soil, but please note that I was not expecting anyone on Eileen's Lounge to have the necessary level of knowledge of fungi to provide dietary advice.
In my first post I wrote "I would appreciate hearing from anyone who is owed a favour by a person who knows their mushrooms.", that is, I am searching - still - for a person who knows this stuff, and in particular knows how to identify mushrooms from first-hand experience.

Cheers, Chris

[BobH]

IIRC, the roots of day lilies are edible, but don't take my word for it. Eat them at your own risk.

[ChrisGreaves]

IIRC, the roots of day lilies are edible, but don't take my word for it. Eat them at your own risk.

Quite so.
Yesterday afternoon my visitors asked if some particular plant was edible. I responded that everything was edible ...
Well, yes, but is it toxic? I parried with "Everything is toxic if you eat enough of it".
<pause for reflection> then-
"Do you eat it?"
Cheers, Chris