Anybody pick and eat wild mushrooms?

CJhaughey

But before all ye smartass hippies reply with "ya the spacie ones are great!" I mean only edible mushies not psychoactive one!!
I personally like chanterelles and ceps anyone else?

tSubh Dearg

Chanterelles are delicious. I've picked them a couple of times with my grandfather who lives in a forest. They're lovely sauted in a little butter.

But you have to be so careful when picking mushrooms yourself, check them out in a book and if you are in anyway in doubt about them. DON'T eat them!

I wish we had the system that the French do, where you can take your mushrooms that you've picked to the local chemist and he will tell you which ones are edible.

Tar.Aldarion

i have picked many a thousand mushroom and i have never even tasted one.just do it to give them to the family really.

rubadub

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

i have picked many a thousand mushroom and i have never even tasted one.just do it to give them to the family really.

So the family are dropping like flies and you have yet to find one you would taste yourself

seriously though, mushrooms that kill are very rare. There is a site about growing shrooms (gourmet, medicinal and ehmmm, extra medicinal)
They have an identification forum where you post pics and the experts tell you what they are. They have tips on where to look for specific shrooms. You should always put some shrooms aside uncooked, so if you do have a reaction you can take them to the hospital for identification.

www.shroomery.org

Interestingly the fly agaric, the "toadstool" the big red one with white spots in fairytales, is hallucinogenic and posionous in large amounts. The cure for it is the drug containted in deadly nightshade! And vice versa, cure for nightshade is the fly agaric.

Tar.Aldarion

it's pretty obvious,even to me(and i have never eaten a mushroom),which are good and which are bad.and which are ermm extra medicinal

Sin scéal eile

Sorry to drag this thread up out of the grave, but I thought it better than starting a new one.

I went collecting mushrooms at the weekend here in Germany, found loads of ceps, Birch Bolete, Slippery Jacks and Bay Boletes and I was just wondering, what's the mushroom situation in Ireland, is there a lot of mushrooms around, anyone have any tips where they can be found (esp. around the Sligo area).

I'd just like to add, as the original poster, I'm asking about edible ones and not psychoactive ones

CJhaughey

I can't speak for Sligo but there are lots of field mushrooms here now and more appearing all the time!

Alun

Was over in Clare at the w/e and there were plenty of field mushrooms to be seen in the fields around the Burren too.

Sin scéal eile

Mushroom collecting seems to be generally unheard of in Ireland, whereas here in Germany everyone does it, I love it when this time of year comes round again, there's nothing more tastier than freshly picked musrooms.

Alun

Well in Germany, as well as some other European countries, you can take any mushrooms you pick to the local Apothek (Pharmacist) where they can verify them for you, in fact I believe they're required by law to have at least one person on their staff who is trained to do this. I can't imagine anything like that happening here somehow.

Sin scéal eile

Alun wrote:

Well in Germany, as well as some other European countries, you can take any mushrooms you pick to the local Apothek (Pharmacist) where they can verify them for you,

I wasn't aware of that, that's good to know as I don't have an exstenive knowledge of mushrooms, I know about 5 types (4 of which I'm 100% sure of - I only ever collect the 5th species when my hubby is there to verify them) I don't go by what I see in books, as very often you find some mushrooms that look similar to thos in the books, but in fact are a totally different species altogether.

Blub2k4

Sin sc&#233 wrote: »

Mushroom collecting seems to be generally unheard of in Ireland, whereas here in Germany everyone does it, I love it when this time of year comes round again, there's nothing more tastier than freshly picked musrooms.

I used to do it as a child with my grandmother when we went out to check the cattle in the morning, I wouldn't say it was unheard of in Ireland just that it is becoming lost with modernisation.