# Mushroom hunting



## tonedef (Mar 17, 2013)

Are there any big shroom stories out there .i went this past weekend no luck


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## Tribal Warlord Thug (Jan 27, 2009)

startin' to pop up.......:yummy:


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

I've been checking every few days. Still no luck.
In 2011, my best day was 4/24
In 2012, my best day was 4/21

I'm glad to hear that someone is starting to see some. I can't wait!


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## cedarguy (Nov 19, 2012)

One of my guys at work went over the weekend and found 30 small greys. I havent heard of any lagre numbers or yellow ones yet.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

AAARRGGHH I can taste those two. It has been a few years since we had a good year and picked a lot of morels, still too early here. Have been rationing out the frozen and dry ones for a long time now, I LOVE morels:factor10:


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## Tribal Warlord Thug (Jan 27, 2009)

mmmmmmm.............


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## Tribal Warlord Thug (Jan 27, 2009)

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.................


















:yummy:


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

I came home today when it was time for my granddaughter to get off the bus. took us 2 hours, but we found 12. Brought them home, cleaned them and cooked 'em up. delicious!


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

MORELS! 
Kinda
Wild mushrooms can be really dangerous so identifying over the internet is not recommended by me. These are ptychoverpa (or just verpa) bohemica, they are not true morels but taste just like them, I have eaten many at once and felt great but I always caution others to be careful.


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## tonedef (Mar 17, 2013)

Where I'm from there called pecker heads we have always harvested them


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

That's funny because Verpa in Latin is another word for penis
There are reports of certain people getting sick but what else is new. I tell people to always cook them (like any morel), and take it easy the first time for sure.
Drying mushrooms can also reduce some irritating substances and sometimes improves flavour, it is also easy and good way to store them.

There are tons by the look of things but I am soooo busy and S.O is away so I will get as many as I can, just found them today and already ate some


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## cazetofamo (Mar 18, 2012)

is there any information that anyof you can give me on the topics of mushroom ID, hunting as you so put it, and preperation for safely consuming???


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

I would say get a couple quality field guides and always err on the side of caution. 
People usually recommend finding people with experience in your area but that can give mixed results so double check. 
Online info is great for fact checking.
Many areas have mushroom hunting groups or mycological societies that go on outings.


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## cazetofamo (Mar 18, 2012)

personally, im just gonna look for a few in the woods behind my house, so im not joining any group. also, i was thinking more like pdfs and any little tips yall can find. im trying to keep costs of everything to zero and keep knowledge stored in my computer until i am legally an adult


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

If that is the case you could probably get by with online sources like this onehttp://www.mushroomexpert.com/index.html
Should be safe for the basics.
When looking online, especially considering your age be very careful what you get into, probably half the info out there is about the psychoactive effects of mushrooms rather than the safe ones. And when people tell you that the hallucinogenic ones are safe, they are not.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

cazeto, First get a couple good mushroom books and read them. Then go find someone that has been mushroom hunting for years. Personally, I don't trust my life to a picture. I don't pick many kinds of mushrooms because I only pick the ones an experienced hunter has shown me.

I was camping alongside the road once and stumbled into a patch of puffballs about fifteen feet across. I ate mushrooms for a few days that time.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Not quite wild but here's some we'll be eating in a few days....


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

On the subject of learning to ID them. The most important thing to understand is how similar different fungi can look. Find information on how to correctly dissect and identify all the parts of fungi. Once you understand this you'll be able to use a guide correctly. If you're with an old time mushroom hunter and they can't point out to you the different parts of fungi they are not safe to listen to. I don't care what they call the parts, they don't need to know the correct latin etc. But they must know about them and how they differ from fungi to fungi.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

I need to find someone to show me more. The guy that taught me only found peckerheads and morels at that time. So, that's the 2 kind I hunt for the past 10 years. I'm not risking making anyone sick. 
Even after that guy showed me, I still went home and looked on google to see if there are lookalikes that are poison.
I think with something like this, it's just better to check and check again to be sure.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

jeff47041, I agree completely, multiple sources of info. 
If you get a good field guide it should show you how to tell the difference, what species are similar, and if there are poisonous look-alikes.
If you encounter a large quantity of mushrooms, or ones that grow regularly look them up. There are plenty of mushrooms that are edible but the quantity just doesn't justify the labour and risk.
Most areas have a few species that are "easy" to identify and are plentiful enough to make it worth it. Shaggy manes, Boletes or leccinum, oyster mushrooms are some that come to mind.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

To give you an idea of how similar they can all look. Have a look at Agaricus xanthodermus on google images, this is a poisonous Australian field mushroom. eaten often by people who think they are horse mushrooms. On a farm I used to own we had a ring if these 50 yards across and a yard wide. We would catch people picking them thinking they have found the worlds most amazing mushroom horde.... I dare say a few people got pretty sick as very few of them listened to us. They were trespassing of course. We put signs on gates explaining but it did no good, they just thought we were trying to keep them to ourselves... Never quite understood why they thought they could help themselves to our fungi anyway...lol.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Agaricus is a tough one, they all look tasty but some are decidedly not.
To get the tricky ones you get into "staining", spore-printing, microscopes, etc.
It can be fun, ptychoverpa bohemica that I just picked for instance, has huge spores (relatively).


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

cowboyhermit said:


> Agaricus is a tough one, they all look tasty but some are decidedly not.
> To get the tricky ones you get into "staining", spore-printing, microscopes, etc.
> It can be fun, ptychoverpa bohemica that I just picked for instance, has huge spores (relatively).


We don't have many edibles here in Australia. People most commonly collect Agaricus species... I know what I'm doing and I'm not going to take a chance, too many unidentified species here (the boffins are still trying to map them).

....just read that and what I should have said was... "..other than funny little fungi the Bikies collect most people commonly..."


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Considering how long they have been studying fungi it is crazy how unsettled the science is, heck they just re-wrote the whole morel family a few years ago


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## Highwater (Mar 22, 2011)

my son and his gf went hunting this past weekend and got about 1 lb. Not a good year around here, apparently.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

cowboyhermit said:


> Considering how long they have been studying fungi it is crazy how unsettled the science is, heck they just re-wrote the whole morel family a few years ago


And they'll rewrite it again if someone gets a grant....

Damn I know two people in Australia that have discovered a new species and they weren't even looking. One proven and one not... the idea that plant/fungi science is all wrapped up here is nuts......... this is a big country and we have a lot yet to discover.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Oldest boy an I wen't out on Saturday, nothin. I thin that late snow we had through a monkey wrench in the works. Not much an any kind a fungus out yet.

Coulda had a truck load a deer poop though.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

err on the side of caution ...

You can say that again ... 

I'll pass on wild shooms ... 

If I can't grow it, I'm not going to pick it. (Twice bitten by the odd one ... )

I'll stay with the buttons I can grow and give a pass on the wild ones... They are temporal!

Lesson learned ...


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

All we pick *Andi be the morels. Otherwise it just be another fungus.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Well, if you like mushrooms and are just worried about eating bad ones I would see if Boletes or Leccinum grow in your area, because they don't have gills (they have spore tubes) they are easy to identify. They also grow in large quantities and taste great, Boletes sell for big $$$. 
In our area (western Canada) there is only one species that is similar that is inedible/poisonous and the difference is not subtle (red pores instead of white).
I can't speak to similar species in other areas.

Shaggy manes are very easy to identify IMO as well and are tasty, and I have picked 5 gallons in 5 minutes


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## cazetofamo (Mar 18, 2012)

i'll try and get a guide for my area, thanks for the advice


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

cowboyhermit said:


> Agaricus is a tough one, they all look tasty but some are decidedly not.
> To get the tricky ones you get into "staining", spore-printing, microscopes, etc.
> It can be fun, ptychoverpa bohemica that I just picked for instance, has huge spores (relatively).





Wellrounded said:


> We don't have many edibles here in Australia. People most commonly collect Agaricus species... I know what I'm doing and I'm not going to take a chance, too many unidentified species here (the boffins are still trying to map them).
> 
> ....just read that and what I should have said was... "..other than funny little fungi the Bikies collect most people commonly..."





cowboyhermit said:


> Well, if you like mushrooms and are just worried about eating bad ones I would see if Boletes or Leccinum grow in your area, because they don't have gills (they have spore tubes) they are easy to identify. They also grow in large quantities and taste great, Boletes sell for big $$$.
> In our area (western Canada) there is only one species that is similar that is inedible/poisonous and the difference is not subtle (red pores instead of white).
> I can't speak to similar species in other areas.
> 
> Shaggy manes are very easy to identify IMO as well and are tasty, and I have picked 5 gallons in 5 minutes


Two choice agaricus species are common here, the meadow and the horse mushroom (which is very large), used to bring them in from walking to deer stands and back. Boletes here I've sampled were edible and that's it. I'm still keeping my eye out for the 'King Bolete' that is reputed to grow here when I'm in the woods, along with some other Suillus and Leccinum.

Rainy Summer weather brings in tons of a Cantherellus species here that is choice, nearly identical to the Golden Chanterelle but not quite the same. Have to watch for copperheads when hunting for that one.

Inky Caps are a choice Coprinus I've found early in the Spring around dead trees, delicate but delicious.

Seems the 'window' for morels here is short most Springs in this area and I've historically been doing other things during that window. I have found them when a friend took me to his spot but I would never return there without him inviting me along. Guess if I ever found me a 'morel spot' of my own I would target them when the time came.


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