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This page provides tips (some slightly humorous) and advice for people who are just starting to get interested in the world of fungi. If you've never found anything as amazing as the thing on the right there, with your own eyes and your own eyes, the world of fungi is your chance. We even offer articles that you can have your loved ones read, in order to explain your fascination.
If you hope to eat what you collect, the best way of staying out of the emergency room - - or the morgue - - is to collect with an experienced mushroom hunter, and use a reliable field guide. The best way to find experienced local mushroomers is to get in touch with your local mushroom club(s). And you can find yourself a good field guide (or two, or three) right here on the Mushroom the Journal website.
Eating is not the only reason to be interested in fungi, of course. Fungi are beautiful in their own right, and they give you an excuse for tricky your lazy body into healthy walks in the woods, breathing the fresh air. They have many forms and colors that you will not be familiar with if all you know are those solid white button mushrooms from the store. Learning them and finding them in the wild will astound you in ways that you have never experienced before. One woman, attending a club meeting for the first time, said afterwards "Now I know: if it looks like it came from outer space, it's a mushroom."
| Dos and Don'ts Don't put mushrooms into plastic bags. Plastic bags condense moisture inside them and this will rot your mushrooms very quickly. To prevent decay, carry your mushrooms in individual paper or wax paper sandwich bags, loose in a basket, or in twists or newspaper, wax paper, or aluminum foil. On a sweltering day, mushrooms will survive better in a cooler.Don't get lost. Do take along a whistle and a compass to use when you get lost. Some people also use the whistle as a mushroom call... Do join a mushroom club and take advantage of the willingness of more experienced mushroomers to share advice and information. To find the mushroom club nearest you, search our national listing of mushroom clubs. Don't ask successful mushroomers to pinpoint where they found their morels. Do ask successful mushroomers about the habitat and elevation where they found their morels. Then get out the maps. Don't worry about how you pronounce the scientific names of the mushrooms. Those names are Latin, and are pronounced differently by
Don't ever serve mushrooms raw - - some people will have allergic reactions. For example, raw morels will send many people to the emergency room. The common button mushroom seems to be an exception, but why take chances? |
Advice for You When Mushroom the Journal asked experienced mushroomers what advice they would give the beginning mushroom hunter, the top five items were:
Look for specific edible mushrooms. When you go berrying, you collect blueberries or blackberries. You don't pick every berry in sight, mix them in a bag, and then expect some 'expert' to tell you which are edible.The experienced mushroomers also recommended: Walt Sturgeon If you wouldn't buy it in a grocery store because of its condition, don't eat it from the wild. Nancy Weber Mycology is not easy. You don't start with any guideposts. A birdwatcher starts out knowing a sparrow from a duck, but a beginning mycologist doesn't know a bolete from a clavaria. Moselio Schachter Go mushrooming as often as possible. Every day if possible. If not, then every other day. If that's not possible, then at least once a week. John Cage Every moment, think steadily - - as a Roman and as a human being - - to do what you have in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feelings of affection and freedom and justice; and give yourself relief from all other thoughts. And you will give yourself relief by laying aside all carelessnes, and hypocrisy, and conceit, and discontent with the portion that has been given to you. And so, performing every action as if it were your last, you will see how few the things are, which if a person lays hold of them, their life flows on in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Don't poach on my patches. David Arora |
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