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Cardiovorax posted:Stinging nettles are perfectly edible once you boil them, which completely denatures the irritant their hairs contain. It's a fairly popular type of herbal tea where I live, you can buy it in most grocery stores. I made a really good nettle soup last year with nettles we picked from the area. The prep is more hazardous and it doesn't really taste better than comparable greens but it's kind of a fun afternoon activity. Plus I had just been zapped by some while on a trail run the week prior so it was nice and therapeutic.
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# ? Apr 18, 2021 02:36 |
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elise the great posted:Speaking of boiling and discarding the water, any of y’all eat amanita muscaria? It’s a constant topic of debate in all my mushie groups— some folks feel like their ease of positive ID + clear process for safe prep make them an ideal beginner’s pick, while others insist that you can mess up the boiling process too easily. Asserting that a species that’s unsafe until prepped is beginner appropriate is absolute horseshit. Edit- the simplicity of the prep is kind of irrelevant, you’re also expecting people new to the hobby to never forget there’s one amanita in that basket of chanterelles, and that there’s immediately an exception to ‘never mix food and dangerous shrooms when picking ‘ the yeti fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Mar 1, 2021 |
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Also, A. Muscaria contains muscimol which is a deliriant hallucinogen, so please don't suggest newbies treat it as a food. (Doubly so in Louisiana, where it's illegal to do so.)
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I’m kinda in the middle myself— amanita is pretty easy to identify in a basket of pretty much anything else, and if you DO eat it without prepping it right, you aren’t gonna die or suffer major organ damage, just poo poo a lot and hallucinate. It’s a bad time but a good lesson. That said, I’ve drifted closer to the opposite school of thought as I’ve seen the dumb fuckin questions people ask in those groups. Endless blurry brown yard mushrooms with the caption ARE THESE MORELS
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There are tonnes of A. muscaria around here in the right season but they almost always seem to be horribly worm-eaten. Can't say I've been too tempted to pick them when we have so many nice hedgehog mushrooms, puffballs and porcini around. Shame the chanterelle haul was a bit disappointing last season. All winter I've been missing the mushrooms and looking forward to spring, but now we've had a big thaw and loads of rain and I miss skiing and wish the snow would come back for another month or two. Bare ground in March just looks weird, and I haven't even spotted any friendly fungi yet.
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elise the great posted:That said, I’ve drifted closer to the opposite school of thought as I’ve seen the dumb fuckin questions people ask in those groups. Endless blurry brown yard mushrooms with the caption ARE THESE MORELS Right that’s tangential to my point, beginners by definition are missing some or all of the mental mapping and vocabulary that makes obvious things obvious to more experienced hobbyists—and so giving them a ‘if you do this wrong or forget or cross contaminate you’ll have an awful time and miss work a day or two’ option is pretty unfair. Leave that poo poo to idiots like me who want to know if lactofermentation makes local russulas safe ![]()
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There’s a spot near me with the hugest russula brevipes population I’ve ever seen, I wish I could infect it with lobster somehow. As it is I’m seriously considering eating the fuckers as-is, if I can find some that aren’t more worm than mushroom. What kinds of russies y’all grow over there?
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Prop Wash posted:I made a really good nettle soup last year with nettles we picked from the area. The prep is more hazardous and it doesn't really taste better than comparable greens but it's kind of a fun afternoon activity. Plus I had just been zapped by some while on a trail run the week prior so it was nice and therapeutic. elise the great posted:There’s a spot near me with the hugest russula brevipes population I’ve ever seen, I wish I could infect it with lobster somehow. As it is I’m seriously considering eating the fuckers as-is, if I can find some that aren’t more worm than mushroom. What kinds of russies y’all grow over there?
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elise the great posted:There’s a spot near me with the hugest russula brevipes population I’ve ever seen, I wish I could infect it with lobster somehow. As it is I’m seriously considering eating the fuckers as-is, if I can find some that aren’t more worm than mushroom. What kinds of russies y’all grow over there? I saw some mushroomers say you can - just bring a lobster you find somewhere else over to that population and shake it/cut the gills, etc over what you want to infect. Never tried it myself but it makes sense. I wouldnt transport anything too far though.
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Seems like a bad habit to get into, artificially spreading edible parasites through a wild population just because you prefer them over the equally edible host.
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If it helps, lobster is endemic here, I wouldn’t be introducing it to a foreign environment. I’ve been watching the spot for a few years in hopes that it will convert, like a couple of other spots I’ve haunted. Probably a terrible idea, but a girl can dream!
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Yeah, but there's still an ecological balance to it. Just a reminder. You probably wouldn't cause an localized extinction of Brevipes shrooms just by spreading the parasite to one more patch, but doing that kind of thing does have consequences.
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elise the great posted:What kinds of russies y’all grow over there? Red ones ![]() In seriousness I’ve found brevipes (quite locally abundant) green quilted (virescens I think, also locally abundant), green ones that I’m reasonably sure are not green quilted, myriad physically distinct red and purple ones that I never managed ID on, and a few brilliant yellow ones that might have been claroflava. I’m told xerampelina can be found here but I haven’t located one yet.
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Stinging nettles are ridiculously cool and should be eaten all the time, also making nettle cordage is fun. They can also be used to make leafu: http://www.plantfoods.org/demos/leafu/index.html But since this is the mushroom thread, a muscaria anecdote. It's really common here but I wasn't convinced about eating it (there are definitely better psychoactive mushrooms around). However I heard that shamans in some parts of the world, for example Siberia, have used it by baking in the oven and then squeezing out the juice for tea. I tried this at a really low dose and felt the urge to dance after a while.
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Not many shrooms out in NC at the moment but I got a new lens and wanted to try it out. There were still a few bracket mushrooms out with really neat, furry teeth.![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
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![]() I see mushrooms like these on fallen trees all over the place here (SF Bay Area), anyone know what kind they are? I assume they're rather poisonous
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The Glumslinger posted:
Most likely turkey tails (Trametes versicolor). There's another similar looking species appropriately called false turkey tails. If the underside has pores, it's turkey tails. They're one of the most hardy fungi I see - they grow throughout the winter even. They're not poisonous - some people make a tincture out of them to cure various ailments. I can't say how effective it is.
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Wikipedia says that while there is an effective compound to be found in these mushrooms, it can have major side effects, ranging from simple diarrhea to "darkened fingernails," which I am not even sure what could cause that, but it sounds like the reason for it is probably bad.
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The Glumslinger posted:
Looks like Turkey Tail, but here is the test, source https://www.mushroomexpert.com/trametes_versicolor.html Totally True Turkey Tail Test 1) Is the pore surface a real pore surface? Like, can you see actual pores? Yes: Continue. No: See Stereum ostrea and other crust fungi. 2) Squint real hard. Would you say there are about 1–3 pores per millimeter (which would make them fairly easy to see), or about 3–8 pores per millimeter (which would make them very tiny)? 3–8 per mm: Continue. 1–3 per mm: See several other species of Trametes. 3) Is the cap conspicuously fuzzy, velvety, or finely hairy (use a magnifying glass or rub it with your thumb)? Yes: Continue. No: See several other species of Trametes. 4) Is the fresh cap whitish to grayish? Yes: See Trametes hirsuta. No: Continue. 5) Does the cap lack starkly contrasting color zones (are the zones merely textural, or do they represent subtle shades of the same color)? Yes: See Trametes pubescens. No: Continue. 6) Is the fresh mushroom rigid and hard, or thin and flexible? Rigid and hard: See Trametes ochracea. Thin and flexible: Totally True Turkey Tail.
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Mushrooms in the news: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-australians-wild-mushrooms-deathcap-amanita.amp
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Been making a bucket "log" of straw for some oysters Been heaps of fun and way quicker than I expected the first week of spawn to bulk ![]() And this morning I birthed it a little early because I was worried about contamination, no massive spots so I'm sure it will be fine ![]()
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Oh nice keep us posted!
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Well Some local fauna decided to "help out" and pecked apart my straw log No big deal just spread it over the wood chips that were there ![]() Oh well, carrying on
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Yeah, bad time of year to have a convenient ball of nesting material just sitting in your garden.
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Thought I might get Lucky But this bugger is around ![]() Still, I'm sure something might happen at some point Fwiw I have a couple jars of wine caps going well ![]() Lessons learnt from the straw for sure
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Trying to make a passive humidity chamber under the house from some random rear end junk I have lying around![]() Got a drip going from a resovoir and some holes for air exchange Hopefully should work, but I might add some more wicking material Otherwise My wine caps continue well and I'm pasturising some worm castings and hay to make some cakes tomorrow ![]()
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Its morel season, everyone. Post your finds so I can be jealous.
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Dik Hz posted:Its morel season, everyone. Post your finds so I can be jealous. I've heard of people hunting previous burns is this a good strategy or what would you do
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Not a bad strategy. You also want well drained soil such as next to creeks/rivers or other places. You really have to get out there a lot and look. Eventually you'll trip over some. Took me a few seasons to find some, then I moved to I'll have to re-scout.
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Great thanks, what about slope orientation, can that be indicative to where they grow? More or less or dappled light? Or tree species?
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Depends on a lot of different things! Sucks that everything's on facebook now but there are probably a few groups in your local area where people will post well-meaning advice that frequently doesn't meet the correlation/causation test. This is my first year looking on the east coast and I found a handful mostly in areas similar to what Fun Pope was saying. I gather that I'm lucky, there's some people on these groups that have been looking for years and not found any. The biggest single factor seems to be that they show up a day or two after it rains (or maybe that's just when we all get out to look for them). The ones I find are mostly in leaves (but not pulped matted-down leaf mass), and adjacent to but not in areas that frequently have standing water. Also check mulch. ![]()
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:MOr tree species? In PA people like to look for them around tulip poplar
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:Great thanks, what about slope orientation, can that be indicative to where they grow? More or less or dappled light? Or tree species? There's so many variables depending on the geography. That said, south-facing slopes for the early ones because the soil warms up sooner in the season where you are. Once the soil hits 50F ish (look up the exact temp), they start popping up. Some places have mushroom guides, too. They won't take you to personal spots, but they might take you somewhere else and you can get an idea where they grow in your region. I'm no expert, but the above posters have nailed what I've heard and experienced. I've also found some in shin-high grass a couple football fields away from a river. I can't recommend enough that you just have to get out and put in the miles look for them. No ways around it unless someone tells you about their honey hole, which won't ever happen.
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# ? Apr 18, 2021 02:36 |
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:I've heard of people hunting previous burns is this a good strategy or what would you do Depends where you are. Burn site morels are a western rocky mountains thing mostly. Around here (NC) I look for tulip poplars in river beds. Back in the upper Midwest its cottonwoods and dead elms.
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