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Posted by David Sherman on Friday, April 24, 2009 at 23:49:49 :
In Reply to: Re: Mushroon Hunter's posted by Darryl in Austin on Friday, April 24, 2009 at 21:09:39 :
"Bright red" is really not much of a description for a mushroom. There are some fairly obvious edible mushrooms that don't look much like anything else around here -- morells, hedgehog mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and chantrells, but beyond that when you get into the "normal" looking gilled mushrooms, you really need a good book for your local area, or better yet, a friend who knows mushrooms thoroughly. I don't generally like the taste of mushrooms enough to be tempted to try any of the dubious variety. From what I've heard, most of the "poisonous" ones will just make you sick. The amanitas, of course, are in a class by themselves when it comes to being poisonous, and some are red. Some years ago a number of Koreans in the Portland Oregon area got poisoned by eating wild mushrooms that looked like edible ones they knew from back home. I think they were actually amanita phaloides, which has the really nasty effect of killing your liver before you even feel sick. By the time you feel sick, you're on death's door. A couple of the mushroom eaters died, and a couple of them survived only by getting emergency liver transplants.
A friend of mine once ate a big red mushroom with white spots (amanita muscaria?) when he was in High School in Yakima because somebody told him he could get high on it. He said it just made him feel the worst he'd ever felt in his life, both physically and mentally, and he sat by the river all day not caring if he lived or died. Doesn't really sound like my idea of fun. I'll stick to the morels myself.
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