Mushrooms

[R. Richard]

I went to the market yesterday and the lady in front of me was buying mushrooms. Mushrooms! I mean, how can they tell? TIA.

[Liar]

Tell what? That it's mushrooms?

[R. Richard]

How can they be sure that they're not poisonous?

There's a story about a man on death row, he's ordering his final meal.

Convict: I want a plate of mushrooms, fixed all diferent ways.
Jailer: Yeah, we can do that, but why not steak and ice cream?
Convict: I always wanted to try mushrooms, but up to now, I've been scared.

[Liar]

Originally Posted by R. Richard

How can they be sure that they're not poisonous?

Uh, because they have basic knowledge of foodstuffs?

I know roughly fifteen different types of mushrooms that are perfectly edible. The most common of those, I can recognise at the market or grocery store in a heartbeart. The others I can recognise if I stumble across them out in the woods.

I also know three types that will make me funny in the head if I chew them, and one that will make me funny in the head and horny as hell if I smoke it.

I buy and pick shrooms on a regular basis. The food shrooms, not the funny shrooms (anymore). I've never mistakenly had a poisonous one.

How can they make sure theure not poisonous? The same way they can make sure that fruits, berries, plants and fish they buy is not poisonous. By not being ignorant about it.

[R. Richard]

Originally Posted by Liar

How can they make sure theure not poisonous? The same way they can make sure that fruits, berries, plants and fish they buy is not poisonous. By not being ignorant about it.

Very few fruits, berries or plants of the kind they sell in the stores, have poisonous analogues. Fish can be poisonous, but anyone with a nose can tell.

Mushrooms, on the other hand, have poisonous analogues. At least some of the poisonous analogues can only be told apart by an expert. Even then, you have to wonder.

[Boota]

I had mushrooms for dinner last night. I sliced up some big portabellos and onions, marinated them in olive oil, cracked peppercorns on them and threw them on the grill with a huge steak. If that will kill it's just going to have to kill me, because I'm not giving them up.

[sr71plt]

You certainly are weird, RR.

(And there are lots of berries that are poisonous)

[Handley_Page]

Originally Posted by R. Richard

Very few fruits, berries or plants of the kind they sell in the stores, have poisonous analogues. Fish can be poisonous, but anyone with a nose can tell.

Mushrooms, on the other hand, have poisonous analogues. At least some of the poisonous analogues can only be told apart by an expert. Even then, you have to wonder.

I guess you'll have to trust the mushroom farmer sometime.

[Liar]

Originally Posted by R. Richard

Very few fruits, berries or plants of the kind they sell in the stores, have poisonous analogues. Fish can be poisonous, but anyone with a nose can tell.

Mushrooms, on the other hand, have poisonous analogues. At least some of the poisonous analogues can only be told apart by an expert. Even then, you have to wonder.

Whaddaya mean "analogues"? Chanterelles are edible, damn tasty, and easy to recognise. White shrooms are farmed and available everywhere. King Bolete, Portabello, Rufous Milkcap and many more doesn't take an expert to spot. Especially not on a market.

For a self proclaimed tough guy, I find it amusing that you seem to be intimidated by fungi.

[R. Richard]

Fungi don't particularly intimidate me. Death intimidates me.

[Liar]

Ditto. But death by shroom ain't gonna happen. Cause I generally tend to think before I eat.

[Handley_Page]

Now, if RR would take a stroll round our local woods, he might have cause for concern, unless he took an expert with him.

[Noor]

At college a prof and group of students went mushroom hunting, and someone got some bad ones mixed in, no one died but they were very ill for about a week.

[R. Richard]

In the South, where I once lived, it wasn't all that uncommon for a whole family to go mushroom hunting in the woods. I found that one of the family, usually an older woman was a mushroom expert. She would sit under a tree and the family would bring mushrooms to her for judging. At some point in time, the older woman would train a younger woman. The training took years.

I suspect that the people dong the judging of commercial mushrooms don't have years of training.

[sr71plt]

Originally Posted by R. Richard

I suspect that the people dong the judging of commercial mushrooms don't have years of training.

That sounds a little dopey. Commercial mushrooms are raised for commercial use. They don't go roaming around in the woods looking for them.

[voluptuary_manque]

Commercial mushrooms grow on farms that are either in big caves or huge barns. They've been cultivated in pure strains for who knows how many hundred years? I think you're confusing farmed vs wild caught, like in fish. Nobody would dare sell wild picked mushrooms in a market.

[R. Richard]

Originally Posted by voluptuary_manque

Commercial mushrooms grow on farms that are either in big caves or huge barns. They've been cultivated in pure strains for who knows how many hundred years? I think you're confusing farmed vs wild caught, like in fish. Nobody would dare sell wild picked mushrooms in a market.

That makes some sense. I had no idea where they got the mushrooms they sold. I was afraid that some minimum wage idiot was making the decision as to the safety of a mushroom.

[R. Richard]

I found this report http://www.namyco.org/images/pdf%20f...ings30year.pdf

There's no indication as to where the mushrooms came from, or how they were obtained/cooked. However, there have been deaths.

[sr71plt]

Well, then, don't eat any mushrooms, RR, if you obsess over them.

(Don't drive a car, either--that'll kill you faster than a bad mushroom.)

[voluptuary_manque]

There are deaths every year among mushroom pickers who don't pay attention so good. That's part of the appeal, you can go dangerous game hunting in your back forty and not have to hire a professional hunter.

Anyway, this is a mushroom farm.

[john-the-author]

Originally Posted by Liar

I buy and pick shrooms on a regular basis. The food shrooms, not the funny shrooms (anymore). I've never mistakenly had a poisonous one.

Well, arguably true, but you'll only ever do it the once.

I used to have a wild mushroom growing in my front lawn that would produce these huge (4-6" dia.) meaty brown mushrooms with a pink tinge where you broke them. They didn't cook up well, but they were great raw. They had a slight almond and humus scent to them. They were really good and came back for 3 or 4 years.

[TE999]

It makes you wonder how early man determined the edible vs. poisonous 'shrooms.

"Uh...Grog dead...this no good...who want eat this one?"

[Xelebes]

This thread reminds me of my dad, who wouldn't eat mushrooms because of the image conjured of seeing mushrooms growing on horseshit.

[voluptuary_manque]

Originally Posted by TE999

It makes you wonder how early man determined the edible vs. poisonous 'shrooms.

"Uh...Grog dead...this no good...who want eat this one?"

There's this folk tale that people learned what they could and couldn't eat by watching the animals. In the case of mushrooms, that's a bad idea. Squirrels will happily gorge themselves on mushrooms that would kill off a whole family of people.

[TE999]

Originally Posted by voluptuary_manque

There's this folk tale that people learned what they could and couldn't eat by watching the animals. In the case of mushrooms, that's a bad idea. Squirrels will happily gorge themselves on mushrooms that would kill off a whole family of people.

I never did trust squirrels.