Based on decades of practical experience and research, the book is written in a clear and forthright style that avoids the dry, generic descriptions of most field guides. Rather than simply providing recipes, the book discusses the cooking characteristics of each variety, with advice about matching species with appropriate foods. Many mushrooms contain unique medicinal components for boosting the immune system to fight cancer, HIV, and other diseases, and Spahr offers practical and prudent guidelines for exploration of this rapidly emerging area of alternative therapeutic practice.
Score: 4. Are fungi food or medicine, beneficial decomposers or deadly "toadstools" ready to kill anyone foolhardy enough to eat them? In fact, there is truth in all these statements. In Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares, author Greg Marley reveals some of the wonders and mysteries of mushrooms, and our conflicting human reactions to them.
With tales from around the world, Marley, a seasoned mushroom expert, explains that some cultures are mycophilic mushroom-loving , like those of Russia and Eastern Europe, while others are intensely mycophobic mushroom-fearing , including, the US.
He shares stories from China, Japan, and Korea-where mushrooms are interwoven into the fabric of daily life as food, medicine, fable, and folklore-and from Slavic countries where whole families leave villages and cities during rainy periods of the late summer and fall and traipse into the forests for mushroom-collecting excursions.
You must have JavaScript enabled in your browser to utilize the functionality of this website. Save For Later Print. Photo: Emelie Swackhamer. There are a few distinctive mushrooms, but even those that seem like they should be easy to identify can be confused with dangerous look-alikes. For example, the giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea , grows to be a very large, distinctive "mushroom. Experts who identify mushrooms certainly do take the color, size and general appearance into account.
What people do not realize is that more information is needed to accurately and confidently identify a mushroom. One needs to carefully examine structural characteristics:. There are several other tests commonly used to gather important clues. The reason is that many pollutants and herbicides are used along roadways and public places. Therefore, it is best to hunt for mushrooms well away from the road. It is wise to use caution. The first mushroom of interest is Chicken of the Woods. Another name for it is Sulfur Shelf because of the shelf-like growing structure on the side of trees or stumps.
Furthermore, this mushroom literally tastes like chicken, hence the name Chicken of the Woods. Chicken of the Woods is a good starting point for beginning hunters because is very easy to find throughout the spring, summer, and fall and it does not have poisonous lookalikes.
There are two kinds of Chicken of the Woods and both are valued edible mushrooms, but I will be focusing on Laetiporus sulphureus which is most commonly found in the fall. Three main characteristics of this mushroom are: 1 It grows on a stumps or fallen tree limb. You will not find this mushroom growing on the ground, 2 It is bright blaze orange on top couple with a bright sulfur yellow colored underside, and 3 It does not have gills or a stem.
I found my first one ever as I was looking out the window of my car while my wife was driving down a backroad in mid-September. I caught a glimpse of a bright orange mushroom on an oak stump 20 yards off the road.
I had her stop and turn around. I ran out of the car and there it was, my first chicken! I harvested the mushrooms and safely tucked it in a plastic bag so that we could devour them at home. The best way to harvest this mushroom is to cut the outer ring of the mushroom where it is most soft and flexible which is usually the first 1—2 inches. We cleaned and fried it up with some butter, salt and pepper. It was delicious! A simple way to prepare this mushroom for consumption is to cut it in bite sized pieces and put it in a skillet with some butter.
Salt and pepper to taste and cook until it turns golden brown on the edges. My wife loved it so much that now all she does is look for mushrooms everywhere we go! Like with the Chicken of the Woods, I found my first one by spotting it right next to the road while looking out the window as my wife was driving. This mushroom also loves white oak trees and you will typically find them growing on the ground close to dead and dying oak trees or stumps.
In some cases, this mushroom is very hard to spot; therefore, it will be more difficult to see from a moving vehicle. This mushroom is grey, light tan, or brown on the top. They sprout out feather like florets and can grow very quickly and get very big. It is pure white underneath with no gills. It might look like a pile of dead leaves to some people, but do not be fooled! While human deaths are rare from eating this species, they do occur.
Part of the problem is that these mushrooms contain two poisons. And the other one is cumulative, meaning someone could eat properly cooked Poison Pax for months or years without difficulty before building up enough of the toxin to matter—and then very suddenly their red blood cells start coming apart. For one thing, it looks more like a morel than most of the others, often having a similar overall shape though the cap it wrinkled, rather than pitted or honeycombed.
For another, it is a popular edible, despite being poisonous and sometimes deadly. The problem is two-fold.
First, either human sensitivity or the mushroom itself is variable, since not everybody who eats it gets sick. Proper cooking with plenty of ventilation, since cooking releases toxic fumes goes a long way towards lessening the chance of illness. I believe Mushrooms are the best kept secret when it comes to health and well being.
For that reason, I would like to share a company with you that in my opinion makes the best mushroom products on the market. The company is called Noomadic Herbals, my favorite supplement they make is called "Mushroom Total". I take their products every day and they have helped me think better and have more energy.
Give them a try. King Bolete Boletus edulis and others. Eating Chicken of the Woods. Cornell Mushroom Blog. Foraging Shaggy Mane Mushrooms. Calvatia gigantea. Smith in Northern Michigan. The Michigan Botanist Puffball Mushrooms. Forager Chef. The Morchellaceae: True Morels and Verpas. Mushroom Laws by State World Population Review. Gymnopilus aeruginosus. Gymnopilus luteofolius.
Gymnopilus luteus. Panaeolus cunctulus. Pluteus americanus. Psilocybe caerulipes. Philos o phy. Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata. Agaricus xanthodermus Genev. First Nature. Clitocybe rivulosa Sowerby P. Paxillus involutus Batsch Pers.
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