No Old, Bold Mushroomers

Day 5: It's often said that there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old, bold pilots. The same is true of mushroomers. While no experienced mushroom hunter would confuse these two fungi, an over-enthusiastic beginner might easily do so with unpleasant, even tragic results. That's a puffball on the left, good eating if picked before the interior starts to turn brown. On the right is a young Amanita muscaria, your classic "toadstool," dangerously poisonous.

There are a number of edible and choice "beginner" mushrooms, but even those may sometimes prove challenging to novice collectors. I used to go out chanterelle-picking with my fishing buddy and his brother-in-law. The brother-in-law knew his stuff, and often came home with his basket full of things I didn't feel I could confidently identify. On the other hand, although he and I had showed the third member of our team the chanterelle's characteristic veins (as opposed to gills), we invariably had to sort through his gleanings to remove Galerina autumnalis (poisonous) and anything else which just happened to be orange. Sometimes, we just discarded the whole lot out of concern for cross-contamination.

While there is no scientific difference between a "mushroom" and a "toadstool" (it's only semantic), knowing whether a species is edible, poisonous or just not worth the bother is a crucial distinction when harvesting mushrooms from the wild. Be "105%" sure when you pick. You might not get a chance to say, "Well, I guess I was wrong about that one."

Make No Suppositions

Day 24: There are two phrases you'll hear repeated among mushroomers. The first is that "there are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters." The second makes the point even more clearly as "all mushrooms are edible, but some are only edible once." I say, "Don't eat anything you can't identify with 105% assurance," and that's why I pass this one by. I know what it is...or at least I know its genus if not the species. At least I think I do. It bleeds a sticky orange sap when broken and otherwise fits the basic profile for Lactarius deliciosus with its carrot-coloured cap marked with green, but I'm just not "105% sure."

I'm reminded of Uncle Eddie, my fishing buddy's brother-in-law with whom we often went 'shrooming. Eddie would collect Rozites, great basketsful of them for canning and drying. I looked them up in half a dozen field guides, but couldn't quite convince myself that Eddie knew what he was talking about. However, if Eddie's eventual demise at a reasonable age was in any part due to liver damage from eating the wrong sorts of mushrooms, it was not apparent to me. Field guides don't always show regional morphological differences, so maybe he was right about Rozites.

My mother used to collect this Lactarius and presumably identified it correctly. Not so with some of the other 'shrooms she gathered! After I discovered that she'd been eating Russulas after having misidentified them as Blewits, I was careful not to eat any mushroom at her house except the Oysters which she dried behind her woodstove. In hindsight, I might have been more cautious. Now I am not "105% sure" she had those right either.

I like mushrooms. I like eating them, but even moreso, I enjoy seeing them in the forests. I do not have the palate to appreciate the distinctions of flavour in different species, so I am more than willing to pass by those which raise even the slightest doubt in my mind as to their identity. I choose to abide by another wise saying, gleaned from the culinary world: "The first bite is with the eye." For me with respect to all but a few species, that first bite is all I need.

Field Guide Specimen

Day 360: If you've been dabbling in photography for any length of time, you may have heard of the Rule of Thirds in which the subject is placed at one of the intersections of an imaginary tic-tac-toe grid, a little compositional trick which leads the eye through an image in a spiraling pattern. Let's take a look at a different style. The Rule of Thirds is used extensively in "art" photography, but when it comes to capturing subject matter in a way which is useful to researchers and scientists, the philosophy of visual flow should be laid aside in favour of centering.

Centering the subject and maintaining a good depth of field allows the viewer to see not only the specimen, but also its habitat. Sometimes it is helpful to know if a plant or fungus is growing in hemlock debris rather than fir needles or some other medium, or to know what other plants may be growing nearby. You should always try to shoot from an angle which allows all the physical characteristics (morphology) of the subject to be seen. "Flat" light is preferable to strong highlights and shadows, so take your pictures on an overcast day whenever possible. My personal preference is to put the camera on a tripod and go with a longer exposure in natural light rather than utilizing a flash.

When you're in the field and have the opportunity, take the time to look for other examples of the species. You might get lucky and find a textbook specimen like this Amanita muscaria waiting for your lens!

Ramaria

Day 338: Would-be mushroom hunters be warned: while many wild fungi are edible, it often takes chemical testing or microscopic examination of the spores to differentiate one species from another. For example, I know that this is a Ramaria, i.e., one of the Coral fungi often found around Mount Rainier and elsewhere in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. However, it could be R. botrytis, R. subbotrytis, R. formosa or even an aged specimen of R. araiospora, now faded to pink. Your narrator lacks the expertise to tell them apart, and with mushrooms, unless you are "105%" certain of a species identification, erring on the side of caution is mandatory. Many of the Coral fungi contain toxins, and while some people may not react to them, others may respond with mild to severe symptoms of mushroom poisoning. In other words, if you aren't positive of a species, do NOT eat it.

Just as a reminder, per 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 2.1 with respect to Mount Rainier National Park, "Edible fungi (mushrooms) - collection of the above is for personal consumption and shall be no more than one (1) gallon per person, per day."

Textbook Specimen

Makeup Day 9: With my eye on the goal of Pinnacle Peak saddle, I walked right past this field-guide specimen of Amanita muscaria and only noticed it as I came down the last few steps of the trail before reaching the Stevens Canyon Road. Only once before have I found such a picture-perfect example, and that one fostered the name my husband and I gave to his grandparents' ranch when we inherited it. "Toadstool Acres" was what we called our place, and the photos I took during the late autumn before we moved in became the centerpiece of our Christmas cards that year. Nowadays, I laughingly call this species the "Mario mushroom," and it is easily one of the most widely recognized fungi in the world. The old hippies among my readers will remember it by its reputation as a hallucinogen, a detail which led quite a few members of that era to experiment with it despite the very high potential for incurring liver damage from ingesting the alkaloids. Although not deadly in the short term like its cousin, Amanita phalloides, this pretty little toadstool will get you in the end.

Edible And Choice

Day 205: Driving by at 55 MPH, I said, "That looked like Morels!" I pulled into my driveway less than five minutes later, hung the camera around my neck, grabbed a bag and a pocket knife, and headed back down the road on foot. Halfway to the site, I remarked aloud, "I'm going to get there and it's going to have been a whole bunch of little brown birds."

But they weren't birds. They weren't leaves. They were Morchella angusticeps, one of Spring's greatest treasures. Okay, maybe they aren't quite as prized as M. esculenta, but they run a very close second. Morels are an excellent species for neophytes to mushroom collecting because they are all edible. They fruit only in the spring, and are easy to identify by the deep, angular "pits" in the cap. I picked a dinner-sized selection of young caps, leaving older and immature specimens to propagate or grow into a second meal.

How do you prepare Morels? Soak them in water (salted or not) for ten to twenty minutes to remove any bugs that may be hiding in the folds, then cut them in half, removing the stems, and give them another short soak. Squeeze them firmly to remove excess water, then fry in butter with a little garlic powder. Add a splash of your favourite white wine when they are tender. Serve with salt and pepper to taste.