Edible & Medicinal Mushrooms, Forest Foods

[Vianova]

Andy H sez

I remember being told (a very long time ago now lol) that fungus growing on wood is usually safer than the ground varieties

well, don't count on that because Galerina's grow
on wood chips.

Galerina's contain deadly amantins
like Amanita Phalloides.

The best option for mushroom ID
is a SPORE PRINT.

Take off stem.
Take shroom cap and place on a piece of paper
gills down.
Wait a couple to several hours.

Sidenote: some shrooms like Boletes and Polypore Conks have PORES instead of gills,
and some shrooms have spines,
instead of gills or pores.

The mushroom spore print leaves a coating of spores on a piece of colored paper
or white paper,
and the spore print will have a definitive COLOR.

The Deadly Galerina will leave a distinctly orangish rusty brown spore print.

There is really only one reason a Galerina MIGHT
be eaten.

Psychedelic shroom pickers go after strains of psilocybe called Cyanescens and Azurescens
due to the extreme potencies.

Sidenote: Coastal PNW Cyanescens are a slightly different strain than their European counterparts,
and far stronger.

OK
the problem with The Cyans and the Azures
is that as babies they are remarkably similar to
the Deadly Galerina.

I have seen a Cyanescen on one end of a large wood chip,
and a Galerina on the other end.

I have seen small Azures look identical
to small or medium size Galerinas.

Solution:
Spore Print EVERY DAM_N Shroom
NO MATTER WHAT
if you are attempting to pick these psilocybe strains

The Cyans and Azures will have a blackish purple
spore print,
the Galerinas will have the orange rusty brown print.

Problem for young pickers is that sometimes
the searcher for psychedelic Cyanescens
will find the pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow:
i.e.
a few thousand in one huge flush.

what to do?

YOU SPORE PRINT EACH AND EVERY ONE.

I personally have seen this phenomena...
thousands and thousands of Cyans,
absolutely everywhere,
from small and tiny to huge wavy cap quarter ouncers.

Nobody can eat them all, I referred the patch onto some college guys who probably made a bundle of money.


deadly Galerina on a log







but
I don't like Galerina's or Cyanescens........

Psilocybe Cyanescens has unusual side effects,
and that will be discussed later.



Back to
EDIBLE CULINARY MASTERPIECES

ha!

The Bolete is hard to beat.
Another famous Bolete
is the Admirable Bolete, especially if found growing to maturity in a bit drier weather after the rains
so that they are not all soggy.

When cooked they have a background lemon taste
that is spectacular, and these are one of my favorites for the frying pan.

I never seem to find too many,
like you would find clusters of King Boletes
but this one here was found up near Dock Butte
south of Mt Baker
and was quite the prize as it was a beefy one.








Pores underneath