Mushroom seeking

[K. Slink]

Can anyone give me advice about looking for wild mushrooms?

[brigid]

My advice is to be very careful. You really need to know what you are doing. Should be a fun quest, though!

[K. Slink]

How do I find someone who really knows what they are doing? Where do I go to find this person? I know that if you don't know what you are doing, you can easily ingest something that will easily kill you--YIKES!!!!!!

[KarenB]

Find a Russian or a Ukrainian from the old country. They did it weekly and know what is what. My late mother in law used to talk about it. It was a social outing for them. Mushrooms in their country are like our dandelions!
check out this video. Excellent information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pEgFhBDlbU

[CM]

My grandfather would gather his own mushrooms but he had also lived on a farm where they used pigs to help them locate truffles. I've known other people who are comfortable gathering wild mushrooms, but they have been shown which ones to gather and the places that they can be gathered.

Be careful about mushrooms that are growing on rotten wood stumps in the ground or near metal, is what I've heard. But it's much more complicated than that. Years ago I owned a number of books about mushrooms, and I recall one of those books pointing out that in some very poisonous varieties there was an amazing resemblance to commonly collected mushrooms that can sometimes even elude experts.

It would help to pick up a book or two about poisonous mushrooms that includes descriptions and pictures and take it along with you. And see if you can find someone locally who knows what are where to gather known mushrooms.

An alternative to finding wild mushrooms is to buy a mushroom growing kit. They send you a box filled with a sterile growing medium and you innoculate it with mushroom spores (included). You will probably find one for $30.00-$40.00. They produce mushrooms for several months and they're lots of fun.

[K. Slink]

I'm in the Springfield MA area--should I contact the county extension service?

[brigid]

I would look up pictures of the safe mushrooms. You have to also consider that some may be in places that have been sprayed with insecticide. Yeah, it's probably a good idea to ask where you could go with some measure of safety. It would probably be a GREAT idea to contact a plant nursery. They could probably guide you to the right contacts for this. BTW, there is a Witch who lives in your area. She is brilliant with her knowledge of these things. Her name is Ellen Dugan. She has a book called Garden Witchery. Look her up.