Our Philosophy: Why Eat Wild Edible Mushrooms?
- Finding and eating wild food provides a direct and primal connection with nature.
- Wild mushrooms are a sustainable resource and foraging for them is a sustainable practice, when carried out with respect. Wild mushrooms offer another way to eat local and reduce the unnessecary mass-transport of food around the globe.... There are gourmet foods growing in our own backyards!
- Cooking and eating wild mushrooms exposes you to a tremendous variety of new tastes, textures, medicinal benefits, and culinary fun! Remember fungi are not a single food, but rather, comprise an entire kingdom of diversity.
How can you use this site?
This site is designed to supplement field guides by providing high quality photographs of many species likely to be encountered in this region and elsewhere. It is our hope that these images will
- Acquaint you with new edible species
- Serve as "search images" for you in the woods, and
- Help confirm/renounce species identifications that you are uncertain about.
Edibility Considerations
It should be noted that the "edibility" status of some species can vary by author. The edibility ranking applied here takes into account both reports from field guides (see resource page) and our own eating experiences. Unless otherwise noted, all species marked "Edible" on these pages are species that we have eaten and been pleased with. But remember, never eat any fungus unless you are absolutely certain of your identification. Mushrooms are powerful, there are mushrooms that will kill you if you eat them. We tend to collect new species for study and contemplation, but avoid eating them until we have gotten to know their characters well enough to be thoroughly confident of their edibility. We also arrive at our identifications using more than one source (see link to resources), and always check our identifications against another person (eg. take turns keying out the mushroom, and then compare results). Also, it is important to remember that different people respond differently to certain mushrooms, meaning you may be allergic to some "edible" species, just as some people are allergic to peanuts or kiwis. Therefore, when trying new edible fungi, try only one new species at a time, eat only a small amount, and never feed new species to your friends or family until you have had sufficient positive experiences! Also, be sure to save fresh specimens of each fungus you eat in your fridge, in case you get sick and the need for expert identification is required. We aren't trying to scare you away from wild mushrooms (eg. quote from a 4th grader last summer: "Mushrooms suck your blood!!"), but rather, to remind you of the cautions that must accompany safe mushroom-eating. That said, happy mushrooming!
Disclaimer
Please keep in mind that we are hobbyists, not experts, and the species-level identifications presented here simply reflect our interpretaion of the resources we have available (see our resource page for a list of the guidebooks and websites we use regularly). It should also be noted that there are many, MANY undescribed fungal species, as well as nebulous species complexes whose boundaries are ever being redefined. A question mark after a taxon name indicates that the species or genus listed is a likely candidate, but we have missing information or some other cause for uncertainty. The notation: "Genus sp." with no question mark indicates that we are confident in the genus-level designation, but the species remains unclear. Specimens whose identification is entirely questionable are placed in the Unidentified category. Unfortunately, many of our ID's are not based on microscopic features, but (having recieved better training in this area) more of our future ID's will be! As we further develop this site, we also intend to do a better job recording/reporting ecological habitat data, and providing lists of the traits used to arrive at each species' identification.