Mushroom picking 2021

If you go down to the woods today… you might be in for a big surprise… :wink:

Folk are being advised to be careful what you pick… and there is a warning against relying totally on smartphone identification apps… due to problems experienced last year…

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My last lot I nipped into the Pharmacist and he checked they were all ok.

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Well done ! … much better to be safe than sorry…
(It’s not just us “foreigners” who can get things wrong… :roll_eyes: )

Edit: in case anyone misunderstands… the Pharmacy is excellent for indentifying the fruits of the forest and elsewhere.

It’s the ordinary person who can make a mistake… so easily… in some cases, despite years of experience.

As far as I am aware in France, pharmacists are qualified to identify mushrooms and large posters of them are displayed in windows and shops during the mushrooming season. Foragers take the mushrooms they have gathered to their pharmacist where, free of charge, the mushrooms are checked for toxicity.

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We learnt this to our dismay last year. Remy’s first teacher at maternelle had been mushrooming for 35 years. She got one wrong, her husband vomited (thank god) but managed to get to the phone. She had to be ‘reanimated’ 3 times before they even got to the hospital. She was very, very luck to survive.

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These appeared last year… for the first time… and I had no idea what they were. :roll_eyes:
A neighbour looked very worried, but assured me that he “would take care of them”…

I later discovered he and his friends had thoroughly enjoyed these delicacies… :rofl: :rofl:


EDIT: so many are similar, good and bad… and I’m not prepared to take a risk… however, I have enjoyed fruits of the forest at the homes of friends I trust… but I do like to see them eating them first… :wink:

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We have shaggy ink caps in the (UK) garden which pop up this time of year - they are supposed to be good to eat if you catch them early but I’ve never quite been brave enough.

After watching something earlier discussing it, does anyone have an easy / yummy mushroom soup recipe?

Oh and another question, what mushrooms should I be looking out for at this time of year?

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Wonderful news, I REALLY want to find some, need to get brave and get out there!

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Don’t drink alcohol when you eat them as it makes you feel terrible apparently - the active substance in shaggy ink-caps is used in stuff prescribed for alcoholics on the same principle as that bitter stuff on fingers for nail-biters. Read it somewhere ages ago but no idea where so can’t give source. They are ok to eat but nothing to write home about.