Crop of Death

The Fall rains have arrived after years of drought. With them come the wild mushrooms.

I pick end enjoy wild mushrooms, but only after years of foraging with experienced local experts. In fact, the most reliable method of determining if a wild mushroom is not only edible, but worth the effort, is to have someone who has been picking and eating the local mushrooms respond to being shown a find - and getting a response like "I will tell you what it is, but you first must give me half and tell me where you found it/them". Mind you, even this method is far from perfect, as PhD students and researchers can be studying inedible or deadly ones.



In fact, that happened to me recently - but the mushroom in question has the accurate and appropriate name "Death Cap". Eat it and you will die, slowly and painfully, of liver failure. Death Caps are to be avoided at all costs.

Unfortunately, they can be the most common mushrooms in many places and times. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, they are locally abundant right now. They are not food. Most local poisonings from wild mushrooms are from these.

If you want to learn about local wild mushrooms, books are not enough. You must join and participate in your local Mycological Society. In the Bay Area, The Mycological Society of San Francisco is a good one, find them at mssf.org