Where Did BushCampingTools Get his mushroom picking skills from? Or rather WHO did he get them from?

Where Did BushCampingTools Get his mushroom picking skills from? Or rather WHO did he get them from?

I was asked by a long term subscriber (@willieboy3011) how did I acquire my mushroom hunting skills?,

Super delicious wild oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus-There are many wild types-only for the experienced mushroom pickers! Here seen growing on a dead log of wild cherry.

and I thought, well maybe this might be of interest to many here. So here I go...........

Hi. I guess my interests started at university as an undergrad originally in Agriculture science and we had to do microbiology but even then I grew up in a family where picking mushrooms was strictly forbidden, blackberries, mulberries etc. all ok, probably like you! 

 Then many, many years later I made friends with some Polish students in Australia and the Poles have a rich culture of mushroom picking. So, they taught me and my friends, which mushrooms

                                The super delicious Hedgehog mushroom

                                (Hydnum repandrum)
were safe to pick and how to prepare them. 

   The "Penny Bun" Boletus edulis a prized Boletus species

 We are sort of lucky in Oz because many of the pine trees and deciduous trees originally imported from either Europe or the US had the fungi growing on their roots and this just spread wherever, these trees were planted. While the selection is not as great for edibles as in the US or Europe it's not too bad. Of course, we also got the poisonous species as well! 

 Later I lived overseas after having switched vocations from Agriculture to Neuroscience (LOL of course not without having to go back to uni again LOL). I shared a house with a French (and scientist colleague) guy who was/is (I believe from other friends who are still in contact with him) very crazy about picking mushrooms 

The Parasol Mushroom Macrolepiota procera

and the French too are right into this sort of thing.

The most delicious Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius) readied for cooking!

       Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)

So we had lots of excursions picking all sorts of mushrooms plus ones I had never picked before with my Polish friends. 

                                  Parasol mushrooms (Atypical habit)

Super hard to find and super delicious Yanagi matsutake mushrooms, seen here growing on black poplar in Europe. (we found over 5kg of them!)

Agrocybe aegerita.

Why not combine fishing with wild mushroom picking!  Field Puff balls (Calvatia gigantea) shown here are juvenile fruiting bodies.

St George's Mushroom, (Calocybe gambosa) super delicious! NOTE!!  Only for the most experienced mushroom pickers!

Then one day, hot and somewhat tired after our usual weekend mountain biking craziness, returning home (the Frenchman’s place) and trying to relax, I hear some disturbing commotion going on outside of our house. I looked out the front door and noticed some thugs from across the street were threatening the neighbour and jumping on the bonnet of her Mercedes. That was enough to boil my blood. Suffice it to say I had a little word (maybe with a few physical gestures LOL) with them and they decided the smart thing to do was to retreat immediately. (mind you, they never once turned their backs to me and the same for me). I went back inside and a few minutes later there came a knock on the door and it was the woman from next door who had come to thank me for getting rid of these punks. That neighbour, who is Russian, then invited me in to thank me and, well the rest is history from her because she then started to join all of us from this uni I was working at, along with the Frenchman and every other student of mine (and his), fellow scientists and mountain biking friends (it was becoming addictive for all of us!). I almost had an entire lab going from work picking mushrooms LOL! 

                                  Fairy ring Champignon Marasmius oreades

                                  Fairy ring Champignon Marasmius oreades

 Now the Russians too have a rich culture and one of their things to do is to pick wild mushrooms. So once again we all learnt about different mushrooms and how to prepare them form her. The Australian, Polish, French and Russian connection had formed! (wasn’t it funny no one was at each other’s throats-sorry couldn’t help that political jab-ok let’s keep it a-political).

Many years passed and I married a European and her culture is also one of fishing hunting and mushroom picking,

The seasonal (occurring right now in the Northern hemisphere) St George's Mushroom

 

although I was already into hunting and fishing long ago in Australia, first rifle then later bow hunting became the passion. 

About to prepare fresh Field mushrooms Agaricus campestris and the parasol mushroom, Macro lepiota Procera.

 So you see, there has been a common theme of picking mushrooms throughout my adventures from student days to professional career around the globe.

 In summary,   It may seem like a long winded way of learning about picking mushrooms but the good thing is that I gained a lot of great knowledge from very experienced people and saw things from different perspectives and how the same mushrooms grow across both hemispheres under different environment conditions and learnt much about 

how to prepare them 

            Dried parasol Mushrooms

and how to preserve them for long periods of time.

A note about using books to identify which mushrooms are safe to eat. Of course, I have abbreviated much from the above anecdotal stories especially in regards to actual identification techniques. In order to reliably (and you simply cannot make a mistake) identify mushrooms you must first understand their morphology and maybe not all but a lot of their taxonomy. Plus even a little microscopy won't go astray! I know the latter may seem daunting however, this is one of the best ways to help you NOT become poisoned by making a mistake.. 

                      The poisonous "Yellow Stainer" Agaricus xanthodermus

An unidentified Australia species of gilled fungi growing in dry bushland on the east coast of Australia

 We often read in books about picking wild mushrooms, there is a “poisonous cousin”, in other words, similar looking mushrooms which are not edible. In truth as one learns to properly distinguish between various mushrooms, these supposed “poisonous cousins” 

A "poisonous cousin" OR is it? Boletus calopus -poisonous but not deadly! 

 could only be selected by someone who is clearly walking around with closed eyes, ie being careless and or stupid and we all know, combining the elements careless and stupidity generally give an undesirable end products. NOW, I would NEVER recommend any book no matter how good it is, to use it solely to identify 

Macrolepiota procera, the Parasol Mushroom

an edible mushroom, however good books are extremely useful (like on ANY subject matter). IMHO The best way to learn is from friends (or some foraging group with experienced pickers) from which it is in their culture to pick mushrooms and who have never been poisoned 

or have been and are alive LOL, OR from some other expert (you will probably of course pay for the latter). Finally, I find them fascinating just to photograph (as you might have guessed LOL from pictures I sometime post to FB and Instagram.

Note for those who want to see the world's deadliest mushroom then check out some old videos of mine on my FB page and there you will see Amanita phalloides, one bite and you WILL DIE. The poison can not be cooked from it. Phalloidin (that's the toxin) is very very deadly, as apposed to just deadly LOL)

                                                                   @BushcampingTools