If the early fall rains have got you thinking ahead to wild mushroom season, you are not alone. Already the ForageSF Wild Mushroom Walks are nearly fully booked, although if you're quick you might still be able to join the December 17 outing, and you can check the event calendar of the Mycological Society of San Francisco for a scheduled foray.
Taking the opportunity to forage with an experienced guide is definitely a good idea when it comes to wild mushrooms. Delicious varieties can closely resemble deadly poisonous ones -- and poisonous wild mushrooms are common here in the San Francisco area. (See: Death Caps (Amanita phalloides) Claim Victims in Rochester, New York, and San Francisco, Calif.) Before you go foraging, take the mushroomer's pledge: "When in doubt, throw it out."
The cautionary tales are important but shouldn't put anyone completely off learning to identify and eat wild mushrooms.
When it comes to taking an expert guide along when you forage for wild mushrooms, you can feel safe and secure with John Plischke III and his field guide Good Mushroom Bad Mushroom: Who’s Who, Where to Find Them, and How to Enjoy Them Safely, from St. Lynn’s Press.
Plischke has received numerous awards and taught hundreds of programs on mushrooms and his little guide could just save your life -- not to mention inspire many pleasant hours wandering the woods in search of delicious wild mushrooms.
The first thing you will notice about Good Mushroom Bad Mushroom is its design. It features heavy matte-laminated pages and concealed-wire binding so that it lays open flat -- so completely practical for a field guide, it's difficult to imagine why all outdoor guides aren't the same.
Inside, the book starts with the basics of the hunt, advice on supplies and identification, as well as how to preserve and prepare your finds. The book teaches you how to make a spore print and a diagram of basic mushroom anatomy is included for good measure.
And then you come to the heart of the book -- the mushrooms.
Plischke goes over inedible or poisonous mushrooms first with a detailed description of each of the eleven profiled, including one or two photographs. Sometimes the second photograph is of a key look-alike. All of the photographs are well lit and sharp, giving what appears to be a clear representation for identification. Each profile also includes sections called Where, When and How to Look, Look-Alikes, and Edibility -- all on a handy two-page spread.
Some of the names of the inedible or poisonous mushrooms themselves are enough to put you off. Deadly Galerina (Galerina marginata) leaves no doubt what category this common -- and extremely poisonous -- mushroom falls into. And then there's Viscid Violet Cort. It's not poisonous but do you think it sounds edible? You guessed right, it's not, although it could be a new flavor candidate for Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
Before you leave this section of the book, take note of the Jack O'Lantern mushroom (Omphalotus olivascens in the Western U.S.). It's a close look-alike to many of the Chanterelles, it's found in California generally beginning in November through March -- and it's poisonous.
Once Plischke gets the problematic mushrooms out of the way, he moves on to the good stuff: profiles of more than two dozen edible mushrooms, followed by several mushroom recipes. Just a thought about the recipes: It might be a good idea to try the 'Chanterelles and Liquor' recipe after you've sorted through and successfully identified your foraged 'shrooms.
Taken all together, the detailed descriptions, excellent photographs, advice on taking spore prints and the particular attention given to highlighting look-alikes in Good Mushroom Bad Mushroom will make it a reassuring companion to novice and experienced foragers alike.
Happy and safe foraging!
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Looking for more information?
Connect with the Mycological Society of San Francisco. Check their event calendar for classes, lectures and collecting forays. Also, the annual Fungus Fair is coming up the weekend of December 3-4, 2011, with collecting forays scheduled on the Friday immediately preceding.
Visit the ForageSF website for info on their Wild Food Walks. There might still be room left in their December 17, 2011 Wild Mushroom Walk.
See A Cook's Introduction to Mushrooms on the Mycological Society of San Francisco website.
Find Connie Green's cookbook Wild Table: Seasonal Foraged Food and Recipes. Connie and her company, Wild Forest Wild Foods, have been providing foraged mushrooms for many San Francisco restaurants since the late 70’s. Her cookbook, written with Sarah Scott, incorporates fiddleheads, spruce fir tips, elderflowers -- and all manner of wild mushrooms. A must read for cooking with foraged foods.
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