Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: world wide what on June 17, 2013, 04:01 am
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So I decided this year that since I have so much spare time I'd put it to good use and try my hand at foraging for mushies. Now I've done extensive google searching and know that it's all about getting out there but I just wanted to see what peoples experiences were like when they went hunting:
Some critical Info that may help:-
Currently it's the first month of winter here and it's been raining non-stop for the past week or so.
There is mainly gold tops where I live.
Cheers
WWW
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45
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I dont know what part of the world you live in, but in NA the best time to pick psylocybic mushrooms is in the fall (sept-november).
be fucking carefull. if you can, sign up for an identification class with a local guide. remember, the only sure way to tell what type of mushroom you have is to to a spore sample under a microscope. people say dumb shit like "if it bruises purple its a magic mushroom," while true that magic mushrooms often bruise purple, many other species do as well.
only a few species of mushroom will kill you, but a HUGE number of mushrooms will cause extreme gastrointestinal distress and illness.
a good basic guide book is "everything the rain promises and more" so check it out.
there are lots of easily identifiable edible mushrooms that are awesome too. morels this time of year, and chantarelles in the fall are delicious and very easy to identify with few look alike species
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@WWW, in my experiences foraging for shrooms, I've always gone to cowfields and looked for the mushies growing in piles of cowshit. I've actually gotten lucky and found a few ;D
The thing is, where I live the cowfields are all private property, so to go foraging, you'd have to tresspass on somebody's land. That's the biggest danger, IMO. If farmer Bob finds you and now you're staring at the business end of a shotgun.
Use caution and good luck
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rain is good, but remember if it drops below freezing (even for just an hour) it will kill off almost all the wild mushrooms
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What Snapplecaps says is a good fail safe,
Ive picked for along time in many locations both tropical and cold climate, to the best of my knowledge and some other mycologists Ive spoken to there is only one deadly blue bruising mushroom 'known' and it lives quite close to the equator. As a general rule either Boletes or Psilo's are bruising blue but you never know as fungi can lay dormant for along time and only fruit at certain times in rare occasions and you cannot rule out that there 'may' be an unknown species thats blues and is deadly but generally speaking....A x400 microscope and a field guide is the best way, or an experienced hunter.
Good luck,
M
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posting for 50
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What continent are you on?