For years I avoided foraging for mushrooms.
I thought they had little or no food value. As it turns out, mushrooms are both nutritious and filling, but you have to follow certain guidelines. Always test any new food for edibility. This is not a bad policy for prepared or cultivated foods, especially for people who tend to have allergies.
Here are a few important mushroom facts. For a more thorough discussion of mushrooms, “Wildman” Steve Brill has the best information I’ve found online.
1. Mushrooms are the fruit of a fungus.
2. Mushrooms disburse spores, like other plants disburse seeds.
3. Fungus grows like a series of branching threads through soil, leaf litter, living or dead wood.
4. Mushrooms have different strategies for disbursing spores, so they have different shapes.
5. Mushrooms have either gills or pores on the underside of their caps.
6. Most mushroom species contain carcinogenic hydrazines, which are destroyed by cooking.
2006 has been an incredible mushroom gathering season, at least in my neck of the woods. A day or two of rain, followed by a warm, sunny day provides the perfect conditions for mushrooms to thrive.