/pt/ – Petrarchan

I don't understand how people are not weirded out by mushrooms. They are neither plant nor animal, just one weird big cell appearing after rain and sun, and people eat them.

>>546 Never done it but pretty cool, OP. I always wanted to be one of those people who can walk round a forest and know all the names for all the trees, plants, fungi, etc. Feels like the sort of thing that we've lost touch with thanks to industrial society.

Mushrooms will bring bad luck if you are not careful. I see them hiking and they terrify me.

>>547 Mushrooms are certainly weird but they are fascinating as well! Though I have to correct you somewhat because the actual fruiting body of the fungus is not a single cell and I would argue that the mycelium has way more multicellular characteristics. >>548 I have a degree in biology and was always ashamed about how little I can identify when walking through the forest because I went the 100% labrat/computational route. Indeed, naming things gives us the ability to differentiate and actually *see* things.

>>552 I can sympathise... I have done a fair bit of computational linguistics, have had an approximation of the following conversation a few times: them: oh you're interested in linguistics! neat, how many languages do you know? me: ...one

>>546 Update: Managed to convince 5 of my friends to join me. This is going to be great.

>>589 Nice — expecting a full report!

>> 546 I live close to a huge forest ecosystem. I went to a "mushroom fest" (everything was wholesome and PG) where I told our local mushroom cultivator that I wanted to learn how to forage, I got his card, and he told me about an upcoming class he would teach on foraging. I had this really cool vision at the time that foraging could be an excuse for me to spend time out in the forest, especially with my family. The next week I got into the worst in car crash of my life (again, perfectly PG, no drugs or alcohol involved) and I just spiralled for a while. When I got my feet back under me I went to look at the foraging class but it had been cancelled. I'm guessing it was cancelled for lab of interest. Now I can't feel the same allure about foraging since the accident and I feel awkward about reaching out to the guy who was supposed to run the class. I'm fairly confident he'd still teach me if I gave him like $100. But I'm avoiding his section of the farmer's market because I'm sad about the whole thing. Anyway thanks for reading my webblog pls put advice in da comments

>>606 You forgot to attach this pic to your post. You want to learn, you have the card of a teacher, just contact him (Would you be open to teach one on one ? I want to learn X and Y and I am interested in Z).

>>607 Yes, you've got me there. I'm even in a foreign country so I don't really have an excuse. My intention is to start studying in earnest again before the end of the year.

>>610 If you are located in a somewhat temperate area of the northern hemisphere I recommend hitting up your teacher quite soon because mushroom season is starting right about now.

>>607 I am le sad. I am a creature who contemplates his own mortality. Many such cases. >>611 Strange? My local foraging season is April.

>>591 Well here's the requested trip report. The mushroom course was organized by a local adult education centre type thing. I booked 6 spots for me and my friends and we showed up at the meeting point around 9am on a Saturday. We were greeted by around 10 other attendants and a tiny retired botanist lady who has been doing these courses for 40+ years, is a member of the national mycological society and part of a countrywide effort to map mushroom distributions. After a brief introduction we walked a short distance to a nearby beech forest that is close to a nature reserve but not part of it. That means its legal to collect mushrooms there while profiting from above average ecosystem health. Mushroom lady told us to swarm out and collect every mushroom we can find for 15 minutes. After returning we all handed our bounty to our teacher and she went through every single species and explained how they can be distinguished from similar looking ones, ecosystem function and other stuff. We also got to touch and smell every single shroom. The whole explanation took around 1h which was quite a lot especially in the cold late September weather. There was way too much information to retain everything but it was still super interesting. Then we walked to another part of the forest and repeated our 15 mins of foraging. In the following second lecture she told us more about different species. I collected a rare amanita species (first observation of the year in our region) which was pretty cool. I also collected sheathed woodtuft which is a very good mushroom for cooking but can be easily confused with a species called funeral bell or deadly skullcap. That one can fuck up your liver or plain kill you quite easily when ingested. But I trusted the lady and checked various internet resources and my guidebook to confirm that I got the edible species. I later went back to the spot where I found the woodtuft and collected some more. Then I made some delicious creamy mushroom sauce over pasta and enjoyed them immensely. A friend of mine who is a geologist and we are probably going for another foraging session next week.

Thanks for the report. I think you're brave to eat the mushrooms you identified yourself but it sounds like it paid off! What is an Amanita? Like a genus?

>>693 Yeah it has been more than 36 hours after eating the mushrooms and I would be in intensive care or dead if I had misidentified them lol. Amanitas are indeed a genus of mushrooms. The most famous one is the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria).

>>695 Is it common for people to put themselves in the hospital because of foraging mistakes? I know there was that case of the family in Australia recently, though in that instance it seemed like it was malicious.

>>698 According to a 2020 review paper there have been 4412 cases of inpatient treatment caused by mushroom poisoning between 2000 and 2018 in Germany (where I am from). 22 deaths, 90% caused by death cap.

>>700 That's actually a lot. But I can also believe that Germans are more keen on foraging than most nations.

Hi, OP here, here's my chanterelle haul from today. Additonally, a few assorted hedgehog mushrooms and a bay bolete. The end of mushroom season is coming quick here in Central Europe but I am already excited about morel season in spring!

>> 843 damn i'm jealous

>>843 look delicious, would like to see you post what you make with them.

>>850 I usually do something like in picrel, fry up the chanterelles, add onions, then a bit of broth and cream and if you have some around a bit of white wine. In the end, a bit of parsley and have it on spaghetti or, even better, fettuccine.