{"id":4846,"date":"2017-02-07T16:13:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T21:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homesteaderdepot.com\/?p=4846"},"modified":"2017-02-07T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T21:13:29","slug":"mushroom-foraging-for-beginners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/2017\/02\/07\/mushroom-foraging-for-beginners\/","title":{"rendered":"Mushroom Foraging for Beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have you ever been tempted to try a wild mushroom but were too afraid? Everyone has an urban legend to share about a well-meaning hiker who ate a benign-looking wild mushroom and paid dearly for it. Undoubtedly, mushroom foraging is something of a science and deserves as much research before trying as gardening or raising livestock. Thankfully, there are a few foolproof (and tasty) species for beginners to sharpen their identification skills.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are thousands of species of mushrooms in North America alone, ranging from delicious or medicinal to nontoxic to poisonous. Here are a few starter tips to consider when starting your mycology journey:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Get to know what grows in your region. Just like wild edibles or garden vegetables, certain fungi thrive in different regions and climates.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep samples to test before consuming. You can\u2019t identify a mushroom just from one look. Carry a paper or mesh bag on hikes for each specimen you take home to examine. At home, you can take photos and examine its features to compare to an identification key\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep a hiking journal. Use this to note when and where you find certain fungi and to record your test results.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Know the basic types of fungi:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><b>Gilled<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mushrooms most closely resemble the button mushrooms you\u2019d buy at the grocery store. They have thin, blade-like gills under their soft caps, and a defined stem. <\/span><b>Polypore <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mushrooms grow in a stemless, shelf-like shape and have many tiny pores on their underside. <\/span><b>Boletes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are stemmed with large caps, but have an underside similar to polypores with many tiny holes. <\/span><b>Puffballs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> look exactly how you\u2019d imagine; like a puffball! They sometimes resemble misshapen marshmallows. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are several gourmet species that are easy to find and identify, such as the Chanterelle varieties, Chicken-of-the-Woods, or Morels. Turkey tail polypores have incredible medicinal value and are fairly easy to spot, but have a nontoxic lookalike. Many puffballs are safe and delicious, but some underdeveloped poisonous mushrooms resemble puffballs. There are no one-step hard-and-fast rules to determine edibility or safety of a mushroom, such as \u201call bright-colored mushrooms are poisonous\u201d or \u201call gilled mushrooms are edible.\u201d Before determining a mushroom\u2019s species, and therefore its usefulness, you will need to test it or ask help from a seasoned mushroom forager. The best way to get started is to get outside in your environment and start exploring! Soon enough, you\u2019ll become your region\u2019s mycology expert!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you enjoyed this, you might also like\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/ac883p2j6a402pvdyn7euajkqw.hop.clickbank.net\/?tid=NEWADS\">Home <\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/ac883p2j6a402pvdyn7euajkqw.hop.clickbank.net\/?tid=NEWADS\">Defense in the End<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/ac883p2j6a402pvdyn7euajkqw.hop.clickbank.net\/?tid=NEWADS\"> Times\u2026<\/a><\/h2>\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/8ef9flvm5e266ovn2ep3m6oq5q.hop.clickbank.net\/?tid=NEWADS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Natural Healing Secrets You Need to Know\u2026<\/a><\/h2>\n<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/fbc1di-o66zb4f5egeoen4h9eu.hop.clickbank.net\/?tid=NEWADS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eat Like Your Ancestors\u2026<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever been tempted to try a wild mushroom but were too afraid? Everyone has an urban legend to share about a well-meaning hiker who ate a benign-looking wild mushroom and paid dearly for it. Undoubtedly, mushroom foraging is something of a science and deserves as much research before trying as gardening or raising<\/p>\n<div class=\"blog-grid-button\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/2017\/02\/07\/mushroom-foraging-for-beginners\/\">Read More <i class=\"fa fa-arrow-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[173,229,390],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/survivalhomesteader.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}