[pct-l] Fw: Food Dehydrator Tips or Recipes?

[Edward Anderson]

Hey Shroomer, Thanks for your concern. I have been collecting and eating wild 
mushrooms since shortly after moving to Mendocino in 1973.
We have a saying up on the North Coast: " There are no old, brave, mushroom 
hunters". When we first moved there we talked to a Ranger at Russian Gulch State 
Park who told us of a recent incident in the park when an entire Italian family 
who were camped in the park died of mushroom poisoning. They thought they were 
collecting Coccoras but Death Caps were apparently growing amongst them. The 
delicious mushroom soup that they made in the Park was lethal.   I am very 
careful when collecting wild mushrooms - and I never collect any Amanitas. There 
are several species that I am very familiar with and eat whenever I can find 
them. None of these have poisonous look-alikes. I limit my picking to about 15 
species. 


I would not bring any book on the trail - too heavy and bulky. I only eat what I 
am sure of. That includes several greens and, of course, onions for my trout 
stew.

MendoRider  





 
----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Scott Williams <baidarker at gmail.com>
To: Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com>
Cc: Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes <diane at santabarbarahikes.com>; 
pct-l at backcountry.net
Sent: Tue, December 7, 2010 3:26:21 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Food Dehydrator Tips or Recipes?

Great books MendoRider.  Mushrooms Demystified is the Bible for West Coast 
mushrooms, and David Aurora is a wonderfully funny writer and local member of 
the Santa Cruz Mycological Society, or at least he was years ago when I was with 
the San Francisco Mycological Society.  However, it weighs about 5 lbs, and is 
bigger than most Bibles.  If you're inclined to bring a mushroom book in your 
pack, especially in WA, bring his field guide, "All that the Rain Promises, and 
More."  Much lighter, great pix and very funny.  He describes certain mediocre 
mushrooms as, "Better stomped than chomped, better kicked than picked."  One 
caveat however, learn mushrooms from a person who knows and not from a field 
guide, as some look so much alike in pictures, and the descriptions are never 
like handling them in the field with someone who can show you the differences up 
close and personal.  The classic in terms of this is the confusion between 
amanita caliptrata, (the cocoli, or cocorra), and amanita phaloides, (the death 
cap).  Caliptrata is edible and delicious, but pictures don't get across the 
differences between it and the death cap, which is a close relative.  When you 
hear of liver transplants and deaths it is usually the confusion of these two.  
When shown them side by side in the field, you would wonder how anyone could 
ever mistake them, but they do.  


But wild foods on the trail can so enhance the usual dried fare we live on.  And 
Steel-Eye, when our mountaineer, Swiss, vegetarian, Smiles was introduced to the 
wild onions of the Sierra she did an absolute dance on trail, and added them to 
her lunches and dinners from then on.  They are so delicious, and grow in such 
profusion over much of the trail.  Also in the desert sections were absolutely 
delicious lettuces, some very similar to endive.  Eating trout and wild salad 
greens sounds like a great way to go.

Shroomer