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

[Scott Williams]

You have wonderful foraging up there, and much more varied than the East Bay
Hills where I cut my teeth with meadow mushrooms in the late 60's.  I make
several pilgrimages each fall and winter to pick a friends property and
environs, north of Gualala, just over the border of Mendocino County.  You
live in one beautiful place.  I also made an ethical decision 40 years ago
to stay away from the entire amanita family.  There are simply so many
really safe mushrooms to pick with no look-alikes.

On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 4:31 PM, Edward Anderson <mendoridered at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
> 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
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> ----- 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
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