I always use store-bought mushrooms when I cook but this is downright scary - from The Atlantic:
Death-Cap Mushrooms Are Spreading Across North America
Between a sidewalk and a cinder-block wall grew seven mushrooms, each half the size of a doorknob. Their silver-green caps were barely coming up, only a few proud of the ground. Most lay slightly underground, bulging up like land mines. Magnolia bushes provided cover. An abandoned syringe lay on the ground nearby, along with a light assortment of suburban litter.
Paul Kroeger, a wizard of a man with a long, copious, well-combed beard, knelt and dug under one of the sickly colored caps. With a short, curved knife, he pried up the mushroom and pulled it out whole. It was a mushroom known as the death cap, Amanita phalloides. If ingested, severe illness can start as soon as six hours later, but tends to take longer, 36 hours or more. Severe liver damage is usually apparent after 72 hours. Fatality can occur after a week or longer. “Long and slow is a frightening aspect of this type of poisoning,” Kroeger said.
I know some people who forage - sending them the link to this article. The interview happened in Vancouver, BC.
And this:
The Amanita phalloides species accounts for more than 90 percent of mushroom-related poisonings and fatalities worldwide.
Yikes! It first appeared in B.C. in 1997 - a lot more at the article.
Leave a comment