Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
After you have brought the mushrooms home, remember that
many of those with gills can be safely identified only by making
a spore print of each individual. Young specimens of Agaricus,
Amanita, and Lepiota, for example, are difficult to recognize until
the caps have expanded sufficiently to allow the gills to release
the spores. But fungi that can be unmistakably identified by shape,
color, or similar obvious characters can be cooked immediately.
In fact, shaggymanes and inky caps cannot be kept, even in a
refrigerator, because of their peculiar liquefying habit. Others,
after being properly identified, can be kept in a cold, dry place
until you are ready to use them.
You may feel at this point, after so many warnings and cautions,
that hunting wild mushrooms to eat is a grim and dangerous
business. But the author guarantees — as can the thousands of
amateur mycologists and mushroom epicures all over this country—that
one excursion into the woods and fields, one dish of
these most delicious and succulent of all foods (simply and
quickly prepared according to any of the recipes in the last section
of this book) will transform whatever fears you may have
had into a lasting enthusiasm!
When you have reached this stage you may want to keep a
notebook in which you can record the kind and quantity of the
different mushrooms you have found, the dates on which you
found them, their locations, and on what kinds of soil, what trees
or stumps, they were growing. The experience you acquire in
this way will be worth any amount of book learning, and if you
keep the records accurately over a period of years they may
be of real scientific value. Since the mycelium from which the
mushrooms arise is relatively permanent, once you have learned
where certain kinds abound you will probably have assured yourself
of a supply for many years to come.
DATE: 9/24/42
Sample Data Sheet
LOCALITY: Hamline Ave. and County Road F. In oak woods 200
yards in from the northeast corner of the intersection.
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