Tuesday 31 August 2010

'Srooms

The abundance of rain here this summer has meant that there are TONS of mushrooms springing up all over the woods. TONS!!!

I went online the other day searching for guides to what mushrooms are edible. I discovered that there are over 45,000 species of 'srooms in Alberta - a good number of them poisonous. A few deadly.

The websites I found had a good number of warnings not to eat ANY wild mushrooms, but my question is - are these the same folks that put warnings in toaster packaging telling you not to use them in the bathtub???

I mean, I get that these things are ugly...


...and probably not good ones to eat (indeed - Fletch ran over to them on his run this morning, took one sniff and headed off to find something else to play with).

But these guys have been munched on a regular basis over many years by my puppies...




And the squirrels collect these ones...



... and I've not had any of them banging at the door asking to use to the phone to call the poison control hotline.

Now again, these ones don't look friendly..


..but I'm pretty sure these ones are...



But what about these??


Or these?





I know, I know... but it just seems like such a waste!!! What I need is a guinea pig...




Oh Mark......dinner is ready!!!

(just kidding...sort of)

Karen

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please Karen don't eat these or touch them!! They all look bad.

JoAnn

mushmore said...

I sure like your humor with the camera, please don't ever stop doing what you do. It is great fun to see what you come up with next.

Anonymous said...

Anything with a scientific group called an LBM (aka little brown mushroom) is one to pass on. Even those scholars in the museums can't figure some of them out!

deb said...

Do I detect a "Srooms" litter in the future.

Love the pic's Karen, each one has a personality by the time you finish photographing it.

Unknown said...

Karen - I'm with you, I wish I knew more about which are edible and which are not. The dogs seem to have a sniffer for them and usually gobble up the ones that are edible before I even get to see them! Ahh well, better to leave the identification up to the dogs and squirrels anyway. I guess I'll just stick to trying to determine whether the stuff they stick in meal bars is edible. :)

Unknown said...

I agree Karen - your Blog is awesome! I love the pics and your humor is a welcome addition to my day!

Anonymous said...

One thing to keep in mind is that different mammals have different sensitivities do the same foods and drugs. People + chocolate = happy, dogs + chocolate = not so happy. I'm no mushroom expert but you could see the same thing were dogs can snarf down mushroom x but it'd make you sick.

Hooking up with a local mushroom group is your safest bet.

Cool pics!

NH Doug

Anonymous said...

I don't think I have even seen such awesome photos of mushrooms. And so many types! Your photos & captions are always so great. You give me something to look forward to every evening!
Sitka's Mom

Monique said...

hahaha picture number 9 is a Mario mushroom!!!! You can eat the mushroom in pic number 13 as long as its not over ripe yet otherwise there are nasties inside. Its really good in gravy.

Anonymous said...

An excellent book is called Mushrooms Of North America by Orson K. Miller, Jr. We've owned this book for nearly 20 years and still use it. It has great color pictures with very good descriptions. We have identified many yummy wild mushrooms. It also shows you clearly what to stay away from. I was not a mushroom eater until we got this book. Batter and fry, b-b-q, or hang them to be dried - just drop them into your spaghetti sauce. Mushroom hunting can be fun with the right book - another addictive hobby so be careful.

Carol

CrisNaugle said...

I love mushrooms and it drives me crazy to think all these delicacies are growing like weeds but I am too scared to try any! Not sure I trust myself with a book either... so frustrating!