It's peak morel season, post your hauls /out/

Complete beginner here, very interested in foraging. What is the best way get into mushroom picking without accidentally killing my self? Also what is the best way to learn about edible fungi in the area you live in?

>>2819827 (OP)
I didnt find very many and I left some for other people to find. Turns out most people just sell them. It kind of makes me sad. It was my first time finding morels. I cooked mine in garlic butter and had them with chicken. It was pretty good, although i like puffball the most.
>>2819832
Do a lot of research and maybe purchase a field guide to learn more. Only eat the ones you are 100 percent certain are safe. A good place to start is with giant puffball mushrooms because they are very unique and easy to identify. They usually grow in late summer and early autumn. It was the first mushroom that i identified, picked, and ate.

>>2819832
Best place to start is to just walk around and look at mushrooms you find. Search (your location) mycological society to get mentorship. If you live in a small town try searching the nearest urban center. Try your local library for books instead of buying some field guide right away. There are also several online resources for identification (Inaturalist, gooogle lense, etc.) ButI would only use these to get you pointed in the right direction. As the other anon said don't consume anything you haven't 100% positively ID'd. But also you don't need to be afraid of touching or playing with mushrooms, even the toxic ones are completely harmless so long you don't injest them. Wash your hands, or wear gloves if you're really concerned.

>>2819827 (OP)
The season was much earlier here in central NC. This was from back at the end of March.

Sadly I only know of a single spot that produces a handful of fruiting bodies a year, and I always leave some to spread the spores. I've got some cotton mesh bags to help the ones I do pick leave spores too.

>>2819832
Good advice given already, especially regarding starting with the ones that are easy to ID. Sure, you could try to go for the caesar's amanita, which is a highly-regarded edible, but it's in the same genus as so many other deadly toxic mushrooms that it's really not worth the risk. Meanwhile, things like
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactarius_indigo
or
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureoboletus_betula
are so distinctive (at least where I live) that it would be basically impossible to mistake for something else.

Another important thing to note: mushrooms that might be very easily identifiable, or have little to no poisonous look-alikes in one region, might easily be confused for poisonous mushrooms in another region. Supposedly a (relatively) large number of south-east asian immigrants mistook wild death cap mushrooms for the edible paddy straw mushroom which they were familiar with from their home region, and subsequently poisoned themselves. Or in other words, mushroom ID knowledge is localized.

>>2819832
>>2819949
You could also take pictures and post here for help in IDing, just don't be like the anon in pic related and take the first response you get as gospel truth. And if you do decide to post here, or anywhere else online really, to ask for help in IDing, keep in mind that substrate (what the mushroom appeared to be growing on, or in some cases near), spore-bearing surface (this is usually the underside of the cap in mushrooms that have a "standard" shape), and features on the stem (texture, presence or absence of certain structures near the cap or near the base of the stem) can be very important in narrowing down ID.

>>2819832
Most of the good edibles are unmistakeable. Chicken of the Woods, Oysters, Morels, Parasols, etc. Learn the identifying characteristics of mushrooms and don't eat anything you aren't 100% sure on. Learn the deadly and poisonous mushrooms in your area before leaning the edible ones. Find field guides specific to your area and explore iNaturalist.

Importantly, actually go outside, find mushrooms, and try to identify them. There are no rules about poisonous vs. non-poisonous mushrooms either.

>>2819827 (OP)
there are never any in the woods near my house even though it seems like prime habitat, sad

>>2819995
Go the day after a heavy rain. Mushrooms grow fast as fuck boi.

Found this raspberry slime mold yesterday. I thought it looked like a piece of tuna on nigiri.

>>2819827 (OP)
Cute animu.

Senpai, these grew in my frontyard. What are these?

Different cluster, but same species? They edible?

>>2821500
>>2821501
Might be Pluteus cervinus (was there a tree there?) but we'd need to see the gills and stem.

found these little buddies under a pine patch. I'm in mountaineous regions of mediterrenean europe.
any guesses?

1/2

2/2

>>2822002
>>2822003
those look like suillus, maybe really old bolet

>>2822001
>mountaineous regions of mediterrenean europe
you should watch this show, cacadors de bolets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBSFM6BBOxw

Does anyone grow their own mushrooms, wild or indoors, magic or otherwise?

>>2822682
I did all of the above for a minute. Try reading R Rush Wayne's "Growing Mushrooms the Easy Way" and use crushed lump charcoal any time a substrate recipe calls for perlite or vermiculite.

Anything with a ring on it is bad news. If it's red with white dots, party time. Im looking forward to get some boetes, man those are delicious. I find chanterelles meh. I've never seen morels around here.

What are these senpai? They taste good?

Chanterelles galore. This is probably the biggest haul I've had in 7 years or so of mushroom hunting. Gonna cook these up into a cream sauce to go with steak.

>>2824593
Not with morels or chanterelles, but I have a really bad habit of finding and picking mushrooms with every intent of cooking them, but then I leave them in my fridge until I have to throw them away

It's pathological, really

Dumping some mushroom pics taken across Georgia. The Southeast has been crazy rainy.


Yesterday’s haul.

King boletes, aspen boletes, and rocky mountain red boletes. Jemez New Mexico. Last year was a really good season. I hope this year is not a dry year because I already ran out of my stash.