I likes to eat

[2BHNTN]

Mushrooms. Especially morels, and Hen of the wood's.

[2BHNTN]

Here is a couple links for mushroom lovers. Compliments of Micus.

http://www.bluewillowpages.com/mushroomexpert/

http://www.morelmania.com/

and btw I make the mushrooms sticks like the ones shown in the Mania page. I have made them attached with leather strap, turkey spurs, beard, turkey tracks on handle. Kinda proud of them.

[micus]

I had to mix some pear-shapped puffballs, hen of the woods, tree ear, purple-gilled laccaria, honey mushroom,oyster with some onion, green pepper, celery, carrot, pimento, garlic, handfull of shrimp, cube of chicken bullion, various spices and ramman noodles for lunch today to stave off the morel craving.

[buckeye]

It wont be long now!

Micus do you eat the red mushrooms? I hear a lot of people dont, but know a lot of people that do.

[micus]

I choose not to eat the reds. They contain a toxin that accumulates slowly in your body. Proper cooking will remove the toxin (make sure you do not breathe the fumes while cooking). I hunt mushrooms year round and usually have an ample supply of various species on hand so choose to err on the side of caution.

[buckeye]

Thanks for the reply Micus, I had never heard not to breathe the fumes of the reds when cooking. I have eaten them in my younger days but chose to leave them alone now myself.

[Outdoorsfool]

Friday's menu is going to include some fried fish and morels!

[2BHNTN]

How's that OF ? Morels are not up yet or you going with some store boughts ?

[Outdoorsfool]

I know it's tough to believe 2B...but I actually have a freezer AND electricty!! This is the last of last year's. I found them the other day when digging for fish. If I'd known they were there, they'd have been gone a long time ago!!

[90acres]

My wife and I eat the false morels but I've gotten chicken with my kids and won't let them eat them. I've heard the buildup of toxin story but never been able to verify it's accuracy. So I'll take my chances, got to die from something.
Micus, where did you get the info on toxicity?

[coyotewhacker]

Hey 90 Acres...glad to have you over here with us. My neighbors around here all hunt mushrooms, but so far I have not seen any on our place, so the "good stuff" keeps passing me by. Maybe this spring if there's time between the fishing and turkey hunting. Again, glad you chose come and join us. More and more of your old buddies are showing up.
the old Coyotewhacker

[micus]

Michael Kuo

False morels grow almost everywhere that morels grow. This makes hunting for morels in the spring a risky enterprise, despite the fact that so many people feel confident. The risk involved with eating morels can be reduced, however, by becoming familiar with the mushrooms.

What's the risk? Death, to begin with. Though it is rare, it is well documented that false morels can be fatally poisonous. The poison in false morels is MMH, or monmethylhydrazine (a chemical also found in rocket fuel). Though MMH is not understood completely by scientists, there is no question about whether it is poisonous or not. It appears that MMH may occur in different quantities in different false morels (even members of the same species), that its presence may vary according to geography, that its effect on people may vary between individuals, and that its toxicity may be cumulative (raising the possibility of eating false morels safely for years and then, one day, croaking after one bite). Clearly, MMH is not to be messed with.

Despite scientific evidence that false morels are poisonous, they are eaten by many people. I concede this point. Many mushroomers in our area scoff at warnings about the "beefsteak morel," since they have been picking and eating them for years. These people are lucky. It is quite possible that Old Bob could eat beefsteak morels for 20 years, and one day keel over in the kitchen just from breathing the fumes of the cooking mushrooms. It's probably possible to press your lips to your car's exhaust pipe and breathe deeply once a week for 20 years without ever feeling the effects . . . does that mean you'd do it?

The "Scandinavia excuse" is worthless. Yes, false morels are picked, eaten, even sold commercially in Scandinavia. I lived in Finland for a year, and found plenty of false morels--"ear mushrooms" (korvasieni), as they call them. But I didn't eat one bite. It may be that, for some reason, the far northern latitude is related to reduced levels of poison. But even in Finland, reports of poisonings exist; the year I was there newspapers were beginning to warn their readers about possible dangers.

Even when it's not fatal, MMH is not a pleasant poison. You could be hospitalized, sick for days, or just throw up all night, depending on many factors. Mushroom author David Arora writes that false morels "have puzzled scientists for years because of the very narrow threshold between complete absence of discomfort and severe poisoning or even death" (893).
Do you want to approach that threshold? The only intelligent decision to make about false morels is to admire their beauty and move on; no person in his or her right mind should knowingly eat a false morel.

Cite this page as:

Kuo, M. (2001). False morel toxicity. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.bluewillowpages.com/mushroomexpert/false_morel_toxicity.html

[micus]

Thinking about edible mushrooms got me hungry so I dug out some chanterelles & cooked 'em up with duck eggs, onion & bell pepper. Temp. outside is 42--durn it.