Warning about picking your own mushrooms

Soldato
Joined
4 Sep 2005
Posts
11,453
Location
Bristol
I know that it's common knowledge that you shouldn't pick mushrooms to eat unless you really know what you're doing, but I have a story to illustrate just how important it is.

A lady that lives down the road from me went out and picked some mushrooms, as she had been doing for years. he then made herself a nice vat of mushroom soup, as she had been doing for years. The mushrooms turned out to be death caps, and... You can guess the rest. :(

Don't go out picking mushrooms unless you are an expert (in which case don't need to read this), or you are doing so with someone that is.
 
I remember picking my own mushrooms years ago.... suddenly everything became cartoon like. I was in trouble.... deep trouble. Now I just buy em from Tesco.
 
Yep, same thing happened locally a few years ago. Two ladies in their fifties went picking their normal mushrooms but unfortunately picked death caps.

It's also a really unpleasant way to die. Usually massive organ failure after a period of immense suffering; somewhere around a fortnight of immense pain.

Edit: I've just checked the story which is from the Isle of Wight 2010, a Thai lady had mistakenly picked the death caps. Long story short, when she called for an ambulance she failed to say about the mushrooms and instead believed it was caused by a Thai speciality of raw pork sausage. Who the hell would eat a raw pork sausage in this day and age???
 
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How do you mistakenly pick death caps. They are very distinctive.
Just stick with very common mushrooms and have a good book.
Even if your going for a mushroom with similar shape, death cap has white spores and gills unlike the edible paddy straw. Amongst a rancid smell and a few other charastics.

With with modern medicine, fatality rate is down to 20%, without treatment 50-90% fatality depending on age etc. it's responsible for 90% of all deaths caused by fungi in the uk.
 
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A quick google through bristol news tells me this is one of those facebook things.
Besides, I thought the slightest chance of cold has all the decent mushrooms in hiding?
 
I remember picking my own mushrooms years ago.... suddenly everything became cartoon like. I was in trouble.... deep trouble. Now I just buy em from Tesco.

So you can buy magic mushrooms at Tescos now? Will they stop at nothing in their quest for world domination?
 
Mushroom hunting could be considered national sport in the Czech republic. Its like golf for poor people and every year a few people die
 
With with modern medicine, fatality rate is down to 20%, without treatment 50-90% fatality depending on age etc. it's responsible for 90% of all deaths caused by fungi in the uk.

Maybe be better to die though than spend you surviving years waiting for a liver and kidney transplant.
 
I ate a few death caps once ... woke up with a sore arm and a dark coloured vein running from my elbow to the top of my shoulder .. was blood poisoning. Had antibiotics to clear it , was a good night tho :)
 
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