MUSHROOMS ON THE LOOSE

I love mushrooms, eating mostly store-bought ones to be on the safe side. Only because picking and eating certain wild ones can be hazardous to your health. Eating some can kill you.

I had a friend who knew a heck of a lot about the wild ones. I trusted him. Only because I couldn’t trust myself to know which are good for you, and which are not. He moved away and took all that knowledge about wild mushrooms with him.

It’s this time of year – and even a little earlier – that you find them growing wild. What amazes me is where you find them. Often as not they pop up in our driveway, pushing up through the gravel and looking up at you as if it had been the obvious place to grow.

I was curious enough some years ago to buy a hardcover edition of ‘The Ultimate MUSHROOM BOOK’ authored by Peter Jordan & Steven Wheeler. They told us in small print under the title: The complete guide to mushrooms – a photographic A-Z of types and 100 original recipes.’

I picked one at random. Stuffed Garlic Mushrooms with Prosciutto and Herbs.

They weren’t fooling around telling the reader in the FOREWARD, ‘So long as you can identify absolutely accurately what you are picking, you will be safe’.

AUTHOR’S COMMENT: There’s a wild side to all this which stops you cold. It did me on hearing how some celebrities want to be buried in mushroom soup because it destroys the flesh much faster than letting Nature take its course.