Foragers Standards
Mushrooms are considered to be an extremely important part of the fungi kingdom. Moreover, it has numerous advantages when comes to strengthening the immune system. Above everything else, mushrooms can be grown easily at home and they are easy to store. However, when the wild mushrooms, which are hazardous for health are utilized, it can have extremely harmful outcome. The utilization of harmful mushrooms can even result in the death of the human beings. Therefore, it is extremely important to use the right kinds of mushrooms.
The difference between edible and the wild mushroom cannot be found easily. This requires a lot of practice as well as dedication to master this art. However, some foragers which have contributed their life in this process have developed many ways to distinguish between these two types of mushrooms. In order to fulfill the purpose, they have developed certain basic standards against which the mushrooms are measured before they are used. This chapter intends to focus on these standards, employed to distinguish among the mushrooms. …show more content…
On the contrary, many foragers are of the view that the developed standards are not of any use.
These standards turn out to be vague and useless in many cases. As this is a serious matter of life and death; therefore, no risk can be taken in this regard. Therefore, only those standards must be observed and fulfilled, which are accepted by majority of the people. Moreover, these standards have proved themselves that they can help foragers while discriminating the mushrooms. Therefore, this chapter is focused mainly upon those methods and approaches which can be used to accurately differentiate between edible and wild mushrooms:
Following are some of the methods used to differentiate between mushrooms, while hunting for them in the
wild:
1. Learn about all of the species of mushrooms:
To begin, get to know about all of the species of mushrooms available for eating. Mushrooms have about a thousand species. Out of these species only a few hundreds can be used for eating purposes. Therefore, before you begin to start foraging get a book with focus on edible mushrooms and learn about them. Once you have got knowledge about them, you can identify them and use them. This will turn out to be a huge advantage for the forager.
2. Search about the mushrooms which look alike:
Some of the poisonous mushrooms look exactly like those species which are edible. In such cases it becomes difficult for the forager to differentiate among the two. In these situations, your knowledge will help you find the right kind of mushroom. Some of the wild mushrooms look likes the simple white button mushroom. The white button mushroom is edible; however, its wild look alike is not. Therefore, when you utilize the wild mushroom, you can put yourself in danger. Thus, make yourself aware of the wild look alike of simple edible mushrooms.
3. Spots on the caps of wild mushrooms:
Another standard created to check the quality of the mushrooms is the spots on the caps. Some of the wild, harmful mushrooms have spots on their caps. This technique is used by many people to check the quality of mushrooms. Fly amanita is one of the common type of deadly mushroom with spot on the cap this mushroom belongs to the class of Amanita Muscaria and is extremely harmful. Therefore, some of the standards, which are established by foragers, are extremely helpful in analyzing the mushrooms.
Therefore, it can be concluded that where mushrooms possess numerous nutritional value, they can be deadly as well. Therefore, it is extremely important to identify the mushroom first and then utilize them. On the contrary, if the mushrooms are not analyzed before use, then they can prove themselves to be very dangerous. Hence, we have added some points which help in distinguishing the poisonous and edible mushrooms. Just in case, you eat any poisonous mushroom, you must rush to the doctor with in no time. Moreover, a few other steps which must be taken after the utilization of wild poisonous mushrooms are included in the last chapter of this book.
The difference between edible and the wild mushroom cannot be found easily. This requires a lot of practice as well as dedication to master this art. However, some foragers which have contributed their life in this process have developed many ways to distinguish between these two types of mushrooms. In order to fulfill the purpose, they have developed certain basic standards against which the mushrooms are measured before they are used. This chapter intends to focus on these standards, employed to distinguish among the mushrooms. …show more content…
On the contrary, many foragers are of the view that the developed standards are not of any use.
These standards turn out to be vague and useless in many cases. As this is a serious matter of life and death; therefore, no risk can be taken in this regard. Therefore, only those standards must be observed and fulfilled, which are accepted by majority of the people. Moreover, these standards have proved themselves that they can help foragers while discriminating the mushrooms. Therefore, this chapter is focused mainly upon those methods and approaches which can be used to accurately differentiate between edible and wild mushrooms:
Following are some of the methods used to differentiate between mushrooms, while hunting for them in the
wild:
1. Learn about all of the species of mushrooms:
To begin, get to know about all of the species of mushrooms available for eating. Mushrooms have about a thousand species. Out of these species only a few hundreds can be used for eating purposes. Therefore, before you begin to start foraging get a book with focus on edible mushrooms and learn about them. Once you have got knowledge about them, you can identify them and use them. This will turn out to be a huge advantage for the forager.
2. Search about the mushrooms which look alike:
Some of the poisonous mushrooms look exactly like those species which are edible. In such cases it becomes difficult for the forager to differentiate among the two. In these situations, your knowledge will help you find the right kind of mushroom. Some of the wild mushrooms look likes the simple white button mushroom. The white button mushroom is edible; however, its wild look alike is not. Therefore, when you utilize the wild mushroom, you can put yourself in danger. Thus, make yourself aware of the wild look alike of simple edible mushrooms.
3. Spots on the caps of wild mushrooms:
Another standard created to check the quality of the mushrooms is the spots on the caps. Some of the wild, harmful mushrooms have spots on their caps. This technique is used by many people to check the quality of mushrooms. Fly amanita is one of the common type of deadly mushroom with spot on the cap this mushroom belongs to the class of Amanita Muscaria and is extremely harmful. Therefore, some of the standards, which are established by foragers, are extremely helpful in analyzing the mushrooms.
Therefore, it can be concluded that where mushrooms possess numerous nutritional value, they can be deadly as well. Therefore, it is extremely important to identify the mushroom first and then utilize them. On the contrary, if the mushrooms are not analyzed before use, then they can prove themselves to be very dangerous. Hence, we have added some points which help in distinguishing the poisonous and edible mushrooms. Just in case, you eat any poisonous mushroom, you must rush to the doctor with in no time. Moreover, a few other steps which must be taken after the utilization of wild poisonous mushrooms are included in the last chapter of this book.