Topic: Mushrooms

[idolminds]

In the last week my family (well, my mom, dad, and myself...my brother is a lazy bastard) have been walking the local forest preserves looking for mushrooms. Lots of different varieties, its amazing what you find.







I feel bad I didnt go with today (headache), because mom and dad think they found something very cool: a Destroying Angel. We're still trying to make a positive ID on it, but so far everything points to a DA. It is one of the most poisonous plants known to man. 30 grams will kill an adult human. Dad and I are going back in the morning to look at it some more (and I'll get pics!).

[sirean_syan]

That first one looks like it belongs in a coral reef or something.

Those destroying angels don't seem like much to look at, but I'll be damned if they don't have the best plant name I've ever heard.

[Quemaqua]

No kidding.  That's a badass fungus.  Neat thread.  I love mushrooms and always have.  I think because I read too much Alice in Wonderland as a child.

[Pugnate]

And here I was thinking it was something about drugs. But I love mushrooms. They taste so good in anything, especially soups or on pizza.  

But those are fantastic pics.

[angrykeebler]

sausage, pepperoni and mushroom pizzas are probably my favorite combo... mmmm mushrooms

[Ace_O_Spades]

mushrooms* are a vile beast that make you want to kill yourself if you're in the wrong mood.

never will I eat mushrooms* again.

[Raisa]

never?

nothing like a stuffed shiitake mushroom with cheese and chives. or garlic.. the best filling is parmesan, mozzarella and cottage cheese with some garlic and butter.. drizzle with olive oil and bake!  then serve with a pesto pasta and garlic bread. 

[PyroMenace]

Your becoming my wife, and shall cook heavenly foods in exchange for everlasting cyber love.

[idolminds]

He said mushrooms* not mushrooms. So yeah...never.

[poomcgoo]

I do love me a mushroom pizza.  They really are one of those perfect toppings that go on almost everything.

[sirean_syan]

"I always knew there would be mushrooms in hell." - Guybrush Threepwood

But yeah, I used to hate mushrooms but I've pretty quickly come around to loving them. Aimee showed me this stuff mushroom reciepe with lots of cream cheese and bacon that rocks... I actually think that's what turned me around.

The exception, of course, is shitike. They're just too strong (especially smell-wise) for me. I can take them in stuff once they're in there, but if I have to smell them being cooked or rehydrated (if they're dried) then I'm out.

[Raisa]

sav - you need to try nice big fresh shiitake, not the dried stuff.

I know someone who went mushroom picking for dinner.  They turned out to be magic mushrooms and he turned into a hyena for the night.

[Pugnate]

Shitike certainly has a name that indicates a strong smell.

[sirean_syan]

Yeah, I know fresh is several times better, but it's not exactly common around here and I'm not about to go out of my way to find it.

[poomcgoo]

Funnily enough, a friend of mine just called me informing me he got some mushrooms of his own.  Psylocybin at 2:30 AM can't be a good idea.

[idolminds]

Not sure I told you guys this, but our plan is to eventually start a mushroom farm. Shitake being one of our main growers.

My dad wants to also grow these wild mushrooms in sort of a living museum so people can see them all.

[sirean_syan]

Idol's gonna be a mishrum fermer!

[idolminds]

Cant spell fungus without F-U-N!

[TheOtherBelmont]

Those pics are cool Idol.

I'm not a big fan of mushrooms in food, especially when they are raw, but I'll eat them when they are cooked into something occasionally.

[Ace_O_Spades]

sav - you need to try nice big fresh shiitake, not the dried stuff.

I know someone who went mushroom picking for dinner.  They turned out to be magic mushrooms and he turned into a hyena for the night.

Uhhhhhhhh I can't imagine someone would pick mushrooms and eat them without knowing the species they were... That's just asking for a trip to the hospital

Your friend is lucky he ate shrooms and not one of hundreds of deadly mushroom strains.

Methinks he turned into a hyena on purpose.

[Cobra951]

I'm having a weird issue scrolling through idol's pix.  It's consistent, and happens only when I scroll down.  If I resize the page, or drag another window over top of the firefox window, it rights itself.  I've scrolled other oversized images on other sites without problems, including some of my own images on my http space.  I'm using Firefox 1.0.7, in case that matters at all.



Edit:  IE has no problem, so clearly it's a problem Firefox has interacting with Overwritten.  Maybe I should close it down & reopen.  Will try that.

Edit 2:  Restarting Firefox did not help.  Very weird.

Edit 3:  If I maximize the window (1024x768 desktop) it doesn't happen.  I usually have my browser full-height, but at about 800 pixels across.

[Quemaqua]

That is weird.  Some smart technical person needs to help.

But that's cool idol.  I want to come see the mushroom museum!

[idolminds]

Went out today for pics. Unfortunately, my dad couldnt remember the exact location, or someone/something took the destroying angel. Mom went out of town today...she'll remember exactly where it is. So we'll ask her when she comes back and I can try again tomorrow. For now, this is a picture my mom took with my camer when they found it. Its a little blurry (shes not used to digital), but better than nothing.



However, I did see other mushrooms to take pics of.



This next one is interesting. You know those classic red with white spots mushrooms that everyone thinks of? This is the same thing, only the yellow variety.



To give you an idea how large they are, my dad was laying town to take a picture of the one you see above, but there were more around. The caps flatten out and eventually "dish" like you see...but this gives you an idea of their size.



This last picture isnt a mushroom at all. See...the other day I showed my dad how to make waypoints on my GPS, so he could mark mushrooms to go back to later. Well, we tried to follow it to the destroying angel and it was way the fuck off. However, we stumbled across these plants. No idea what they are yet, but the neon pink stalks and white eyeball-like berries should make it easy to identify.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Once again, cool pics Idol.  That last plant is crazy looking, we need a botanist on the boards to identify it 

[Quemaqua]

My father in law is actually professor of botany.  I'll ask him and see what he comes up with!

And yes, very fun pictures.  I love this kind of thing.  There was a great book on mushrooms I saw a while ago, all color photos and such.  Pretty amazing.  Almost bought it just for fun.

[Raisa]

kids would love being around that place!!!  the best classroom for botany/science is outdoors.

The destroying angel looks so innocent and common.  how are you able to identify it?

[Cobra951]

Nice!  I see mushrooms more as a sign of too much rain and humidity than anything else.  But they do look striking in those photos.

Sorry to keep going OT, but that last batch of pix had no scrolling problems.  I'm guessing the issue is with all the pix butted up against each other.  Heh.  Whatever.  Just a heads up for whoever may care.

[idolminds]

kids would love being around that place!!!  the best classroom for botany/science is outdoors.

The destroying angel looks so innocent and common.  how are you able to identify it?

There are several features to look for. The cup at the base of the stalk, the veil (from where the cap breaks away from the stalk when it opens out), the way the gills connect to the stalk, the dark-ish center of the cap when it gets older (as seen in the pic above). To be really sure you'd want to do a spore print. But there are a lot of things to look for.

It is a very dangerous mushroom just for the reason you describe, though. It looks very simmilar to a lot of safe to eat mushrooms, esp when its young and hasnt opened yet. Many people have died because they picked a young one with the rest of their mushrooms and ate it.

[Pugnate]

Dude some of the pics look like they came from a magazine. And your dad has cool hair.

[Ghandi]

Funnily enough, a friend of mine just called me informing me he got some mushrooms of his own.  Psylocybin at 2:30 AM can't be a good idea.

Actually, funny story about that. Me and some friends were drinking on this keg a few weeks ago, and we were going to have a party, but no one wanted to drive up this mountain which was a good ways out of town, so there were only about 15 or so of us. So after about 6 hours of drinking, 7 of us decided to eat some mushrooms. Bad idea, in retrospect, I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't drunk. But I was up till 8 am staring up at the stars, it was quite enjoyable. The next day though, I felt like compete death. Worst. Hangover. Ever.

Nice pics, though. I've seen some cool mushrooms up here in the mountains, but I've never had my camera out to take pictures of them. 

[idolminds]

This one isn't much to look at as far as mushrooms go. I wish they were in a better location to take pics of them...but you have to take what you can get sometimes. I post them because its another one with a cool name: Dead Mans Fingers.



This shot is a little deceiving. These guys are pretty small. The piece of wood they are growing on was about the size of my fist.



This one is called "hen of the woods" or "chicken of the woods"...it looks kind of like their feathers and it supposedly tastes like chicken.



This one I found just a few minutes ago behind our house. It is a cup-type fungi.



We never did find the original destroying angel. However, I did find what we belive to be another one!

[sirean_syan]

Behold the doom and despair!

[Quemaqua]

Awesome.  Julia and I are enjoying following this thread.

[Pugnate]

Keep the pics coming. Pretty cool.

[PyroMenace]

That destroying angel looks freaking huge, at least from what I can tell by comparing it with the greenage on the ground.

[idolminds]

Actually, thats a kind of moss. The mushroom is only about 6 inches tall.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Whats funny about the Destroying Angel is that there is a growth near the cap of that one you took a pic of that looks like a wing.

[idolminds]

haha, I didnt even think of it that way. Thats the veil, and it looks like one part hasnt fallen away yet, creating the "wing".

[TheOtherBelmont]

*cue Sephiroth's music "One Winged Angel"*

[PyroMenace]

It looks like its waving at me.