I'm sorry this is not following the correct format. I'll update info as I can. No spores yet. Thanks They are all over the yard and garden this ATM. Not even sure if they are all the same edit: I think they are the same as last year?
and...did you try any? Could they be anything bad I guess is the biggest question I have? There are many of them coming up and it would be a shame not to try once, but I don't want it to be the last I eat either.
Oh, hey! Good call Jeff, that's what I thought too. Still, I would wait for some RD or Alan to confirm or deny
I hear you. I'd like to be sure too. I guess this is part of the learning process. How to know that this is what it appears to be and not something else It's not like it's a choice mushroom but I don't want to avoid it out of fear and I don't want to get sick/die either. Thanks. I'll see what others say too. Any ideas how to be more certain?
Oh what's that quote. " there are bold hunters and old hunters. There are no bold, old hunters" Stay alive! Haha I thought they looked like some kind of toxic amanita. Then again...I don't know jack shit
they are leucoagaricus leucothites....formerly known as leucoagaricus naucinus, AKA lepiota naucina. to a skilled eye they are 100 miles from an amanita, which has a skirt-like veil or no veil. It has a lepiota veil, it is distinctive. Send me one and I will video myself eating it Contrary to some sayins, there are bold old hunters. Stay away from amanita cortinarius and lepiota (sensu-stricto) and you are not likely to die(this is not lepiota, in the strict sense)
Thanks RD. Have you ever tried them? I'll try them today and report. I guess I'll just try one or two and see if they agree with me first. One more available food provided by our loving earth I love it! Got more puffballs growing too. Pick a bunch of the big ones, now I've got the little studded ones (Lycoperdon perlatum) coming up as well as a bunch of other things. Not mush in the woods yet for me but my property is teaming with different fungi. An hour walk in the woods and I come back to find all this stuff out my door.
I just hope they don't live up to the name I not looking to get nauseous form L. naucinus. lol I'll report back. If you don't hear from me you'll all know what happened.
As an aside, and because it's a good--albeit dark and tragic, story ... I was living with a shaman out in Huautla, and our first ceremony was pretty dark and hairy. We took Ps. zapotecorum, and this particular shaman was kind of a contentious character, way into the sorcery side of things. I knew it was going to get hair when--after he exhaled following his opening prayer, the house was nailed by a bolt of lightning, sparks flying outta the walls. Anyhow, several pretty wild things came up during that ceremony, but at one particular point there was blood flowing from the effigy of the virgin down and onto the altar ... the altar in the Mazatec system is primarily a divinatory aid. Well, 'blood on the altar' is an omen of death. So we close up the ceremony, and have no real interpretation for what happened, the shaman is telling me that brujos are trying to kill me. Though I entertained the idea out of sheer morbid curiosity, from the get-go I actually was pretty skeptical. About three days after our ceremony, I wake up to the sound of the phone ringing and several loud-moans. Well, this particular shaman's ex-wife had a child with one of Maria Sabinas grandchildren. There are loads of issues with alcoholism up in Huautla, and several of Sabina's descendants are alcoholics; in fact, without question alcohol is more the drug of choice out in Huautla than mushrooms these days. Well, this young kid had moved in with a foaf of the shaman. The evening prior, this young man had committed suicide by hanging himself. Needless to say, all of this news--on the tail of a very powerful Ps. zapotecorum experience, was pretty devastating and intense. That afternoon, I took my dog for a walk down into coniferous forest on the northern side of the mountain the Mazatec call the duende, the Chicon or the Tokosho. He runs ahead of me to this clearing where there are several very old and large pine trees. I'm winding down the trail, and when I come out into the clearing my dog is laying with paws outstretched in front of the largest-oldest pine in the clearing. Between his paws is an absolutely enormous specimen of Amanita bisporigera, one of the so-called 'destroying angel' species. There's all sorts of old magick up on the Chicon, it was the first time I had ever seen this particular species, it was very largely and--and together with the blood of the virgin pouring down upon the altar, struck me as being particularly ominous.
So far so good. Nice texture, I only cooked the caps as the stems did not seem like they would be any good. Taste was very mild, so it was good IMO, what's not good sautéed in a bit of butter, olive oil with some salt & pepper I ate a bit more than I intended to
