Well
I just posted a lengthy reply
and lost it all....
OK
LOTS of shrooms are very easy to identify.
the king Bolete or Porcini
is tooooooooooo easy to know ... look for the netted stalk,
I will post a king Bolete section later.
The Shaggy Lepiota has one lookalike that is a piece of cake to distinguish here in the PNW
and one can go to local parks or lowland cedar and fir forests
where there is LOTS of ground covergae of cedra droppings and fir needles and pick bags full of poundage ...
because NOBODY os picking them;
and they are FANTASTIC.
when the second flush of shaggy's bust out this November hopefully I will post some images of the Lepiota bulbs.
You take a big fat Lepiota Bulb,
pop the stem out,
fill with a pre fried mix of garlic onion and ground ...meat...
or Amy's veggie burger...
whatever filler you wanna make...
fill the bulb anf bake.
Or just cut em up and fry with butter and olive oil
and taters and eggs.
I go up in the mountains for single day forays
to specific areas that are as pristine as possible,
specifically for king boletes..
Up near washington pass at 6000 feet
I found enormous Boletus Montanus
but my ex GF lost my images.
When cut or cooked this Bolete turns deep Purple.
From this Bolete,
also called Bondwarzewei Bolete,
is an anti cancer compound that has been recombinated for
patenting purposes
.I also found what are referred to as Giant Sawtooth Boletes
at the same location.
One fellow nentioned
Red Amanitas with white spots.
Amanita Muscaria.
is NOT TOXIC
as in containing deadly Amantins that are found in
amanita phalloides,
which is often mistaken for an Agaricus Meadow Mushsroom button.
Amanita Muscaria however will make you throw up
more times than not, then you get high.
NOT recommended.
Up in the mountains sometimes
I scrape the white spots off.....ugh...slimo disgusto...
and under the top skin of the yellow or red caps,
is a layer of yellow shroom meat.
This is where the highest concentrations of active muscimol
is located for the adventurer.
I merely chew and hold a swath under the tongue for awhile,
and catch a buzz.
i have no desire to throw up by fully ingesting.
Amanita Muscaria "grades" to a brilliant yellow as well,
and these are more potent.
i will post pics eventually.
If you take the red and yellow ones,
scrape off the white spots carefully,
and very slow dry under low heat,
you will get Caps that are incerdibel beautiful.
the yellow Amanitas turn an incredible irridescent Gold.
The most potent Amanita is the Pantherina.
Not recommended.
A group of "veterans" in olympia Wshingtion ran into a rather potent bartch and passed out then forgot to breathe
and ended up in the hospital.
The problem with these shrooms is that one amanita
will be three times stronger than another.
Look to the thicjness of the yellow meaty section
just under the skin.
once again ...not recommended... fooey.. but...heh
another EASY to harvest EDIBLE mushroom
is the White Oyster
or
Pleurotus Pulmonarius
It grows in JUNE ... an off season shroom here,
and you can pick BAGS full...
Nobody picks em....
But I do
here is why
A cluster on a tree in local park
size comparison of above cluster harvested for eating
LOL
this one is a
Bitter Bolete.... not a Butter Bolete.... HARD AS A ROCK
but
not too tasty...... Mt Baker
I will get some pics tomorrow of the ****akes growing here now in the cold very slowly.
They are in second season of production !!!
here is one of last years big ****akes...
I found it under a log that was discarded as a failure...LOL
and it truned out to be the besyt log,
but it took 2 years to pop the ****akes as it is a 13 inch wide log.
It weighed 6.5 ounces fresh... it was FAT
****akes have Lentinan ... a great antui cancer compound
amanitas fresh in the high mountains taste like nuts.,