How I learned to forage wild mushrooms without dying

I am so grateful for any support you choose to give, financial or emotional! 🙏 This week's episode is about foraging for wild mushrooms and how I learned not to die by eating them. I studied a book and used it in conjunction with an app to help me identify mushrooms.

NOTE: This book is specific to Europe and Britain. If you live elsewhere, you should get something specific to your area.

[Emma-ckxh]

I don't know if you're aware but when foraging you should put them in a mesh bag rather than the Tupperware. This is for the mushroom to still be able to spread it's spores as you walk. Love the video!

[MCPeeBoy]

In central Europe, Slavic specifically, it is very common for people to go in the forests nearby their homes and pick mushrooms. People would get home with huge baskets full of large mushrooms that they would later either cook right away or somehow conserve in jars in brine or dry them. It is almost a national sport for the elderly.
Also if you go foraging again, use knife to cut near the shaft. Don't yank it out. It disturbs mycelium and slows down growth.

[Adio_]

In the UK it is not a tradition to pick mushrooms, but here in Slovakia and other central european countries almost everyone goes and forages edible mushrooms and is almost like a recreational sport.

[bird]

I’m glad you got it on your first attempt. It took me a couple deaths to get it down.

[radosawkarwacki]

Picking mushrooms is a popular family activity here in Poland. I was picking mushrooms a kid with my parents and we still do it. Every family has their own favourite "secret" spots where the best ones grow, and so on. If you stick to the few easy to recognize species, you're always fine. Those are the species that are really obvious and it would be almost impossible to confuse with anything else here - like porcini.

[Flippokid]

Fortunately I had a little bit of start-up help. Experienced people pointed out the Chicken of the Woods to me, and then I started learning about the beginner level mushrooms. Boletes (if it has a dark head it's always safe to eat), Blackening Polypore (not very tasty but a lot of proteins), Oyster mushrooms, Cauliflower... When I found one I would try to identify it with an app (the app sucked though, so I tossed it out after 3 misidentifications) and bring it home and do more research like you.
Now I got 2 guides and a ton of knowledge more, and I'm starting to dive into the Russulas. Supposedly very tasty, but also very easy to confuse with inedible or even toxic counterparts.

I can't stress how much fun it is to go through the forest and interacting with it instead of just barging through. Also it feels like real life Skyrim when you stand in an area and slowly start seeing more and more Amethyst Deceivers pop up as your eyes adjust.

[abrahamlovegrove]

Just came back from a mushroom hunt with 4 kilos of porcini! You're right, they don't taste like any other mushroom, and they taste amazing!

[denialz]

mike is probably the only non-pop star celebrity that I'd actually love to meet

i feel like he's just like the most chill dude of all time

[ozibornwaterstorm]

I am from the Czech republic and mushroom foraging is EXTREMELY popular. Every family does it and has heaps of fun doing it. Not long ago me and my family were able to find over 1.5kg of one specific type of mushroom (I am unsure what as to what it is called in English) and we ate it all within 3 days!

[JirkasCZ]

Thanks for great video with reasoning about foraging mushrooms. In my homeland - central Europe, everbody is used to forage mushrooms. In the woods is located large amount of species, but ordinary people is driven by only one rule - pick only that you know. No need to know them all. In total from all possible edible species people mostly forage only 10% of edible species and still everybody is taking huge baskets of mushrooms every visit of the forests.

[Goldenka]

Here in Poland we're now in the middle of mushroom forage frenzy :D It's almost like national sport, hehe. Tasty mushrooms I wish you.

[scottpoulin]

I've always been fascinated about stenographers in court rooms and how the stenotype machines work and how difficult it would actually be for someone to learn the system they use to transcribe at 360 words per minute in real time! Would be interesting to see you attempt something like this!

[rakiyeaah]

What an interesting video! Here in Italy it's pretty common for elderly people to forage mushrooms, because they have a lot of experience and can easily identify them. In Italy the national health care system has centres where you can take your mushrooms and get them checked by experts, if you are not sure whether they are safe to eat.

[DS-qupq]

Just be cautious about where your book was published. European mushrooms are different to American. Here in Australia the number one cause of mushroom poisoning is misidentification, by experienced foragers, who got their experience from other countries. There are many poisonous lookalikes here that would be "unmistakable" in other countries. Also, I have used those apps here and find the opposite, they are extremely unreliable here.

[piposanchez]

I live near the base of a mountain, 5 min drive and I'm at the entrance of a forest. Lovely place for a hike/dog walk, and most of my life I've been meaning to take up foraging for mushrooms. I absolutely love mushrooms, even raw, so I think this video (recommended by a friend) will be the push I need to take up my new hobby :)

[sleepyjesus]

IMO, the easiest way to safely get into foraging mushrooms is chanterelles. I'm specifically talking about Cantharellus cibarius because, at least in Northern Europe, it grows so early (in late July onwards) that not many other mushrooms are yet up. So, it's not hard to identify it. It is delicious, easy to cook and almost never has any maggots or other creeps in it. Also, if you find a good spot you can literally find several kilos of it.

[TheProsnurfer]

mushroom picking is a great hobby. i got in to it when i was 15 in north eastern usa. when you get a small harvest and satue them its quite the experience. it also expanded my interest in foraging from berries, roots to wild onions. when you find edibles in the woods theres magic like catching a fish. in my teens we would spend hours in the fields looking for subbs and on a few occasions we got a big harvest to dry and make tea. im glad you are professional with multiple sources and a good book. every mushroom hunter needs a good book that can get dirty.

[deividasb]

Great video! I've been mushroom foraging lots of time in my home country of Lithuania. I usually look for chanterelles which are delicious when cooked. They easy to spot and there's absolutely loads of them. You can come home with buckets of them if all goes well. I also very rarely found some porcini mushrooms, which are usually always infested by bugs. I've also spotted some dangerous and even deadly mushrooms before such as fly agaric and even green, and grey deathcaps. Happy foraging!

[Kamehouse]

Loved this vid. I grew up in a smallish flat, and while we all had books in our rooms, the "main" library was in the tiny toilet. People would never fail to comment on it the first time they'd go to the loo when they were at ours. I'd come home from school in the freezing cold, go straight to the loo (which had the benefit of having a radiator in a tiny space), and sit there reading my book or something from the shelves, sometimes for hours on end until I'd hear someone else get home ! Hadn't realised how much I missed it until this video, and hope I can recreate that space sometime soon. Thanks for the memory, made my day.

[piernik]

Hey Mike if you find some Saffron Milkcaps fry them on a pan with butter and salt, eat with good bread. My favourite part is just dipping bread in the butter. Its amazing. Real delicacy here in Poland. Foraging mushrooms is so common in Poland that its really strange for me to think people in UK don't do it like us.