When I set out to live in the forest I imagined one day my house would be surrounded by mushrooms, as are the images of forest houses in fairy tales. It seems that day has come and a big colony of these little fellas took residence right outside my house.
I've looked up if I could find what species they are but had no luck. They grow under willows but there isn't much info about shrooms that grow under these trees, only those that grow directly on the stump.
Here they were in a less mature state. They started from very dark brown and as they matured their colors became lighter as seen in the first picture.
A little experiment
Disclaimer: The following is highly discouraged by most people, only do it if your faith in life is high, have your self-healing abilities unlocked, and also if you don't see death as your enemy. Ok, that sounds cocky, but its no joke either, let me know in a comment if you're interested in these abilities and I'll do a post about it.
Many people open big wide eyes and a look at me with less than little approval when I talk about how I taste almost any plant or mushroom I find in the wilds. These shrooms were no exception.
When trying them raw the bitterness was supreme and I was forced to spit it out immediately. I assumed that they were non-edible for a while, but then I remember that there are quite a few mushrooms that can be boiled and rinsed to render them edible.
When I said that high faith in Life was necessary in the disclaimer, I meant that I want to believe that Nature won't put any poisons right outside my house unless it wants me dead. And if it wants me dead, well... no point in me hanging around here is there? I mean, if Nature wants you dead then it's kind of over for you anyways. So I just put faith that these shrooms are there for a reason. They could even be psychedelic, but the bitterness puts me off from eating them raw. Might give it a shot some day.
I cut a handful and put them to boil. After some ten minutes I rinsed them and boiled them again. I was on an empty stomach, which I highly recommend if you're trying out something wild and unknown, as your senses and intuition heighten. The hungrier you are, the more perceptive you can be.
I slowly tasted one of the cooked mushrooms, taking my time to let all the different sensations come over me. The taste was familiar, typical fungi goodness, and the texture was really nice and meaty too. I ate the whole cup throughout the morning, one at a time, taking time to process.
This was two days ago and I'm still alive, so they're not deadly. However, this doesn't prove they are edible as some mushrooms have toxins that slowly accumulate in your organism. Actually, most foods have these, but it depends on the dose and the rate of consumption whether they will be harmful to you. It's also important to note that I live on a plant-based diet, with a lot of fresh veggies from the garden so my detox rate should be above average. Could be sounding cocky again, but not my intention, just stating things that can be read in many studies.
Further experimentation
So seeing as I had no kind of intoxication after two days, I decided to do some preservation to save some food for a day of need. Since I have no way yet of being sure if they're edible, I'll rely on eating them with nice periods of time in between to make sure my body can process them appropriately. After all, many foods we've actually mutated to consume, such as milk. (Also to note that animal protein kills more people each year than mushrooms).
I proceeded to put a larger cup of mushrooms to boil, meanwhile I sterilized a glass jar to save them in. The jar goes inside a cup with water, which at the same time goes inside a pot with water. This is to prevent the glass from touching the hot metal directly and thus breaking.
Sorry about the odd coloring, I did my best to edit the picture so that the thyme could stand out from the background grass... this was the best I could do 😅
While the heat did it's work, I went to the garden and gathered some thyme and chives to add to the preserve. I find that chives are excellent to add extra flavor.
By the time I had chopped the greens, the mushrooms were already boiling. Notice the color change from the previous image.
After the second boil I put the shrooms in the sterilized jar along with the greens and generous salt.
Then some water that was mixed with boiled water so that it was hot enough to do some extra sterilizing, but not so much to be a danger to the jar.
Unfortunately, I didn't use a proper sized jar, because I hadn't considered the reduction in size of the mushrooms. This one was too big. But it's no problem, if there is another flush of mushrooms I can sterilize another one and transfer these there, along with the others.
Conclusion
I know people few people will ever recommend that you do this at home. If you're afraid of what might happen DON'T DO IT. But if you are like me and would prefer to trust Nature and reduce to the minimum the consumption of foods that were grown with pesticides, herbicides, genetic modifications, and so on, I think this would be a good way to try out unknown mushrooms to increase the diversity and abundance of a natural, plant-based diet.
Thanks for your time and attention 🍄