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I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

blog.mycology.cornell.edu

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Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#101

Post by sharpneli »

peanutz454 wrote: post #95
dmitrybrant wrote: post #81

I grew up in Russia, and like in many other Slavic cultures, mushroom foraging was a time-honored family affair. Some of my fondest memories are of picking mushrooms with my grandmother, who taught me all I know about identifying them. I still forage them all the time here in the States. I'm sorry, but it continues to baffle me how someone can mistake an Amanita for a Coprinus (or Agaricus). To my eyes they're as dif…

> when there are so many great tastes and experiences right there at your fingertips. As someone who has cooked with exactly one kind of mushroom (button) I find this intriguing. I thought all mushrooms taste more or less the same. I may have eaten something at a restaurant, but don't remember anything unique.

They taste wildly different. Just like not all fruits taste the same. Or all veggies. Or all meat.

My personal favourite is Chanterelle. Yellowfoot is pretty great too.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#103

Post by wsc981 »

Not directly related but mushroom-guru Paul Stamets recommends against eating Portobello mushrooms or -if you eat them- at least cook them very very well. Paul doesn't dare to go into too many details regarding this mushroom though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ&t=6300s

Also, Enoki mushrooms should prevent some cancers as was seen in Japan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPqWstVnRjQ&t=6495s

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#104

Post by wiremaus »

dmitrybrant wrote: post #81

I grew up in Russia, and like in many other Slavic cultures, mushroom foraging was a time-honored family affair. Some of my fondest memories are of picking mushrooms with my grandmother, who taught me all I know about identifying them. I still forage them all the time here in the States. I'm sorry, but it continues to baffle me how someone can mistake an Amanita for a Coprinus (or Agaricus). To my eyes they're as dif…

Quite a few delicious and safe Amanita spp. out there. It's a genus to be careful in, but there are a number of species that can be eaten with a little experience. Amanita calyptroderma and A. vaginata for instance.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#105

Post by justanotherjoe »

Enginerrrd wrote: post #90
gatherhunterer wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ending almost reads like satire. He was picturing a happy, smiling liver and wonders whether it was that positive visualization or the massive doses of penicillin that did the trick? It’s like something from the Onion.

To be fair, I've watched a lot of people on the brink of death. (I was a paramedic for a time.) You could often tell the ones that would die despite very similar presentation to one's that would live. The difference was the ones that would live had fight in their eyes. You see that too with folks waiting for a loved one to get there before they die. They can push it back for hours or even days if they've got the figh…

Do you have anything i can read on the rescue stuff? This all might come in handy for when I'm dying one day.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#106

Post by alkonaut »

nlh wrote: post #76

Can someone give me a quick explainer on why it’s appealing to pick & eat ANY mushrooms in the wild at all? I’m probably just a dumb “city kid”, but I don’t see the appeal whatsoever. I’d love to get some perspective on why folks enjoy this.

I only pick the "best" ones around here (Chanterelles, boletus), and those happen to be risk-free because of how they look. I don't pick mushrooms where I'd need to use my judgement to decide whether it is deadly or delicious. It's also very few that are this toxic, and I don't know of anything I'd like to pick that even resembles it (I'd never pick a white mushroom, for example - and that alone lets me dodge the deadly one).

Of course if one doesn't enjoy being in the forest, and don't enjoy eating the mushrooms - there is little point to it.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#107

Post by alkonaut »

klipt wrote: post #83
linuskendall wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I am from (Sweden) many, many people make mushroom picking a regular habit. However, most who do are aware of what mushrooms are safe, which ones to take extra care in identifying (definitely all white ones) and which ones to never pick. Wild mushrooms are perfectly safe as long as you have some knowledge about it. We were taught by parents and on school trips.

Provided you don't assume that knowledge that works in Sweden works anywhere else in the world.

It doesn't - which is why a lot of people get sick in Sweden every year and it's heavily skewed to people who aren't Swedish. I'm not sure if it's because they lack knowledge entirely, or because the knowledge they had didn't transfer.

Few swedes would pick a white mushroom at all, and most would know that it at least shouldn't be white both on top and underneath because that's deadly.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#108

Post by tapland »

catalogia wrote: post #53
tapland wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I found out that of three people admitted in 2006 to Strong Memorial with Amanita poisoning, I am the only one to have survived; 66% died." The death rate for Mushroom Poisoning in the US was apparently something like 2.9 per year since year 2000. He's really just discounting the 99.something% who survive for effect because two died in the hospital he was at. If that is even true.

> "the 99.something% who survive" For this mushroom, it's certainly worse than that. It seems likely to me somebody quoted him the "without medical attention" survival rate. > "Mushroom poisoning is more common in Europe than in America.[71] Up to the mid-20th century, the mortality rate was around 60–70%, but this has been greatly reduced with advances in medical care. A review of death cap poisoning throughout Euro…

That doesn't change the point that he ended up in the same hospital that by chase had >2/3 of the total number of related deaths in the country.

The people dying was the outlier

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#109

Post by martingoodson »

If anyone wants to start eating wild mushrooms and doesn't want to poison themselves I recommend this approach:

1. Choose one edible mushroom species that is often found in your region and is difficult to mis-identify (ceps, giant puffballs, beefsteak, field mushrooms etc)

2. Get to know this species inside out and learn which species look similar to it, especially any poisonous species. Learn the visual differences.

3.Learn the diagnostic tests (spore prints, smell tests, color changes on bruising).

4. Go mushroom picking!

5. Don't eat anything until you've picked this species so many times that you have become expert in identifying it.

6. Start learning about a new species and repeat.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#110

Post by thaumasiotes »

Scoundreller wrote: post #74
whyenot wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Penicillin works by killing other similar things Pencillin is an antibiotic derived from fungi (Penicillium spp.). It kills bacteria. Bacteria and fungi are in two different kingdoms on the tree of life. These two groups of organisms are just about as dissimilar from each other as any two living things can be.

Other than they cohabit the same environments, hence why evolution/adaption has favoured the one that produces more bacteria toxin.

They live in the same environments and compete with each other for the same resources. Depending on your point of view, this is enough to make them more similar to each other than, say, lions and whales, which are both mammals.

Taxonomic closeness is only one kind of similarity.

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