WEBVTT - Mushroom Foraging, Part 1 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:07.040 And a little notice here at the beginning that this 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:09.680 is an insert because Robert and I we started talking 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:11.920 about mushroom foraging and we ended up going on for 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:14.840 like more than two hours. So so we're splitting this 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.760 episode into two parts. And and here is your warning, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.480 so be sure to not only listen to this one, 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:26.200 but come back next time. Welcome to About to Blow 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:36.280 Your Mind, production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.280 Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb, 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:41.800 and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we're going on the 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:46.200 Quiet Hunt. That's right, We're gonna be talking about mushroom foraging, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.040 which we we kind of touched on very briefly in 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:52.839 our recent episode about liking, and then I realized we 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.600 just had to come back to it because I guess 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.440 the basic genesis for this is that I've noticed a 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.440 lot more more mushroom talk and a lot a lot 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:06.680 more mushroom activity this year. Uh. Part of it has 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.720 been social media, for sure. I've noticed, um, you know, 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.840 people I know taking photographs of interesting mushrooms that they've spotted, 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:18.319 sometimes correctly identifying them or even harvesting them. And uh, 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:20.080 I have to admit that my own family. We've gotten 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:22.840 into identifying mushrooms on hikes, and we've even done a 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:27.559 little bit of foraging ourselves, but only with rati mushrooms 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.240 and chanterelles. In a way, mushroom foraging is is an 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.520 ideal social distancing activity, right, is something you can do 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.399 that in a way feels social because you take them 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:40.200 home and you take pictures of them, and you put 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:42.760 them on the internet, and everybody thinks it's beautiful and 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.160 they comment on them, and it's a way of interacting 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.400 in a significant, productive way with the world outside your house, 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.200 but you don't have to get close to anybody. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:54.560 it's I think part of it has certainly been COVID 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.600 nineteen restrictions on our lives, because some of us are 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:01.240 doing a lot more walks through either parks or you know, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.560 or hiking trails if we have access to them and 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:05.360 we're able to get to those. But even through our 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:10.800 own neighborhoods, like um, we we've harvested some some racial 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:15.640 mushrooms from just our immediate neighborhood environment just walking and 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.800 walking around spotting them and then ideing them, and then 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.240 also just ideing various other things that were not attempting 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:25.040 to collect. Um. It's a great it's a great way 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.000 to occupy your time to sort of how It's kind 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.840 of like the Pokemon go of the wild. It gives 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.880 you sort of um goals to achieve on your walks, 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.520 things to chronicle, and for most of us anyway, a 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.720 new topic to immerse ourselves in, you know, because prior 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.040 to the last couple of years or so, I really 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.280 didn't know much about mushrooms outside of like the few 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:51.040 varieties uh that I had previously consumed, or that you 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.520 can find at the grocery store or order on a pizza. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.400 But of course that's only a slim variety of of 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:01.480 of the mushroom world. There are some delicious, edible wild 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:06.440 mushrooms that that have resisted cultivation. Yeah, totally. And there's 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:08.919 some interesting reasons for that too, like one of them 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.000 being that tying back to our recent like an episode, 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.359 some mushrooms that are delicious to eat exists in symbiotic 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.360 relationships with other organisms, specifically often like plants and trees 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:23.960 that are difficult to recreate in a controlled environment. So 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.720 you can't just start a chantrelle farm, or maybe you could, 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.760 but you know, You're yield would be inconsistent. It's just 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:35.000 really difficult to do another thing, though, is It's funny 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:38.080 that we think of mushroom foraging a sort of the 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.720 the natural world version of Pokemon Go. It's it's a 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.000 sign of like how sort of mikerchief tamed our brains are. 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:49.480 That Isn't Pokemon Go really a sort of substitute or 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:53.360 surrogate for this ancient instinct we have to scour the 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.560 land for bits of edible plant matter and and other life. 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.280 It absolutely is and uh and and so that's why 0:03:59.920 --> 0:04:03.640 I encourage everyone to to, you know, keep listening to 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.600 this episode even if you're you're not that into mushrooms, 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.000 you're not interested in mushroom foraging, because we're going to 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.520 discuss mushroom foraging, but we're also going to discuss foraging 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.640 behavior uh in a in a broader sense. And I 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.360 think that's something that that that certainly you can e 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:18.919 gauge in. Just so when you're on a walk and 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:23.040 you're looking for something be it birds or mushrooms or 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:27.039 uh non existent Pokemon lurking, you know somewhere in the 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.360 GPS domain. Uh. And I think it also comes into 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:34.240 play in shopping, in sorting through a big box of 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.360 unsorted legos to find the pieces you're looking for. I mean, 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.520 it pops up in so many different human activities, and 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:44.159 it captivates us. It it is, It latches into a 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:48.640 part of our neural hardware because it is it is 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:52.360 part of what we're supposed to do. This is interesting. 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.120 I wish I had thought about this before we started talking, 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:56.680 so I could research it a bit, But it just 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:01.080 occurred to me. What makes the difference between search activities 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:05.200 that are intensely pleasurable and search activities that are maddening? 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.600 Like I'm thinking about search activities such as locating a 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.080 specific item within your house or a given room that 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.599 is not fun, that feels awful, you know, it's like 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.719 where are my keys? You just you just want it 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.520 to end as soon as possible. But on the other hand, 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.320 of course, foraging for mushrooms, playing Pokemon Go, or even 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.400 sometimes digging through a container of legos that can be 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.880 very fun, or searching for a puzzle piece. So what's 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.840 the difference. I mean, it might be the difference between 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.160 the search for the thing lost and the search for 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.440 the thing not yet obtained. Um, I'm not sure, but 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:41.719 I also have have noticed I think I've mentioned this 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.040 on the show before. I have found that jigsaw puzzles 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.720 the process of looking for the correct piece. For me, 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.520 I feel it's both like it's both kind of mentally 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:55.320 exhausting and frustrating and yet at the same time completely enthralling. 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:58.520 So I would in the past, I found myself helping 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.919 to put together a jigsaw puzzle and not really like 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.239 I'm asking myself, Am I enjoying this? Am I having 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:08.040 a good time? I'm not sure, but I also cannot stop. 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:10.520 I mean, I guess one thing we're highlighting is the 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.880 sometimes fuzzy line between work and play. A lot of 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.239 you ever notice how much video game time is taken 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.120 up with things that like are basically like they would 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:24.159 be work in the real world, but something about the 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.240 way they're framed just makes it a game instead. Yes, 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.760 so many of these games, especially you know, they they 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.040 want you to play regularly. It's not just play through 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.039 the story, it's play every day. So they give you 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.240 these little, basically grocery lists of things to do, and 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.680 you know, sometimes you see players complaining about it um 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.280 and and rightfully so. But but also there's something kind 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.040 of addictive about it, like, Okay, I need to go out. 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:51.120 I need to you know, find and scrap eight hats 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:53.839 in this post apocalyptic world, you know, something like that, 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.640 and uh, and it you can weirdly get into it. Yeah, 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.280 I gotta break rocks in my digital domain. And I 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.400 guess that that sort of introduces the slot machine element, 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.640 because if it's exciting, if there are variable, intermittent rewards, 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.560 I think that's the candy in there. M yeah, I mean, well, 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.480 sometimes there's like a random the reward is random, but 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.800 like sometimes like in follow Out seventy six, which um 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:19.800 which I know fans kind of go back and forth 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:21.920 on this particular game and the way it's designed and 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:23.960 all in the elements in it, but like a lot 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.320 of the sort of grocery list assignments you have, there's 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:29.520 not there's not really a random rewards. You know exactly 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:31.520 what you're gonna get, Like you're gonna get so many 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:34.320 like you know, atoms that you can spend in the 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:38.000 store or whatever. You know exactly what you're working for 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:40.280 with it. Um. So in that regard, I feel like 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:41.920 it it kind of falls in line with foragre But 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.880 then again foraging is also an exercise in not necessarily 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:48.240 knowing what you're going to get or knowing what quantities 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:49.760 you're going to get. And we'll we'll get into that. 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.000 Well yeah, I mean what if one of these digital 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.160 rocks you broke could kill you? Yeah? Yeah, And that's 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.640 gonna be a huge part of of mushrooms here. But 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:00.600 but before we get in going further, I do want 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.240 to just shows a couple more things. First of all, yes, 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.400 photography is a tremendously fun activity, uh to engage in 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:11.200 with mushrooms when you're scavenging them and finding them and 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.240 charting them in the wild. Spore prints are also a 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.400 lot of fun. Now this is when you um, you 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.720 can look up guides send how to do this online, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.880 but where you collect like the cap of the mushroom 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:22.480 and then you put it on a sheet of paper 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.560 and then cover it with like a glass container or 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:28.000 a bowl or something, and then the spores leave a 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.760 print of the mushroom cap on the sheet of paper, 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.120 which you can then photograph and share online or even 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.319 you know, I think they're ways to preserve it as well. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.280 Noting the emission of spores is a great reminder of 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:42.240 something we've talked about before, which is that when you 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.840 harvest a mushroom, you are not harvesting the entire organism 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.440 that you know, the fungus is a web of things 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.200 that live under the ground, usually or in some kind 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.559 of decomposing matter or parasitic on another organism. The mushroom 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:58.800 that you collect is the fruiting body that's like an 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:02.640 organ of the overall fungus. It's almost, I mean, not 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.760 exactly analogous, but the closest analogy I think would be 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.000 that it's like you're breaking off the sexual organs of 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.960 an animal and walking away with them. Now, now that 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.640 being said, I want to stress something that mushroom foragers 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:20.040 often UM stress regarding the fruiting body, and that is that, uh, 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.800 you're not going to be hurting the organism by by 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:29.640 harvesting the mushrooms themselves. Um. Now that being said there before, 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:31.439 first of all, before you engage in any kind of 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:35.920 mushroom foraging, UM, be aware that in some places it 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.079 is prohibited, uh some places or maybe not gonna be 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.240 hipped to this idea that you're not really hurting the organism. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.360 They're still saying, well, you're taking away from this natural 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.320 environment that is protected in this space. The other huge 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.520 thing we want to stress before we go any further 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.920 is that while we're going to be discussing mushroom foraging 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.600 for mushrooms that one would then consume for culinary or 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:02.000 medicinal purposes, do not engage in this, you know, just 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.600 based on anything we've told you here, as we are 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:08.520 going to outline shortly, there are some risks involved there 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.240 if you if you pick the wrong mushroom, Um, some 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:16.520 dire consequences can occur and you just really need to um, 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:18.600 you know, you need to go down that road, uh 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.720 with with professionals who know what they're talking about with 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.679 mushroom foraging, and you know, don't just run off into 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.760 the wild. Based on listening to this episode, Yes, do 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.439 not choose to put any particular thing in your mouth 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.040 because of anything we say here today. Right, So speaking 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.840 of this this danger factor, uh yeah, I want to 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.880 stress that while while I myself have enjoyed engaging in 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:44.640 mushroom identification and the limited foraging that that my family 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.400 feels comfortable with, yet to really you know, drive the 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.640 nail home here if you eat the wrong mushroom that 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:54.960 you find in the wild you will die because you 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.840 know the most Notoriously, there's a variety of mushroom known 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:03.120 as destroying angels, and and these will indeed destroy you 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.600 should you make make if you should mistake them for 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:10.800 an edible mushroom. Um. The deadly webcap mushroom is another example. 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.640 This one has been mistaken for edible chantrelle mushrooms. It's 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:18.439 even been mistaken for psilocybin mushrooms before, and it has 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.720 a horrifying reputation for causing irreversible kidney failure in those 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.880 who consume it, including some very notable cases such as 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.160 that of English author Nicholas Evans. Yeah, they're actually a 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:34.440 number of historically notable alleged mushroom poisonings that I've been 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.640 reading about, specifically in a book by Cynthia D. Burtlesson 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:43.559 called Mushroom, a Global History from Reaction Books in I 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.160 think it was also distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.160 but Burtlesson at one point writes about how the French 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.280 philosopher Voltaire, who lives sixteen nine to seventeen seventy eight, 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.760 once wrote, quote, a dish of mushrooms changed the destiny 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.840 of Europe. How how could that possibly be true? Well, 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.440 he was talking about the poisoning of a specific king 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.680 of the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg King, Charles the 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.439 sixth of Austria. UH to pick up with what Bertelson writes, 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:18.719 quote who ate deathcap mushrooms, Amanita Fellow itties the subsequent 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.520 War of the Austrian Succession from seventeen forty to seventeen 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:26.080 forty eight, which developed into a global war in the 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:30.000 American colonies, it was called King George's War, absorbing in 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.200 the process the War of jenkins Ear between the British 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.559 and Spanish and the Caribbean, affected people as far away 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:41.360 as India, all because of mushrooms. Those quote toad stools, 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:43.960 And here she's referring to the fact that it was 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:48.640 allegedly common among especially English speakers, to to take a 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.439 very indiscriminating attitude toward mushrooms. You know, a lot of 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.360 English Speakers would just look at all kinds of mushrooms 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.560 and say, well, they're all just toad stools. In terms 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.560 of other political consequences in history, it's also been alleged 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:06.400 that the Roman Emperor Claudius was poisoned with mushrooms though 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:10.200 this is disputed. The earliest accounts indicate that on October, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.040 at the age of sixty four, the emperor started to 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:19.360 complain of extreme stomach pain. He had diarrhea and vomiting. 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.239 He had trouble breathing, low blood pressure, and excessive salivation. 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.400 And I was reading a report in Scientific American from 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:30.280 two thousand and one about a conference presentation by a 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:34.000 doctor named William Valente from the University of Maryland School 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:39.120 of Medicine, and Valente argued that mushrooms containing muscarine were 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.880 the cause of his death, according to the symptoms reported. 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.000 And one of the traditional explanations for what happened to 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.839 Claudius was that he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.520 in order to clear the way for her son Nero 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:53.840 to ascend to the throne. And we all know good 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:58.000 old Nero. Now, the conclusion that that Claudius died by 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:01.320 some form of poisoning does appear to at least usually 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:05.280 have been the historical consensus, but other experts doubt this one. 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.920 We should note I found a paper published by the 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:10.480 Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in two thousand 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:14.960 two by Marmion and Widerman, and they wrote, quote, we 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.000 see no reason to believe that Claudius was murdered. All 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:22.040 the features are consistent with sudden death from cerebral vascular disease, 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.400 which was common in Roman times. And they also note that, uh. 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:27.960 One of the forms of evidence they cite is that 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.720 physical depictions of Claudius in the couple of years before 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.200 he died show visibly declining health. That would be, you know, 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.240 consistent with the symptoms of this disease that they think 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:42.440 would also explain what people saw when he died. Um. So, 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.080 so we don't know for sure, but as a strange note, 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:50.360 apparently Emperor Nero declared that mushrooms were the food of 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.000 the gods. And it's also kind of interesting because Claudius 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:58.080 was deified, meaning made into a god, basically immediately after 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:01.800 his death. Well, I mean that does one could certainly 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.560 interpret that is Nero being a very it being a 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.320 very dastardly sneaky thing to say, huh, or it could 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.840 be a coincidence because hey, I mean, mushrooms are kind 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.360 of the food of the gods. Mushrooms are delicious. We've 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.440 gotten this far into a podcast about mushrooms without me 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.760 just saying, like, I love mushrooms. I've been cooking with 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.760 a lot of them recently that we've been getting from 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.440 a local CSA that has been supplying us with with 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:31.120 chottaki mushrooms and oyster mushrooms, which are so delicious if 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.560 you just like roast them lightly in the oven until 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:35.720 they get a little bit dried out and browned, and 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.280 you can use them in anything. They're they're like they're 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.360 meatier than meat. They are certainly like my family we are, 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:47.200 uh we're pesketarians, but we don't even eat fish that often. 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.040 So it's it's it's wonderful to to have mushrooms in 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.400 a dish to create that that that neaty texture and 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.080 that meaty flavor. Yeah, so good. All right, we're gonna 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:04.760 take a quick break, but we'll be right back now. 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:09.440 Now we've been discussing these like terribly poisonous mushrooms, we 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.280 should of course stress that it's not just uh, you know, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.960 good versus evil situation here. It's not just this mushroom 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.520 will will be delicious or have some sort of curative 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.800 properties to it and this one will destroy you. There's 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:26.080 a wide variety of mushrooms out there. Some of which, Uh, 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.680 if you eat by accident, you're not going to die, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.040 You'll just get violently ill. You know. Um, there's a 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:37.760 whole world of light mushroom poisoning. Yes, there are certainly 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.320 mushrooms out there that are technically edible but not good 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.320 to eat. Uh. And and then there there's also something 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:47.360 to be said for just everyone's particular um digestive system 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.320 is going to react differently to different things. So there, 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.160 you know, the mushroom that one person finds delicious and 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.680 fulfilling might give someone else an upset stomach. Yeah. Absolutely, 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.240 And in a way, the idea of mushroom foraging of 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.360 reminds us of something that would have been much more 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.520 common throughout history at times before, say I don't know, 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.480 having like an f d A and widespread food inspection 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:15.800 and a very organized streamline process for supplying food stuffs 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.159 to grocery stores and all that. I think if you 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.040 go back in history, you'd find that eating was more 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:23.200 it was a little bit more a game of roulette 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.199 than it is today. You know that you were kind 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:28.399 of you always just had to wonder, is like, is 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:32.640 what I'm eating right now safe? Yeah? Indeed, but particularly 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.520 I guess. The thing about mushroom foraging is, especially in 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.840 the modern connotation, it does uh really highlight that that risk, 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.720 that inherent risk of of foraging for your food and 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:45.800 it And certainly if if you look at some of 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.760 these worst case scenarios and these horror stories of people 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.960 consuming just deadly poison, uh thinking that they found an 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.720 edible mushroom or psychedelic mushroom. Um, you know it, it 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:59.480 may raise the question why do this at all? You 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.280 know we is the reward truly worth the risk? And 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:05.439 I totally get this question. You know, when when my 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:10.720 wife became interested in wild mushroom foraging, my initial thought was, Okay, 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.720 chantrelle sound delicious. I think I I had had them previously, 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.119 maybe once before. But are they really so good that 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:19.879 it's worth even thinking about the possibility of getting it 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.080 wrong or getting it deadly wrong? You know, even casting 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.600 aside the more serious risk of death and oregon damage. 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.159 Do I really just want to spend say an afternoon 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.359 or an evening, uh, you know, violently ill in my 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:36.200 stomach because I wanted to have this, this experience. I mean, 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.120 I would guess that part of it, like you can 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.160 sort of calculate your risks. You can't be a percent sure, 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:46.480 but you can say, like, Okay, I'm plucking a mushroom 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.760 that looks like this. I think it's this species. How 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:54.320 close in appearance and in habitat and stuff like that, 0:18:54.520 --> 0:19:00.000 Is it two things that are known to be poisonous? Yeah, yeah, certainly, 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:01.600 Like in our case, you know that the mushrooms that 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.359 we tend to gravitate towards our ones, where at least 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.720 in our area. There there are only so many things 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.000 you could mistake it for. And if you you can 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:13.239 educate yourself on what details to precisely look for. And 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.000 then one of the beauties of social media, well, one 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.240 of the benefits I can point to is that you 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.879 can then take your photograph of this specimen and share 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.480 it with other enthusiasts and even experts and say, what 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.520 do I have here? Help me identify this, etcetera. Like 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:31.879 there are a lot of resources at hand. Yeah, that 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.120 is kind of wonderful. And in the same way that 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.880 the Internet can, of course be the source of of 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.840 collective delusions and things like that, it can also be 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.440 the source of collective wisdom. And one of the ways 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:46.119 in which I've seen it best used for collective wisdom 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.040 is species identification. There's a whole part of Twitter that's 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:54.480 just people posting species identification photos for snakes, for spiders, 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:58.440 for wild mushrooms and things like that. That's awesome. Yeah, now, 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:00.840 and now, particularly with mushrooms. I was looking around for 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:03.200 for people's thoughts on this, and I found an article 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:07.320 on the website for Ian Magazine by the author Cal Flynn, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.439 and the author writes this, this whole whole piece is 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:12.840 just about mushroom foraging and the risk rewards of it. 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.240 And they write, quote, if the risk is so huge 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.520 and the payoffs so small, why do it? The identification 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.360 process is interesting, of course, and mushrooms are pleasant enough 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.680 to eat, but perhaps the real intrigue arises from the 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:29.080 risk itself and the skill required decide step it. Yeah. 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.240 This ties in with something I've often wondered about in 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:36.679 in two categories, both dogs and human children. And the 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:41.440 question is why do so many dogs and human children 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.560 just put basically anything they find on the ground into 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.480 their mouths, you know, like, uh, chances are not good 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:51.440 that this is food, but by god, I'm going to 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:54.399 give it a go. You know, this has always struck 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.800 me as a as a really maladaptive behavior. Why would 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:02.120 we instinctually air on putting things into the mouth instead 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:04.080 of keeping them out of the mouth. Wouldn't you think 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.920 that we would instinctually air more on the side of caution. 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.879 It seems like there's more risk in putting random, potentially 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:13.879 poisonous or inedible things into your mouth than there is 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.800 reward in whatever forsaken food energy you'd be missing out 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:20.080 on if you didn't put it in your mouth. But 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.360 I don't know who knows. I mean, maybe one thing 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:26.600 is that the conditions of modern life somehow encouraged behaviors 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.960 that wouldn't occur very much in nature. I guess that's 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:33.720 a possibility. Or maybe maybe nibbling on all kinds of 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:38.320 nutritionally ambiguous material is just a lot less risky than 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.160 it would seem, maybe less risky than we assume. Maybe 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.440 you can actually put all kinds of stuff in your 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:45.320 mouth and in your body and most of the time 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.879 you'll be fine. Well. I want to stress that we 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.600 are not advocating anyone do this. No, no, no, no no, 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:55.600 But I am told that experienced mushroom foragers sometimes perform 0:21:55.720 --> 0:22:01.120 a quick taste test, tasting but not consuming a mushroom 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.560 to help determine the variety. And it's my understanding that 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.520 it's it's done with potentially toxic mushrooms as well. Again, 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.640 do not try this because we mentioned it. But but 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.840 but but this this would make sense, um that that 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:18.600 you would be able to um to to just taste 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:22.000 some of these, uh these specimens, uh to see, I 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:24.840 don't know, to detect say a bitterness, uh, to help 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:29.439 in the identification process. I was also thinking about, Okay, 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.520