Most mushroom field guides worth their salt, especially those that deal with edibles, will begin with a chapter on the poisonous varieties. I'll make an attempt at the same format, though I will warn you now that everything I'm typing in this entry is what I've gleaned in a day's learning about mushrooms, no more. The field guides I use include Audubon's Field Guide to Mushrooms, by Gary Lincoff, Field Guide to Wild Mushrooms: of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic, by Bill Russell, 100 Edible Mushrooms, by Michael Kuo. (All of these we were lucky to receive as wedding gifts from dear people. Yes, they may have been on a registry.)

We joined the Eastern Penn Mushroomers because going on mushroom forays can be very tricky business. With so many species and identification techniques often requiring microscopes, spore prints and hours of toil, it just seemed to make sense to go with people who are familiar with the fungi. What better way to learn than to follow experts around, especially when it involves trekking beautiful landscapes? Besides, if you get one wrong, there can be serious consequences to ingesting mushrooms, including death. My primary interest in mushrooms (as is my primary interest in most things in nature) is whether or not I can eat it. Wild mushrooms are delightful and worth the scavenge. Aside from that, there are plenty of uses in art, dyeing, and there's just something very satisfying about being able to know one's place better. If I'm going to call a place home, I'd like to get to know it a bit. That includes the trees, the birds, the mushrooms and more because this is what Pennsylvania is about. There are people and cultures that make up that PA identity too (PA Dutch, Amish Country, crazies in Pitt & Philly to name a few), but the primary way that I like to learn a sense of a place is by what grows and lives there. 

The Mushroomers are an energetic group of people. I knew when I first heard the name of the organization to expect a bit of quirkiness and a bit of passion--two of my favorite personality traits. There were maybe 20 people. We gathered at Pine Grove Furnace State Park (one of the best local parks, by the way). Everyone went out to the trails for an hour or so to collect one of each mushroom they could find. Pine Grove is a wonderful place to spend time. There are moss covered rocks, hemlock forest, spicebush and witch hazel, pine and black gum. Moss on rocks with dappled sun gets me every time. Much of the forest floor is bouncy and squishy due to sphagnum moss that grows up and around the meandering trickling brooks that lead to the stream. By the time we all returned, we had gathered probably 100 species. Once you learn to look for mushrooms, at least at this time of year, all of a sudden, you see them everywhere. I would have walked right by, never taking notice if I hadn't set the intention. Here's the lot of it--we were to put one or two examples of each kind on the table (leaving full baskets behind) to get a representation of variety by the entire group.

The bad guys are the Amanitas: Family Amanitaceae. They include the genera Amanita and Limacella. "Most species grow on the ground in forests or woodlands. All develop from an egglike enclosure called a universal veil--a tissue that is quickly outgrown, but which usually leaves patches on the cap and a cup or remnants about the stalk base...All have a white spore print...Toxic amanitas have caused 90 percent of fatal mushroom poisonings." (Lincoff, 1981).

Here's a photo of me with a couple of destroying angels. They're fairly easy to spot--stark white, angelic-white, if you will amid a brown forest floor. Beautiful gills. One must dig a bit underneath the base of the stalk to search for the telltale "cup" that is at the base of the stalk and a key in identification of the Amanitas. Also, please do wash your hands before eating anything!

There are a number of shapes that make up quick identification groups. At least they do for my purposes. Mushrooms come in the following major forms: gills, boletes (spongy underside of cap), polypores, coral, puffballs, chanterelles. There are also filmy ones that look like wet, chewed gum and little discs and jelly tooths.

We'll see how formatting works, but I'll attempt a photo and caption for the major groups that I learned. 

Gills:

Bolete:

Polypore:

Coral: 

Puffball (called the pigskin poison puffball):

Chanterelle: 

Jelly Tooth:

The two most abundant gilled mushrooms are Lactarius and Russala. Lactarius can be identified by taking a knife and cutting across the gills. They'll exude a liquid latex (often milky). Russula genus is an extremely common one that is often too difficult to specify in the field, so the experts I was following would say "There's another Russula." They also refer to "LBMs"--Little Brown Mushrooms. Not helpful for my purpose of identification, but if birders can have their LBJs, mushroomers can have their LBMs. Here are two Russula photos for you. If you're anywhere near woods (especially oak upland) walk on any path and within minutes you will see these or something like it. (By the way, refrain from the word "toadstool." That word is highly frowned upon in mushroom etiquette.)

We spent the time after the foray with a picnic with dear and extremely fun people, followed by another smaller foray. During round two, we were sure to collect edibles that were previously identified while they were still fresh (in state and in mind). Here are the ones I took home. They are black trumpets, cinnamon chanterelles and painted bolete (Suillis pictus), respectively. Only collect the best looking edibles. The others won't hurt you, but they won't be especially enjoyable. The best way to first try an edible (once you're absolutely certain what you've got) is to saute it in a bit of butter. That will best give the flavor so that you know how it will taste (butter often helps). From there you can tone it up or down. Cook mushrooms--don't eat them raw (just safer that way for wilds).  When first trying mushrooms, eat only one type at a time. That'll tell you whether you're sensitive (gastrointestinally speaking) to a certain species. While many mushrooms are edible, unless you're in a survival mode it's best to choose the best in flavor, texture and freshness. 

I'll close here with a bunch of pictures of unidentified mushrooms.  Let's not forget cardinal flower in bloom. We had such a blast at this event and cannot wait for the next time around. What fun people, what beautiful land, what fun exercise of mind and body. I look forward to cooking with these and maybe trying out a few in some jewelry. This was one of those days that we didn't see coming (had other plans that fell through) and with sweet serendipity I found the highlight of my weekend and a highlight to my summer.