Maybe a dumb question about mushroom hunting

[mamatoady]

We are going to be mushroom hunting this weekend and bringing back our specimins. If the books says some are poisonous, is touching them horrible or just if you eat them? The kids will be wearing gloves, but I'd like for them to really be able to feel them too. (yes, they'll wash their hands afterwords.

thanks!
Sarah

[jenoline]

We used to go mushroom hunting when I was a girl. I'm fairly certain it's just if you actually eat them. Just have them wash hands after they are done and I think you'll be fine.

[mum21andtwins]

depends where you are what sort of mushrooms grow in your area some are very poisonous and will cause problems when touching.

I strongly suggest you find an experienced person to go mushroom hunting with especially if you are planning on eating your finds some shrooms look so similar its to easy for a newbie to make a mistake and become ill especially with children involved.

[mamatoady]

thanks all. I ended up calling a lady at Michigan State who has something of a PhD in Fungus (yes, really) and she said we'd be fine so long as fingers didn't get put in mouths and we thoroughly washed our hands when done. She said there was one in particular that was out now and very toxic, but the rest were ok to touch and just not eat. I think we'll go for the gloves for the 2 year old, the 6 year old should be fine.

thanks! We're looking forward to our weekend adventure!

Sarah

[tammyswanson]

Also, make sure to not eat any raw...they should be cooked to avoid possible gastrointestinal upset (even with the safe ones). I love chicken of the woods and shaggy mane mushrooms....mmmmm!

[Lillian J]

I would be very, very, very cautious in mushroom hunting with children, to put it mildly. I've seen a number of news articles over the years about people who had experience and thought they knew what they were doing but made fatal errors. - Lillian

[kriket]

most michigan-ers only hunt morels. If you have a good hunting ground they are the most plentyful, the tastyest, and easiest to spot. I am an "experienced mushroo-ier" (oOoh arn't I special!) and unless I'm bored, I usually only hunt morels.

[mamatoady]

Luckily for us, we don't eat mushrooms as a rule--can't stand them whatsoever. Dh will eat canned on pizza and that's it. We just want to identify and classify and such. We are particularly interested in finding the shell looking fungus on the trees. wish us luck!