Wild Gifts

The other day, a neighbor stopped in for a chat and came bearing a basket of wild mushrooms from his horse pasture.  "They're those button mushrooms, just gone big," he said.  

Not being much of a forager, I'm a little nervous about eating something that doesn't have an actual name to it.  Sure, they could be those button mushrooms gone nuclear, but then again they could be something that looks like them, but isn't.

What is a girl to do?  Oh, pop onto Facebook and ask someone for advice.  I know some of my friends forage, so somebody had to know what these were.  What ensued was a lot of hilarity involving friends warning me of imminent death and murderous intentions on the part of my neighbor. Now, this guy may not be entirely trustworthy, but I don't think murder was on his mind.  Perhaps a little flirtation, but not visions of my death.  Eventually, I got a call and an email from two sources, suggesting that this type of mushroom is edible, and reporting that they'd eaten it for years with no dire effects.

Still, I wanted an on-hand resource to refer to.  Sage advice from a really well known, trusted source wouldn't be amiss, know what I mean?  So the next day I stopped at a local book shop and picked up a copy of this:

A quick flip through the pages revealed that yes, indeed, my gifted shrooms were not going to kill me.

Yippee!  Right now, those little guys (meadow mushrooms, not "white buttons gone big") are cleaned, sliced and drying in my dehydrator.  I love a mystery, particularly when it adds to my larder!