After eleven years hunting mushrooms, eight of those since I built up the confidence to actually eat some of what I found, yesterday I had my first bite of poison mushroom. It put me in the emergency room.
I was shown no revelations about how all life on earth is intimately connected in a profound but delicate web (though of course I knew this already). I did not see David Bowie. For four and a half hours I felt completely normal. Then, over three hours, my body voided the entire contents of my digestive system between brief stints of shivering on the bathroom floor. Then I sat in a hospital bed for three hours with a saline drip in my arm while a series of medical professionals asked me, “WHY?”
The Two-Color Bolete, Boletus bicolor, is a large, reddish-pink mushroom with a mottled pink and yellow stalk and yellow pores, mycorrhizal with oak and other hardwoods (that means its mycelia intermingle symbiotically with the host plant’s roots), which appears in summer and fall all over the US. Its flesh stains blue “slowly” on contact. It is purportedly a delicious edible. The Brick Red Bolete, Boletus sensibilis is a large, reddish-pink mushroom with a mottled pink and yellow stalk and yellow pores, mycorrhizal with oak and other hardwoods, which also appears in summer and fall all over the US. Its flesh stains blue “instantly” on contact. It is poisonous to some people (me).
Last year around this time I took pictures of a mushroom that could have been either of the above. I went home and did the research. I waited a year and the same mushroom showed up in the same place. I figured I’d take a risk. I took it home, sliced it, watched it turn blue, asked myself “was that ‘instantly’ or ‘slowly’?” It smelled delicious. Like butter. So I decided to take a risk. I sauteed it up in olive oil, took one bite and put the rest away.
Yes, this was stupid.
It seemed like an educated decision at the time. I have taken similar risks before and they’ve paid off in abundance over years. On paper, chanterelles look an awful lot like the poisonous jack-o-lantern mushroom—though in the person they’re actually quite distinct. Honey mushroom, Armillaria mellea, which my family has been enjoying now for at least four generations, is listed in many guidebooks as causing stomach upset for some people. The genus Boletus, however, is not Cantharellus, nor is it Armillaria, and there was no call for me to be drawing those parallels.
WHY, then? It’s been a bad year for mushrooms (first too cool and rainy, now too dry). I love mushrooms, and I was missing them. Also, having found the company of other long-time, dedicated mushroom foragers, I confess I had been starting to feel a bit of peer pressure to be more adventurous, expand my knowledge. Guess I can check that off my list. Learning the hard way.
Who knows, maybe it was the influence of the blue moon. NO, no it wasn’t.
Let this be a cautionary tale. Don’t eat mushrooms you find in the woods unless you research them exhaustively first. And even then, maybe stay away from Boletes.
Yesterday at around 9 PM I was mildly concerned about the possibility of my death. Today I am weak and dehydrated and can’t stand up for more than a few minutes at a time. But wow, that was an experience. What doesn’t kill me makes me a better writer. I really believe that.
Holy shut dude. I hope you at least entered other realms of consciousness for your risk. A glimpse at the all-encompassing, https://a0.muscache.com/ac/pictures/83491975/5fd4205d_original.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&size=large_cover&output-format=jpg&output-quality=70interpenetrating totality maybe?
Happy to hear that you have recuperated. This could really have mushroomed out of proportion!
Holy shit, Michael.
Means we should go and correct your list in LCRW 33.
But, really, holy shit. I’m very glad you are alive!
Yeah. Thank you.
Honestly, the worst part of it–I mean, those three hours huddled between the sink and the toilet were pretty awful–but the worst in the long run is everybody’s disappointment that my impeccable mushroom identification skills could have proved so catastrophically not impeccable.
Here, read this. Also: “extremely worrying”.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/health/mushroom-hunt-has-cost-pair-kidneys-1-1362703
Wow! Glad to hear you recovered. This makes me twice-glad I didn’t try the indigo milk cap mushroom I just found in my garden!
Over the last few years I have enjoyed eating Boletus Sensibilis mushrooms that grow on my land here in New Hampshire (USA) under red oak trees. They stain black immediately on the pore surface (within two seconds). You can draw anything on the underside and it will render beautifully as line art. The flavor when browned has a strange tinge to it, but it grows on me. Now (late July) they are growing and I sautee up a large one and eat it in one sitting; probably about five so far this year. Yum. I did once get sick on Boletes as a kid. They are tricky to ID, but according to some lore none are deadly poisonous. Also cook very well; as in dried out and crispy brown; then the flavor is wonderful.
Awesome! Great to get confirmation that some people can actually enjoy them safely, thank you!
I just picked a cluster of huge King Boletes (Boletus edulis) aka “Porcini) from my woods in N. Georgia. We also have beautiful wild golden chanterelles!
I cook and eat boletus sensibilis pretty regularly when they’re in season here in northwest Florida, but have learned to treat them with the same precautions I would use with raw chicken: Cook well done and thoroughly clean cutting boards and utensils after processing. The only negative instance I’ve had was once when I undercooked some in an omelet . . . severe gastrointestinal distress for several hours. Now, so long as they’re very well done, they’re great diced in omelets and make an excellent, meaty, addition to stews.
Cool! Thank you!
I collected some the other day, handled them quite a bit and even did an instagram video of them changing colors. From reading warnings about “blue staining” boletes I decided not to try them. Besides I had chantrelles and some oysters. Funny thing is that night (last night) I couldn’t sleep at all. I skipped dinner too, had no appetite. I was tired but could not fall asleep and I’ve had no appetite the next morning. Today I’m exhausted. I’m wondering if just handling them can cause a problem. Thanks for the cautionary tale. Glad you survived your lesson.
No absolutely not. Even the world’s most deadliest poisonous mushrooms don’t cause any problems at all unless you actually ingested them. This is not debatable, anecdotal reports of “contact poisoning” are nonsense. Any adverse effects were likely placebo or you actually ate a chunk of it somehow by accident.
I recently was convinced this was the case and–gingerly–incorporated a taste test into my identification data set. You don’t chew, you don’t swallow, just taste. This is actually useful for identifying some boletes, apparently.
Jay, I appreciate the comment, but be respectful please.
“Don’t eat mushrooms you find in the woods unless you research them exhaustively first. And even then, maybe stay away from Boletes.” This is good advice, except for the last part. If you are able to correctly ID your bolete to species there is absolutely no reason not to eat it, and they are imo some of the absolute best wild mushrooms you can collect. Don’t be scared by this nonsense statement. Just be sure to know with absolute certainty what species you are eating, and know wheather that species could potentially cause gastric upset, then decide from there. The author was willing to make an mistake and it didn’t pay off. Good lesson, but that’s no reason to avoid bolete’s for the table.
For sure. King Bolete is delicious, though rarer than boletus bicolor in my hunting experience. For every ten bicolor I come across, I find one porcini it seems. They are nutty and delicious. Boletes are my favorite to hunt for, even coming across chanterelles doesn’t get me hyped like finding boletus edulis.
Wow, after just one bite?!? Scary. I found some in my backyard yesterday. I was excited about them. I thought boletes were one of the safest mushrooms to try. Now, I’m a little less enthusiastic. Mine are likely either Boletus pseudosensibilis or Boletus sensibilis. They did bruise blue, but I’ll have to go out and take another look.
It’s been a while since you posted this. Have you come to anymore conclusions about the edibility of boletus sensibilis? They grow prolifically in our yard, under our live and deciduous oaks. I am learning to forage our property and I’d sure like to add these to my list, being they are so abundant.
Yes, I have learned a bit more! I’m never trying them again, there are too many other delicious mushrooms out there for me to want to fool around with them after such a bad experience, but what I’ve learned, including from comments above, is that likely I didn’t cook them thoroughly enough. Most mushrooms can stand up to a lot of heat and only get more delicious with browning. Also, different people have much different tolerances for different species. You mid find them perfectly edible. But if you’re going to try it, cook them thoroughly and start very small. Also—I learned that if you taste a mushroom, then spit it out without swallowing, it won’t harm you, which is very useful for ID. If they’re acrid or bitter, don’t risk it. And! The younger and more fresh the better to avoid an upset stomach and also to enjoy the flavor.
Yesterday, I met a probably Chinese lady picking these from a local oaktree plantation(these grow very quickly in our cold tropical area)
After an inquiry into her actions was told that the difference betwixt edible and poisonous was….yellow stem but bruises red is poisonous,whereas red stem bruises blue is edible. Judging by the sheer amount in her bag and that many from that area of Asia are well known and practiced foragers I will gladly take an experienced person’s advice any day.
Yep, I bet that lady knows what she’s doing! My Italian great-grandmother used to forage honey mushroom–a species that I’ve heard is hard on a lot of people’s somachs, but not ours apparently. Taxonomic identification is great, but the old ways are pretty awesome too.