I ate a mushroom (again)

… and I’ve been paying for it for the last 7 hours.

We went on a family bush-camp in local council woodland last night. Lovely stuff… the four of us squished into a smallish tent, a great little campfire, Tawny Owls freaking me out in the small hours. Plus I found a stand of wild mushrooms, Orange Birch Boletes, Leccinum versipelle, one of which I snaffled to cook up for breakfast.

Now, if I had had my trusty mushroom field guide with me, I would have reached the same conclusion – that these were indeed that species, edible and tasty to boot!

So what went wrong, I don’t know. But I have had a baaad reaction to this mushroom, and have been puking my guts up in spectacular style since about 2 hours after consuming it.

And it just occurs to me as I’m writing this now that I am a complete idiot. The council land we were camped on is regenerated woodland, reclaimed from the runoff of the old lead mine. The soil must be full of lead. Mushrooms absorb heavy metals very easily… it seems plausible at this point that I’ve just given myself acute lead poisoning. This is not nice. Maybe it’s off to hospital I go… though the vomiting (and diarrhoea if you must know) have settle down in recent hours. It might be better to know.

A few minutes ago I was resolving to forswear wild mushrooms. I’ll say this at the least – I ain’t gonna damn well pick them from a lead mine again!!!

“I ate a mushroom!”

… so I proudly declared to my parents at about the age of 4, whilst out on a nature walk. Lacking faith in my wild survival instincts they rushed me straight to hospital where I continued to show no adverse symptoms, and was discharged with lots of warnings not to go around eating wild mushrooms.

Well I’m still eating ‘em… tonight I cooked up a fine specimen – a Brown Birch Bolete (Leccinum scabrum), 14cm in diameter. It’s described by Roger Phillips as ‘edible but not worthwhile’ – I can see where he’s coming from. It’s very mushy. The Boletes have pores instead of gills (the underside looks more like a sponge, there’s no radiating pattern) and in this variety they are very deep – there’s more pore than flesh in the cap, and it quickly turns to mush. Still, it tasted fine and it’s very satisfying to eat a wild-harvested mushroom.

The more famous Bolete is Boletus edulis – known to gourmets and Italians everywhere as Porcini, or Cep in English. Very fleshy and apparently delicious – but if this news story is to be believed, a bit of a risky pursuit:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/29/italian-mountain-mushrooms-claim-lives