(Post is a work in progress still)
On May 20th I went on a foraging excursion with my friends Betsy and Eleanor. We didn't have too much of a plan for what we were going to harvest, or even where, until we met up that day. If we we were in a larger metropolitan area, with less green space, we likely would have had to plan out at least where we were going to go, but we live in Bellingham, Washington; a small city with numerous forests, and other green spaces, always within a 10 minute drive or walk away. We're also outside enough to know what kinds of things are ready for harvest and where we may be able to find them. And so, with a bit of conversation and knowledge sharing, we decided on a good place to go, and a few things we could forage for. In this case stinging nettle was the main plant of the day. It's bountiful this time of year and grows in many locations in and around the city. We also foraged for a few other plants as we saw them; one of which, was oyster mushrooms!
Normally, I am uncomfortable foraging for mushrooms. You really need to know what you're doing because there are so many lookalikes. For example, death cap can look similar to the edible straw mushroom, but "is one of the most poisonous mushrooms in the world... responsible for most mushroom related deaths" (click here to see these, and other lookalike mushrooms). BUT THIS TIME, I was with my best mushroom expert of a friend, Betsy. I've been in the field with them dozens of times and seen them first hand foraging for, and eating mushrooms with other mushroom know-it-alls, including my Ethnobotany professor, Abe Lloyd. So when they pointed out some oyster mushrooms in the woods that day, I felt confident enough to harvest them. And after asking for some cooking tips, I felt confident enough to fry them up and eat them for breakfast the next morning! It's the first time I pulled some mushrooms off a tree myself and took them home to eat. This was quite an exciting and momentous occasion for me since I've been learning about mushrooms for years and trying to get enough knowledge, experience and confidence to forage for them myself. Even though I wasn't alone and still needed help identifying them, it was the first time I was with someone I trusted enough to harvest them. And I knew enough personally, to know the gilled white clump of an organism in my hand was safe to eat.
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