Foraging Wild Mushrooms: Avoiding Toxic Mistakes

Foraging wild mushrooms for food and medicine is a great past time but carries the risk of becoming sick from eating the wrong mushrooms or preparing them improperly. New England is seeing an increase in poisoning cases as a result of the significant increase in novices seeking and eating mushrooms without being fully aware of the risk.

This talk will review the common poisonous mushrooms sometimes confused with edibles as well as the range of toxins in New England mushrooms. Guidelines for foragers will be presented; the goal is ensuring safety while eating wonderful wild mushrooms.

Greg Marley is a wild mushroom expert teaching foraging skills across New England. He has consulted with Poison Centers across New England for more than 2 decades as an identification and content expert.