Collecting mushrooms: 14 tips for beginners

Do you also look forward to the start of the mushroom season in late summer every year? With our tips, collecting mushrooms will be even more fun and the baskets will fill up faster.

Tips for collecting mushrooms for beginners

Especially for newcomers to the world of mushrooms, it can quickly become overwhelming to find the right way to get started and the necessary utensils. We have put together important tips for exactly this situation so that you too can take a basket full of mushrooms home with you.

Prepare well when collecting mushrooms

If this is your first time going into the forest to pick mushrooms, it may be wise to get help from someone who has picked mushrooms before. Especially if you don't have a mushroom identification book to hand or feel too unsure, it can be advisable to have support. It is important to think about the route before setting off so that you don't get lost.

Before heading out into the forest, pack everything you need:

• sharp pocket knife
• Basket or air-permeable bag for collecting
• Brush for rough cleaning
• Mushroom identification book

Harvest mushrooms correctly

Harvesting mushrooms also needs to be learned. Once you have identified a mushroom with certainty, you can pick it. Carefully turn the mushrooms out of the ground or cut them just above the ground. In this way, the mycelium in the forest floor is not severely injured and new mushrooms can soon grow back. Avoid arbitrarily cutting off mushrooms just to analyze them better.

After collecting, roughly remove any contamination from the mushroom with a brush and place it in the basket.

Collect mushrooms only for your own needs

Mushrooms spoil quickly. If you want to process them fresh, only collect as much as you can use in the same day. If the harvest turned out to be a little more bountiful, there are some Methods for drying them or even freeze.

Transport mushrooms carefully

You often see mushrooms being transported in plastic bags. This causes the mushrooms to start sweating. Baskets or air-permeable linen bags are better. This means the surface remains pleasantly dry and velvety.

Recognize mushroom locations

Mushrooms grow almost everywhere. Anyone looking for chestnuts and porcini mushrooms will find them in deciduous and mixed forests on mossy areas. Meadow mushrooms can be found in meadows. Honey fungus grows on rotten tree stumps.

So that you don't go home empty-handed, it's best to take a mushroom expert with you. Also, stay away from areas that have just been walked on. Keep an eye out for other mushroom pickers and try taking a different route.

Take advantage of favorable weather

When it is warm for a few days in autumn after rainy weather, the mushrooms sprout from the ground. However, if the drought, cold and constant rain persist, the mushroom pickers come away empty-handed.

Recognize important varieties

We recommend always taking a mushroom identification book with you. In the forest, network coverage is often not sufficient to identify mushrooms with a smartphone. Find out beforehand about the edible and poisonous species commonly found in the region.

You should leave these poisonous varieties alone

Be careful with mushrooms with white lamellae, bulbous feet and white dots on the cap! Some native mushrooms are poisonous and confusion with non-poisonous mushrooms cannot always be ruled out.

fly agaric

• Cap: red with white dots
• Slats: white
• Stalk: white

Green death cap mushroom

• Cap: green-grey with white dots
• Slats: white
• Stalk: white with a bulbous foot

Panther mushroom

• Cap: light brown with white dots
• Slats: white
• Stalk: white

Satan Mushroom

• Cap: light gray
• Tubes: first yellow, later orange to red, turning bluish when pressure is applied
• Stalk: thick

Even beginners can collect these edible mushrooms

If you have little experience collecting mushrooms, you should Boletus such as chestnuts, porcini mushrooms, birch mushrooms and redcaps. The risk of confusion with inedible or poisonous mushrooms is low here.

Birch mushroom or birch boletus

• Location: near birch trees
• Stalk: light with black scales
• Cap: yellow-brown to grey-brown, greasy in damp weather
• Tubes: White yellow
• Characteristic: white meat turns blue when cooked
• Taste: mild, aromatic

Redcap

• Location: near birch trees
• Stalk: light with black scales
• Cap: brick red
• Tubes: white-yellow, grayish
• Characteristic: White meat turns gray-purple when cut and gray when cooked
• Taste: mild, aromatic

Chestnut boletus

• Location: in coniferous and mixed forests
• Stalk: brownish marbled
• Cap: chestnut brown, velvety, diameter up to 12 centimeters
• Tubes: light yellow, turn blue when pressed
• Characteristic: white meat turns blue when cut
• Taste: mild, aromatic, excellent edible mushroom

mushroom

• Location: in Pine and mixed forests
• Stalk: brownish marbled
• Cap: brown with white edge, leathery
• Tubes: white to light yellow
• Characteristic: white, firm flesh
• Taste: nutty, excellent edible mushroom

Consider various characteristics

To distinguish poisonous from edible mushrooms, it is not enough to check one characteristic. Only the presence of several characteristics can lead to a result.

Double check for young mushrooms

Young mushrooms often do not yet show all the characteristics. Even for experienced mushroom connoisseurs, it is difficult to distinguish poisonous from edible specimens. Leave the small mushrooms standing. This means they can still grow so that another mushroom picker can be happy or a forest animal can find valuable food.

safety first

Leave mushrooms where you cannot definitely rule out toxicity! Maybe another collector finds the mushroom and can safely rule out toxicity and is happy about it.

Do not destroy inedible mushrooms

Mushrooms fulfill important tasks in nature. Also, do not destroy the mushrooms that you do not want to take with you. Even the specimens that are inedible to humans and those eaten by maggots often provide food or habitat for animals and insects.

Observe mushrooms while cleaning and preparing

Many mushrooms change color when they are cut and cleaned. The cut surfaces often turn blue or black. Observe these changes carefully and compare them with the illustrations in the identification book or from the Internet.

Cook mushrooms thoroughly

Many mushrooms, e.g. b. the honey mushroom, are poisonous or inedible raw. It is important to cook them thoroughly and not to taste them during preparation.

React correctly in an emergency

If you suspect mushroom poisoning, don't hesitate! Every minute counts. Go to the emergency room of the nearest hospital or call an ambulance as quickly as possible. Bring any fungal debris or vomit with you for examination.

These signs indicate mushroom poisoning:

• severe gastrointestinal complaints, which usually occur suddenly
• nausea
• Vomit
• Difficulty breathing
• heart racing
• dizziness
• Circulatory problems
• sudden sweats

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