This was in the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/02/world/australia/mushroom-poisoning-lunch-arrest.html

"Three of the four guests who attended a family lunch in a quiet Australian country town died shortly afterward, with symptoms the police said were consistent with mushroom poisoning. The fourth spent nearly two months hospitalised, critically ill."

I am lucky in one respect - I hate mushrooms of any kind and they all make me feel ill.

Q: Why are toadstools called toadstools?
A: Because there's not mushroom inside them.

That NYT article is pay-walled, but the 'Mushroom Chef' case has been big news here since the outset.

I'm not a big fan of mushrooms myself.

When we were kids our parents frequently warned us not to go anywhere near toadstools, which appeared seasonally in the grass.

Mushrooms seem to have evolved rapidly the last few years. As a kid picking mushrooms was standard food hunting, no one ever got crook.

The last ten years however have seen strange looking varieties never before in the area. I would see one or two death caps per year but since 2021 they are prolific.

The edible mushrooms once plentiful simply don't exist, at least not on my patch. Moreover, expert botanists from Melbourne Royal Gardens
are on record advising not to consume any mushroom whatsoever unless grown on a mushroom farm.

Evolution cannot be stopped.

It is fascinating t read what we know and the Leongatha Mushroom Stew variant of apparently Beef Wellington is interesting. However, even that its probably too late, as its before the courts the rules regarding sub judice will apply.

One does remember the "Lindy Chamberlain" affair which was the most disgusting and disgraceful, "trial by media", I have ever seen.

As for the mushrooms the taste of the two home grown ones here on the farm are unsurpassed by the tasteless commercial ones the supermarkets flog off. They do love a bit of lime to raise the pH and the grass not mown down to lawn.

I have been harvesting those for over 60 years and yes, there are toadstools which one knows and avoids.

QUOTE: Mushrooms seem to have evolved rapidly the last few years.

Yes, I think you are correct Wa2ise, coupled with Marcc's post it does make sense.

I have been mowing the same area for over 10 years for fire safety, and in that period the nasty fungus have thrived.

It is highly likely I have made conditions easier for invasive species and harder for the good mushrooms.

My grandfather was a mushroom forager, and his advice was stay clear of any mushroom with white gills. In Australia that covers the Death Cap, but there are other poisonous varieties like the Yellow Stainer which have brown gills and look superficially like supermarket field mushrooms . Some people can eat Stainers without problems, others will get very sick indeed and may need medical help. I don't, but I hate the taste of these, it has a hint of burning plastic!

The mushrooms do like the correct pH & acidic super phosphate is not their friend. I did put lime on one year and that caused a plague of the right ones. One does not pick everyone; They do need to drop spores for the next crop.

Yellow Stainer's are just that. rub them and the top will stain yellow. The smell of the right ones is unique and picking buttons before they open,
is a recipe for trouble. And yes, if its white underneath no touch.

Supermarkets seem to specialise in bland. From tomatoes & potatoes that grow fast, but too fast to have taste.

This afternoon a whole lot of mushrooms have appeared in my front lawn!

Make sure they are mushrooms, rather than the magic type, ideal for Leongatha stew. If you bought lose mushrooms they can spore down. They often grow here in the track where they have been brought in from the paddocks.

Do note the fact that there are heaps of them and not mushroom for anything else, is not a good species guide.

Marc

Sulphur crested cockatoos ate them all!

Typical: If you want some more Cockies & Corella's? I have thousands.

But I haven't seen them lately!!!

I was once in a field dotted with "goldtop" psychedelic mushrooms in Currumbin Valley