Poisonous Mushrooms

A common pastime of outdoor enthusiasts is collecting edible mushrooms. This endeavor must be pursued with great caution since mistaking a poisonous mushroom for one that is edible can cost you your life. There are many old wives tales that would have you believe that there are easy ways to avoid poisonous mushrooms through blanket […]

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dried medicinal mushrooms

Medicinal Mushrooms

Medicinal mushrooms are continually grabbing the spotlight for their incredible health benefits, ranging from cancer prevention and treatment, to being anti-viral, to curing asthma and even prolonging life. Type in any of the medicinal mushrooms listed below into a PubMed database and you’ll see countless scientific studies validating their use as medicine. But while science […]

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bolete mushrooms

Edible Wild Mushrooms

As summer nights lengthen into autumn, the forests of the Catskill mountains in upstate New York fill with magical, mystical, medicinal, and edible wild mushrooms. “Toadstool” is a quaint name for the many mushrooms that spring forth between rains, while “fungi” is the more technical term. Fungi are plants, but plants without flowers, or roots, […]

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Alexia Studies Mushrooms

One of my housemates brought home a big mushroom for the dinner table. I sniffed at it suspiciously, nervous about the edibility of an unknown (to me) fungus. A friend came in and buried her face in the plate-sized cap. “It smells like…” she searched for the term. “A beautiful woman’s hair,” she claimed decisively, […]

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Wilderness Awareness School