Clarity of the 'no edibles' rule!

[NickCantle]

Hello!

Since the 'no talk of edibles' rule has been in force, I don't think I've been alone in treading on eggshells in terms of thinking what I can and cannot post. I'm very interested in the mycological aspects of fungi hunting, but it's no secret that I enjoy a nice patch of Ceps to bring home, so how much can I say about it? Am I allowed to reference it? Could someone clarify the rule for me please? I think the initial idea of banning edible ID requests is a good idea because of obvious liabilities, but the discussion of edibles in the forum in general has been affected. I know we've never been a forum focused on the culinary side of wild fungi, but I think it would be criminal to ban all discussion about it. I think the only thing that should be in place is 'Yes your fungus is edible' replies...

There are many people who originally joined WAB years before this rule for the sole reason that they enjoy their wild mushrooms and I think it'd be a real shame to watch their activity diminish or make them feel unwelcome because of it. Such people became more mycologically involved as WAB's resources grew as well, so it'd be a real shame to lose them!

What does everyone think, especially John!

Cheers!

Nick

[Chris Yeates]

hi Nick

a well reasoned post that - I too enjoy the odd mycophagic evening and I would never say exclude posts about such matters; a particular bugbear of mine though - perhaps I'm just being a grumpy old man here - is the kind of post (and thankfully these have been fewer recently) where someone posts a picture of a table covered in chanterelles, say, with a "look what I got today" message; do the botanists post pictures of bowls full of blackberries? perhaps they do . . . . it just smacks a tiny bit of those American websites with some lunk in a chequered shirt holding the horns of a deer he's just shot - same sort of empty boasting I feel

all I hope is that when the current glut is over we do see some of the new names hanging around and finding that the other stuff has its interest as well

frankly I can't wait until over 50% of the WAB posts are about something other than boletes (though better be careful as I may post something myself in the next day or so, but that will be about some of the more unusual ones )

I'll now probably get hammered for criticising chequered shirts knowing my luck

Chris

[NickCantle]

Cheers Chris,

I'm certainly guilty of posting pictures of a haul of certain species occasionally, but there's reasoning behind it, at least I thought there was before you deconstructed it with your American Morel collector theory ...and I own a couple of checkered shirts, one of which happens to look exactly like the fat hillbilly Morel Yokel you're imagining

When one has been reading books about mycology and mushrooms for literally years and has flicked past pages of species that we'd really, really like to see and it's a little exciting to find a good haul of that species you've not seen in the flesh before. I make packets of risotto for people, and I use wild B. edulis from the local woodlands for this, though please note that this is not a commercial venture for they are not sold as such, but I am pleased and proud that I managed to hunt down a habitat to specifically find these- it's like a reward and a little shot of pride. I can definitely see where you're coming from, but there's certainly no sense of arrogance and bragging when I share with WAB an image of my day's edible finds!

Nick

[cybershot]

Personally I have refrained from using the forum because of the illogical paranoia that surrounds every reference to edibility, especially in view of the contents of the A to Z where it remains integral. I have always maintained that, as with wild plants and herbs, responsible foraging in the wild is, albeit, a low priority apect of our interest, and should be discussed and not censored.

David

[NickCantle]

Originally Posted by cybershot

I have always maintained that, as with wild plants and herbs, responsible foraging in the wild is, albeit, a low priority aspect of our interest, and should be discussed and not censored.

I wholeheartedly agree with that David.

[Jonners]

Enjoyed some lovely fried Parasols at the weekend

[NickCantle]

Originally Posted by Jonners

Enjoyed some lovely fried Parasols at the weekend

A good example there Jonners. Now young Jonners here () has enjoyed a delicious dinner of fried Parasols and has eaten them from trusting his own knowledge, and not our ID of a photo...so why shouldn't he discuss it?

I'm not trying to be difficult in any way, shape or form as you hopefully can already see- just sort of trying to get some idea of what's acceptable.

I reckon, in all honesty that there should be a disclaimer sticky that clearly states that responses to ID threads are not to be taken as culinary confirmation and that if people do decide to eat Death Caps after I've kindly told them that they were Chanterelles, then they do so at their own stupid risk.

[FungiJus]

I had originally thought that the intent of the rule, and the sticky, was to quickly quash the first time posters putting up poor quality pics and asking the 'edible or not' question. This seems perfectly sensible as a misidentification by any one of us could cause a real problem (and there have been one or two of those recently!).

In fact the sticky has been useful in this regard many times - not least by me in response to a visitor message left on my profile page just today.

I agree with you though Nick, it is a shame that we can't discuss edibility (for the sake of a good meal, rather than for any other reasons), and I have to agree with you too David - the references in the A-Z would appear to be misguided in light of the rule (and I sincerely hope the edibility details don't disappear from the A-Z on the strength of this, especially as these are 'confirmed' species with full descriptions).

So, back to my original point, can the rule be sensibly applied to the obvious and overt 'is my fungus edible or psychoactive' requests, and sensibly relaxed when general discussion within a thread turns to edibility?

[Norwich Girl]

Ive always been too afraid to eat parasols, allergic reactions and all that

My apologies to the board if I have offended anyone by talking about abundance of chanterelles, it was purely an observation and example of how conditions this year have caused a mass of them in the Norfolk area, which is actually quite shocking given the amounts coming up, but not so at the same time given the terrible amounts of rain we have been having

[alge]

It does add an "Elephant in the room" aspect to some posts. A large percentage of us who come to mycology from a lay, amateur enthusiast direction invariably have our interest stirred in edibles as our origin. Wab has directly facilitated a level of interest in the subject that i never expected in fact has probably discouraged some of my eating tendencies from the past as i now know how bl**y hard it is to be certain over some species and they simply are not worth the risk, i.e Agaricus.......

Its a toughie as i discovered last week when commenting on a post resurrected from the archive I didn't notice the dates and dropped my guard.

A few days ago there was a post where both you (nick) and Mal advised someone of the folly of confirming an i'd of an edible retrospectively, this kind of dialogue has to be wholly good as new users of the site need to be made aware of the serious potential risks. Is the answer to only comment when a fungi isn't edible - safe but not the learning tool we have grown accustom to using. Tough Tough Tough one to answer.

No answer i know but hopefully an endorsement of the question raised.

Alex

P.s I'll hold my hand up as most will to my glory haul images of last summer I'm really glad i was able to share my joy with like minded folks and David one image you posted and the description of how you had a culinary gifted friend assist you in processing them inspired me to explore new habitats and keep looking for one particular type of fungi that lead me to find so many interesting species that Chris has helped my identify. Where does the circle begin and end. (probably in hypocrisy for me)