I know next to nothing about foraging for mushrooms, but it's something I wish I could do. I used to find mushrooms in my yards in the past but never knew what they were. A friend tried to grow some mushrooms from a kit that he bought, but for some reason, what he ended up growing were extremely poisonous, and he got very sick, just from eating a tiny amount.

I found edible mushrooms in Palenque, but they turned out to be psychedelic, although not as powerful as the ones in Oaxaca.

I can identify edible Morel mushrooms, but I've never found any.

Lucky you to have access to some that are safe to eat! I wouldn’t know the difference if I came across some.

This is timely. While reading your post our news mentioned a woman in Australia who served Beef Wellington with poison mushrooms to her guests. Sounds like they’re attempting to find out if it was intentional. Three of the guests (former in-laws) didn’t survive.

Sounds lovely!! I used to make an amazing chicken with oyster mushrooms (store bought) dish. We have far more poisonous mushrooms and toadstools here than forageable edibile ones that I've heard of. But I think there's an app that identifies mushrooms point and shoot, isn't there?

Please, never, ever trust an app to id fungi for edibility purposes. They're not even reliable for plants and fungi are far more difficult. Please don't eat anything unless identified in person by someone who really knows what they are doing.

Thanks, Floral. I don't use them and didn't know they were inaccurate. I fugured they were just indices for the guides.

Yum! I grew oyster mushrooms from a small kit my sister gave me and they were so good I wished the kit was bigger. One harvest yielded basically 1 serving.

Are there poisonous mushrooms that resemble oysters, I wonder?

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Apparently yes - but you can tell the difference...

https://blog.curativemushrooms.com/7-types-of-oyster-mushrooms-3-poisonous-look-alikes

I didn't know there were more than one variety of oysters either - yours may be 'pearl'.

Yes @floraluk2 is totally correct. I am constantly surprised at how bad the plant id apps are. If a somewhat knowledgeable person takes the photo and looks at the results carefully they can be helpful. In the hands of newbies the results are often very wrong. Mushrooms are too scary for me to even attempt to id via an app. I have a few people I trust who have identified for me or gifted me mushrooms.

My very loose intrepretation of Tonjiru came out really good. Along with the mushrooms I foraged burdock root and jerusalem artichoke. I added a bunch of fresh herbs from my garden and used a bit less miso (my mom needs low sodium). It was perfect for a cold damp day for three people recovering from Covid.

https://www.justonecookbook.com/tonjiru/

I love foraging for mushrooms (or did until bushwhacking became too difficult for me). The only two I feel totally comfortable ID-ing are Morels and Chanterelles - both are prolific here. I was taught by long time foragers and also how to ID the ones that look close but are actually poisonous. I'm surprised by how many people post pics on Next Door of their yard mushrooms asking if they are edible. Based on the totally inaccurate bird and plant IDs that I see on that site, there is no way I'd trust anyone to ID mushrooms. The only ones I trust are those who post, "Never trust an online ID of mushrooms. You have no idea of the expertise of the people who post answers. Join the local mushroom group if you want to learn."