Wild Mushrooms Are Trendy Again. So Are Trips to the ER

Mushrooms. They’re lovely, looney, tasty, tricky, darling, and deadly. And lately, they’ve caused mass poisonings. Or have they? 

The mushrooms you encounter at the grocery store are known edible varieties grown in tightly controlled environments. Shiitake, oyster, and brown button mushrooms (often found on things like supreme pizza), are common because they’re easy to identify, prepare, and add to recipes. But some wild mushrooms are tasty enough to some people to be worth a certain risk: potential poisoning.

Sierra Marinos, a mushroom forager who often supplies wild mushrooms to cult local restaurants, explains: “Historically, most of the mushroom poisonings and deaths I have read about in CA happen when folks foraged or have familiarity with mushrooms in their homeland and then come pick similar species here, which based on preparation can be deadly toxic.” 

The problem is often in the preparation. Marinos says, “A lot of the molecules that cause GI upset in ‘edible’ mushrooms are water soluble, so many other cultures and indigenous peoples may have specific preparation knowledge on how to make them actually edible and palatable.”

Several mushroom poisonings have happened lately. Why? Are mushrooms inherently dangerous? 

“I think it’s from a combination of things,” Marinos says. She explains that mushroom foraging is particularly trendy, which, according to her, “definitely contributes to more folks picking and eating wild mushrooms.” But she also says that, as far as she knows, “none of the foraged mushrooms [in the recent Bay Area poisonings] were from paid/guided forays or meals. And they weren’t bought from sellers.” 

California has basically no regulations for mushroom foragers selling wild mushrooms to restaurants. While foraging is forbidden on state land, there isn’t even a page on the AFDO website for California. Despite that, according to Marinos, “it’s very rare for poisonings to happen in the professional culinary realm.” 

Not just anyone can be a forager at the professional level. Telling mushrooms apart is a subtle science, involving careful observation, time, and often years of field training.

Most often, foraging poisonous mushrooms is accidental. Rarely, someone will use mushrooms as a poison on purpose. But it would be awfully hard to tell. 

Death caps are the culprit of the recent poisonings here in the Bay; Marinos shares that they are quite the forbidden fruit. “Apparently they are VERY tasty mushrooms. Funny how that one worked out.. deadly but so tasty.” 

Want to try wild mushrooms? Plenty of Bay Area restaurants serve them, going through trusted contacts to forage in predictable patterns and known spots. 

You can definitely train yourself to identify edible mushrooms; after all, people have been doing such for millenia. But now isn’t the time. California authorities are urging people not to forage. It’s just too risky unless you’re confident and well-trained. 

Another option? Get started on mushroom observation and identification now. The longer you spend getting to know them, the more mushrooms will unlock the secrets of their joy and delight. The edible ones, at least.