Why do mushrooms grow in my yard? How do they affect it?
Mushrooms and other fungi live underground so you don’t usually see them. However they are everywhere unless you happen to live in a very dry and sandy place. When conditions are right for them to produce seeds ( or spores in their case) they appear above ground so the spores can travel on the wind, and that is when you notice them. Some are poisonous to eat, but apart from that they are harmless to the environment and to your yard. In fact they have a lot of benefits. A lot of types are edible. Also they protect plants, especially trees, from disease and some insects. They also feed plants and are fed by them. The underground parts of mushrooms and other fungi are like slender threads that can go for some distance. In a forest they create a network that connects all the trees together - a sort of internet of the forest.
What does it mean when mushrooms smell like fish?
It means it’s either a rotten mushroom or one that happens to have a fishy odor. Many Russula species are known to have a strong odor that might be considered fishy: North American Foetid Russulas (MushroomExpert.Com)
If you were lost in the woods and had to eat wild berries, how could you tell which ones aren't poisonous?
As Ryan Davidson says, there's no way to be sure. You can try starting with small amounts of wild food and work up, but even if you don't immediately suffer a terrible reaction, there's no guarantee that you aren't gradually damaging your brain, or more likely, your kidneys or liver, or giving yourself cancer.If you really had to try to survive on wild foods, you might be better off starting with something other than berries, like leaves or roots. Berries seems to have a particular habit of being unusually toxic. Leaves and roots can be equally toxic though, so this gives you no guarantee.If you study edible wild plants for a while, you can start to develop a bit of a feel for what is likely to be toxic and what isn't. Again, this is no guarantee that an unfamiliar plant won't kill you either slowly or quickly, but it's better than nothing. After some study, some plants just start to somehow "look" toxic, while others look edible, and I think this is not entirely delusory. Partly this is because some plant families are more likely to be edible than others. Plants in the brassica family, for instance, are very often edible or at least not toxic. Plants in the nightshade family, on the other hand, are frequently poisonous; even though the tomato and potato are in this family. With a bit of study, you can learn to frequently be able to identify the family a plant belongs to without knowing the exact species of the plant. There are very few poisonous grasses, and although grass itself isn't exactly edible, the seeds of grasses often are; especially if you can grind them up, mix them with water and cook them. But again there's no certainty, and you could end up losing limbs or going mad due to eating fungi that grow on grass by mistake.Another thing you can do is learn to identify the most poisonous species, so you can at least avoid those.Unless you are literally starving to death and can't obtain animals or fish to eat (the majority of which are safe to eat even when they're not tasty), it's very important not to take chances. Plants may be "natural", but they can kill you or poison you in ways that are unspeakably terrible.
Can you help me identify this mushroom?
I'm with Tom Kent...shaggy mane. You really need a spore print. I think all Coprinus' spores leave a blackish print; should have free gills. Without proper close inspection, it's very hard to say for sure. The mushroom is AKA "Wooly-stalked Coprinus. But bear in mind, my primary focus is on the hallucinogenic species, so I am basing my conclusion on the general knowledge I have from studying the psychedelics. NOTHING beats a microscopic to look at the spores, but just in case you don't know how to get a spore print: cut the the stem/stalk off. Lay the cap face down on a white piece of paper (now the spores could be a whitish color, in which case you will need a dark sheet of paper) and cover it with a good heavy glass. Leave it covered overnight; the next morning, lift the cap and you will have a spore print underneath...this can at least give you the spore color, and with a microscope, the spore shape. This shroom an be eaten if picked VERY early...but frankly, I wouldn't risk it.Psilocybe
How do I tell if it is a good mushroom or a poisonous one?
Only here in Finland, that is the same size as one US state, we have about 2 000 species of mushrooms, of which about 500 species are edible. 1500 species are poisonous or inedible.You can’t really know every species. That’s why the question isn’t “How do I tell if it is a good mushroom or a poisonous one?”The right question is “how do I know one edible species?”. And then another.My opinion is that the only way to gather mushrooms safely is to concentrate to know really well few edible species and then stick to them. If you know even five to 10 species well, you can fill your basket in the forest.There are some edible mushrooms that are easy to identify and don’t have any similar poisonous species.Cantharellus (Cantharellus cibarius) is the easiest example. You learn well how a cantharellus looks like and then you only pick them. Anything that isn’t a cantharellus for sure stays in the forest.Cantharellus - WikipediaThen you learn well how a funnel chanterelle looks like and then you only pick them. Anything that isn’t a funnel chanterelle for sure stays in the forest.Craterellus tubaeformis - WikipediaThen you learn some more. I can’t tell which species are the ones to learn where you live, my examples are from the Finnish nature, maybe these species don’t even grow where you live.Of course, you must also learn where these few species grow, so you need a bit of general knowledge on the nature around you. All this is still easier that trying to learn hundreds of species well.It’s good to know most dangerous poisonous mushrooms too, expecially those that resemble some edible species, but it isn’t really necessary, if you stick to some well known edible species.The problem is, that you’ll see a lot of mushrooms you don’t identify and you must leave them. That can be frustrating.You can identify any species, if you want to. It’s just that you need such a vast amount of research that you don’t have much time to pick those mushrooms. If that’s what you’re after, I can’t help you, I’ve never had a passion to learn scientific identification. I only want to find food.So, for a beginner who just wants the joy of a self gathered and made meal, it’s much easier to learn those few easy edible species.I recommend to participate a course in your area and to use identification guides written in your area and not older than 10 years. The information about the mushrooms changes all the time, so an older guide probably includes false information about some species.
What are some of the ways you can ensure the food you buy is actually organic and was not grown with pesticides?
This is in fact, very difficult to know for a certainty. You can ask a farmer however they can also lie to you. The number on the fruit should indicate if it is organic; organic inventory PLU numbers start with a 9 and GMO foods start with an 8. http://www.fruitsticker.com/In my experience the only way to be sure of where your food is coming from is to be close to the information. This means that the seller or brand has the information available, people are available for questions, and you maintain a relationship with them. I have found that in a market based rather than a community based establishment without published, common values that ensure this happens, the "time is money" ethos makes assurances more difficult. This isn't an instant transaction.One way (and the best way) if you live in the NYC area is to join the Park Slope Food Coop. Here is a list of all the produce for the day and where it comes from http://foodcoop.com/go.php?page=.... As a member I was very confident in the longtime close relationships the Coop had with farms and companies (like Bionaturae, where products were stocked at very cheap prices), and after moving to Cali it has been much more challenging dealing with the real minority of organic foods in the market. All the suppliers at the Coop are clearly marked and information is available in a variety of places for me, including being available if I call the coop or stop by to talk to a staff member http://foodcoop.com/go.php?id=87. For instance, all the meat is pre-packaged (and grass-fed) with the producer information rather than having a butcher counter where labels are more general if they exist at all. Signs are posted about issues that may concern you like how the frozen Chilean Sea Bass is actually sustainable, you can make a general page over the speaker system while you're shopping if you have any question at all, and there are outlets for you to change the product to something that you believe to be more safe, desirable and ethical. The rules of the PSFC protected me.