Shrooms of doom nearly do in Newton pair
Wicked Local Newton reports a woman and her son are in the hospital in critical condition after eating a dish that included some wild mushrooms the woman picked near their yard.
Recent comments
- Lest we forget
1 hour 20 min ago - Still Lower Roxbury
10 hours 58 min ago - 'Teams' don't exist for the party primaries
10 hours 59 min ago - Huh?
11 hours 1 min ago - Hoowwiiieee!
11 hours 6 min ago - Right at the line - Lower Roxbury
11 hours 2 min ago - W/E
11 hours 12 min ago - I'd call it South End, but
11 hours 35 min ago - Obviously, I need a neighborhood-lines editor
11 hours 38 min ago - Taste is subjective
11 hours 45 min ago
don't eat stuff you find in your yard!
that's really sad for the little boy - I'll say a prayer for him. I feel less sorry for the mother though. If you don't know not to eat things that grow on your lawn, maybe you shouldn't be raising children? wasn't that one of the cardinal rules that we learned in preschool - don't eat stuff off the ground? just cuz it's a plant doesn't mean it's edible!
Another Alternative
Take some time to learn which species are edible, which are not, and which have toxic look alikes and should be avoided just in case. It isn't rocket science, and there are plenty of enthusiastic wild mushroom-eating people around who are willing to help.
Yeah...
I was really disappointed by the "expert" opinion they received. Instead of helping educate people as to what you should and shouldn't do when it comes to harvesting wild mushrooms or other wild plants (fiddleheads are AWESOME!), his answer was "OMG! Rubber gloves and double bag EVERY mushroom you find because you just don't KNOW!!".
It was the kind of fear/uncertainty/doubt that breeds stupid to begin with, instead of telling people that if you want to do this, then educate yourself. I found that more depressing than this family having learned a non-lethal but valuable lesson.
I'd also love to know what mushroom is toxic to the touch and so deadly that you need to double bag it, anyways. I certainly can't find any mention of such a thing in my searches.