What is Wild Mushroom Basket blog about?
Well, it seems to be obvious – about mushrooms! And more precisely – about Wild Edible Mushrooms! Though that is too general description. When I have started my blog I had written a very nice text “About me” where I actually pointed out that I write about my expertise in wild edible mushrooms hunting. No, nothing was changed in this regard. What was changed is my knowledge. As you may guess I did not get to know less. On the contrary, I was heavily involved in various material investigation on wild edible mushrooms. It’s rather my interests direction was changed.
If one surfs on internet these days he/she can find tons of information on edible, poisonous, psychedelic, wild and cultivated mushrooms. And it seems there is a list of “common edible mushrooms” mutually agreed among all internet writers, readers, bloggers, etc. The list includes Porcini (Boletus Edulis), Morels, Chanterelles, Trumpet, Truffel, Hen-of-the-woods and Chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms and Puffballs. It seems that every single internet page describes only those “most delicious” mushrooms. Has any of you, my dear readers, ever asked yourself – “who has created this list? who has decided that those mushrooms are the most delicious?” I did. I asked those questions myself many times and, to be honest, I have actually never found the answer. All I know is that the list is 1) not correct, 2) not full, 3) not proven. For example, Saffron milk cap (Lactarius delicious) is missing though it’s considered to be second for delicacy after Porcini (Boletus Edulis) or Orange Birch Bolete (Leccinum versipelle) which has the same delicacy privilege as Boletus Edulis. The Suillus mushrooms (Slippery Jack, Weeping Bolete, Larch Bolete, etc.) are on the third place by its taste, texture and delicacy. In general, I would say that most of the pored mushrooms are wonderful and very tasty. And I am not quite sure why they are not taken seriously into consideration.
So, my blog is about those mushrooms which are missing in the “common edible mushrooms list”. I describe their nature and compare them with other similar species. I post their photos (made by me and my half) and videos (if I make one – depends on my mood 
. I describe the use of edible mushrooms and I plan to go deeper in that direction investigating other uses of mushrooms than eating. Since I am concerned about my health and healthy diet of my family I experiment with wild mushroom recipes which shall be easy for digestion. It seems that there is another mutually agreed list – this time it’s about wild mushroom dishes. The list includes: cream-soup, pizza, spagetti (or any pasta) with mushrooms, fried in garlic and oil mushrooms and some meat-dishes with mushrooms. However, all those dishes are very heavy for your stomach and generate problems with digestion. I have been reading a lot of material on this topic and have found that the combination of ingredients shall be as simple as possible and contain either protein + fiber or carbohydrates + fiber products. So, nowadays I am making easy for digestion tasty vegetarian dishes and post only those recipes on my blog.
I do not afraid of wild mushrooms and do not place the disclaimers about poisoning on my pages. I assume that all people who read my blog are conscious people and clever enough to avoid unknown mushrooms picking (making photos of them is fine). I do not sell any of my knowledge, experience or services – information on this blog is completely free (I just would like you to put reference on my blog, if you use my content) and available to everyone. As well as I am available to answer any questions. So, I am not going to agitate you for something or against something. I express my opinion on various topics and it’s up to you to agree with me or not. I write with pleasure and passion about my mushroom experiences which I hope will help me to find people with similar interests to share our ideas and knowledge (my facebook page on Edible wild mushrooms and Google+ page pursue the same goal).
I agree on your opinion about the wild edible mushrooms and your blog. I enjoy your updated pages every time. When I read your cooking pages and the lists, your preference of the wild mushrooms for eating gives higher score for some Boletus like Porcini. I have no question about choice, but we, Japanese, commonly list more than 10 types for the highest rank and 15 – 20 kinds for second class of the taste of wild mushrooms. The Japanese preference, on the other hand, does not include Porcini type in the highest rank, may be because of its flavor and cooking style. If you come to Japan in future, I will show you what are the Japanese preference of the edible wild mushroom include real cooking. I am sure you may enjoy and can expand your scope of the wild mushroom cooking.
You raise some great points. Mnay of the mushrooms I eat regularly would be considered second rate, but I find them to be better tasting than what others consider first rate. I also like your style of cooking, and the reason is because when I intend to eat a mushroom, I’m interested in the flavor of the mushroom and therefor I don’t want to overpower that flavor with heavy ingredients. I think you are doing great work here!
Thank you Leighton! I’m really glad to hear there is someone thinking similar to me
Of course, on the other hand as Valerie on my facebook page commented – there will be more mushrooms left to me, if people do not consider them to be worth to pick
I just think it’s not fair to disregard other mushrooms just because the internet is flooded with same copy-pasted information – millions of pages with basically repeating information. As well as I don’t think that people should be kept in a constant fear about poisoning by wild mushrooms – again there are millions of pages which have these kind of statements. The planet population shall be educated, not scared (reminds me the past centuries when scientists had no supported just because people did not want to know the explanations on the natural phenomenon)