FRESH MUSHROOMS--wash or not to wash,

yeh , same here. One mushroom house ner Kennett Square has them flown in from Cliforni. We can easily find em in the "big woods" near us, its a small left over second growth pine and hardwood forest near a lowland marsh area and its a favorite hunting ground for chanterelles, oyster caps,hen and chick shrooms, and along the field margins grow PUFF BALLS (a really good mushroom when picked young).
Did your grandfather teach you which are the good mushrooms and which are poisonous??

When I was at school (more than half a century ago), I knew a couple of places where to find meadow mushrooms.
We didn't have chanterelles nearby, and you hardly find meadow mushrooms nowadays.

were coming up on cinnabar chanterelles and hen and chicken chanterelle season in the mid Atlantic. Usually late June and July are the peak of the season of chanterelle hunting.
Ive got a sweet spot where I get exercise and some mushrooms and its all in my gas field project sites in NE Pa just north of the nonexistent "Pocono Mountains"

I always wash them and I never buy the packaged ones. The last time I bought them and opened them at home the ones on the bottom had a nasty mold on them. Ever since then I’ve stopped buying the pre-packaged mushrooms and pick them out myself.

we live in mushroom country and there are many shroom "outlets" where they are picked that day. There used to be just one or two kinds until the shitake craze took over in the 90;s.Now we hve all kinds including some that look like somekind of vile fungoid gelatinous tree infection. They are supposed to be "choice" for CHinese stir fry.
Supermarkets mostly dont even sell shrooms cause of all the mushroom farms. Since you can get em fresh, I heartily reccommend washing em (like you do) and then string them up in an inside attic peak and let em dry for a few weeks. That intensifies the Umami

Mushrooms loom in small plastic boxes, and that's it, in my neighbohood. Of course there are better choices elsewhere in the city markets, but those are a trek. I used to haunt international markets or other interesting markets, but not lately. No problem, I still like even these ordinary store mushrooms, no matter what I'm used to. I doctor them... Haven't run into any moldy ones, eeeek! Back in northern California, my then ophthalmologist and her husband were mad mushroom hunters; I listened, but not planning to do it, didn't memorize where they explored. I'd call then avid.

th rules of being a LIVE mushroom hunter is to learn ONE, an then learn if there are any like it that are toxic. Like the difference between a St George's mushroom and a DEATH ANGEL(any of the Amanita fambly). St George shrooms appear in APril while the Death Angel is FAll fungus.
They look almost the same but St George doesnt have a a "prepuse" around it shft.. My grandfather spent time making me identify these two an he never told me about the season because he wanted me to deduce the fact that St George and Death Angel were always found either before summer(St George) or after school started in the Fall(Death Angel).

Time is one thing that takes kids a longer time to have sink in.

My Optho may have known all the possibilities. I faintly remember her telling me a lot about it. Not overlong, and I liked hearing it.

probably after a hit of pylocibin. You can really get wasted on them puppies

I love chanterelles and I usually get them directly from the farmers - other mushrooms too! I don't wash them and don't peel them and I don't clean them unless they're dirty to the eye....I like a bit of dirt on my teeth!
You're all germaphobic!!

You take my ophtho as hit by pylobicin?

I am kidding, I know you don't mean that.

I'm more interested in the mushroom hunting details.
I'm no abled mushroom hunter.
I an interested in all the stories, there could be books.

better in what way?

no one's explained yet what makes mushrooms better as a result of washing

I won't write the books, but someone should.

I enjoy them washed or not.

I do the same steps, as for me is the best to do all

perhaps the term, safer is more accurate. The compost WAS sterile when it was set out in the beds, However, aerobacter aerogenis, and Escherisha coli can set up camp quite easily.

Washing is BEST. I would imagine that you couldnt tell the difference unless, of course, you like the taste of grit.

Went shroom hunting and found puffballs and oyster shrooms.I cut up the puffball mushroomsinto thin slices and tore up the oysters(These are both at a very immature state). They both have a very mild meaty taste that went well in a "hobo pack" of chicken thighs ramps, and field peas . I used just a bit of salt and wild "texas tarragon" and we cooked it over a wood fire. Delicious.
It was an all wild meal (except for the chicken thighs which we got at small town butcher up in Central South New York state)

I bought some mushrooms at HEB, in a package. Package instructions direct us to wash before eating.

Always a good thing, relic compost doesnt add anything to the umami experience

made burgers with mushrooms and Bleu Cheese topping for supper. They were really goooood.