More on Fungi

David Arora who wrote Mushrooms Demystified, has a spread up in Mendo County. Clay, Katrinka, and I met fungi fan Kelly there once - on one of his many trips near us where there was one chance to meet. We were the only three who weren't deeply into fungi. So we drank rare puer tea (I have some here from a collector in KL whose stash is worth his son told me a few hundred thousand bucks), then we went foraging on his land. Then returned and drank more tea while mushrooms were cooked up. As we ate through the assortment, Kelly said that every one of them on our plates are classified as poisonous. He said that they, or at least these particular ones, loose their poison in cooking. But then he further added, "But I'm a little worried about this one." Kelly has always maintained that all mushrooms should be cooked, that they're carcinogenic if not. I got a buzz off those shrooms and was pleasantly high from it as we drove back. Kelly also worked for Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti fame way back. They and Andy Weil whom I'd introduced Kelly to years before and one other guy who kept big cats including a snow leopard, would go foraging together.