I go on forays on Mount Lemmon with friends of mine to collect oyster mushrooms, morels, and boletes (and hopefully someday chantrelles). Delicious on a turkey burger
Collecting mushrooms is safe if you know exactly how to identify them, and fortunately all mushrooms in the Amanita family have pretty distinctive traits like a volva and partial veil, etc. And not all of them are poisonous - death caps and destroying angels are the worst offenders, but Caesar's amanita is supposed to be healthy and delicious.
It's seasonal, but probably my favorite hobby. Just in case anyone is interested...
- Never go shrooming without a field guide. All the Rain Promises and More is great once you're familiar with the basics, Mushrooms Demystified is too dense to backpack with but so, so good for look-alikes.
- If you're not 100% sure what it is, toss it! Mushrooms can look very different based on how developed they are. Young amanitas can look almost like puffballs, etc.
- Sort your mushrooms in paper bags as you go, and if you find a group that look "almost" like others you collected somewhere else, don't be tempted to throw them in the same bag - if they
might be a different species, act like they are!
- Don't bother with little brown mushrooms unless you know what you're doing; they're almost impossible to ID. School yourself on the poisonous mushrooms in your region before you set foot outside. Best bet is to memorize the key features of a few specific mushrooms you want to hunt for and stick to collecting those specimens until you get used to the way mushrooms can change in appearance as they grow.