Not For the Pot

It is wild mushroom foraging season again in the Touraine Val de Loire. One of the first species I spotted whilst out and about in September is one you definitely do not want to end up in your omelette.

Brown rollrim mushroom.

There are 39 species of toxic mushrooms in France. Not many of them are lethal, but a few of them will leave you with chronic sub-lethal effects that might make you wish you had died. The Brown Rollrim Paxillus involutus (Fr. Paxille enroulé) is one of these. What's scary is that they are abundant in the Loire Valley, in the autumn, under birch trees especially, and the species was not widely acknowledged as toxic until the 1980s, so there are still old field guides knocking about which list it as edible. Indeed, in rural areas of Eastern Europe it is still eaten by some people.

If you fancy yourself as a mushroom forager, but value your kidneys, learn to identify this mushroom.