Foraging Dangers

Wonderful things happen when the first major rains hit the Central Valley here in California. First and foremost, boar hunting kicks into overdrive. The days are darker, the water holes run deep and cold and fresh pig tracks start appearing on the forest floor.

This also marks a special time for those of us who like to forage for wild foods - a practice I most enjoy when I'm out scouting for signs of porkers. You see, as a forager in California, you'll have just finished a season of gathering gathering nuts and berries, but now it's time to look to the ground below.

Indeed a bounty of good eats will start to emerge at this time, from porcini mushrooms (little pigs in Italian)  to miner's lettuce. But with this influx of edibles, comes the danger of picking the wrong thing and you or your loved ones to the emergency room.

Here are two poisonous plants to know

The Amanita

I took the mushroom photo above just a few days ago. A group of amanita muscaria growing the front of my house. This particular variety, known as fly agaric, are poisonous, but not usually deadly. However, this little find was quite timely because just a few weeks ago at least four people died at a nursing home near by from mushroom poisoning. The most likely culprit here would also have been an amanita, and probably a Destroying Angel or a Death Cap.

The danger here is that these deadly mushrooms can be easily confused for common edible species like the meadow mushroom, or even the younger stages of the porcini. The mushrooms in the photo are pretty easy to distinguish, but their more deadly cousins are just simple, white mushrooms. So know what the hell you are doing before you go picking these babies. When in doubt, go with out...and certainly go picking with trained guides if you're just getting started.

Poison Hemlock

This is an extremely common plant in the wooded areas alongside creeks and rivers. It's also commonly found right next to some wonderful edible plants that look very similar. As winter approaches, new shoots of hemlock will appear very near to new shoots of Wild Fennel, one of my favorite herbs. Trust me, Wild Boar bolognese is given an entirely new flavor dimension with the addition of fennel.

Now it's pretty easy to distinguish between fennel and hemlock, but when you're excitedly gathering up bunches of fennel it can be a simple mistake to toss some hemlock in your bag - no good.

Learn how to spot hemlock