[Fly agaric mushrooms; forager Marina Muttik approaching]
[Muttik examining fly agaric mushrooms]
[Fly agaric]
[Muttik crossing fallen trees]
[True parasol mushroom]
[Muttik tasting mushrooms]
Marina Muttik (interview): “So, it can absolutely be dangerous. There are deadly mushrooms around, and you have to watch out for them. Thankfully, one quite a lot of the deadly mushrooms are on the rarest side. I don’t come across too many day to day, but also it’s just about building up things you know, and also knowing what the deadliest ones to look out for. There’s a lot of toxic mushrooms, but a lot of them the worst that will happen is you get sick. It’s the ones that you know will kill you that you need to watch out for.”
[Puffball mushrooms releasing spores when squeezed]
Marina Muttik (interview): “There’s no easy rules when it comes to mushrooms. So, that’s why you kind of have to look at all of the features. You have to look at where they grow, how they look, how they smell, sometimes how they taste. There’s a lot of features to take into account. And once you know that, there are a lot of red mushrooms that are edible, there are some are toxic. The most famous deadly mushroom, the one responsible for most cases worldwide, Amanita Phalloides, the Death Cup, that one actually tastes quite pleasant. Smells quite nice, too. Doesn’t look the most dangerous either, it’s kind of like an olive green color. Nothing that rings alarm bells, so to speak.”
[Tree stump in forest]
[Muttik using her knife to prepare mushroom]
[Muttik tasting bitter and toxic mushroom and spitting it out]
[Toxic Hypholoma fasciculare mushroom]
Professor James Coulson (interview): “My old boss used to say the only safe mushrooms to eat are the ones with Tesco (British supermarket) written on the packet. I should point out, in fairness, other brands are available.”
[Mushrooms growing under fallen tree]
Professor James Coulson (interview): “Autumn is my favourite time of year. Every year, I look at the mushroom books, I look at the guides, and I think ‘yes, this is the year that I’m going to successfully identify mushrooms.’ Go out into the woods, you take a look, and you think ‘yeah, it could be anything. couldn’t it.’ So, it’s an incredibly difficult thing to do right. But mushrooms, fungi they’re absolutely incredible.”
[Autumn trees]
[Leaves in forest]
Marina Muttik (interview): “I mean, these ones, the blewits, I saw someone posting the other day from a market in either London or France, and they were £22 a kilo, whereas I could probably easily pick up a couple of kilos alone here. And the ones on the market are not often in the best condition because they travel from abroad quite a lot. So they dry out. So yeah, it’s definitely a nice way to get to eat mushrooms for free.”
[Muttik walking through woods]
[Muttik putting mushroom in basket]
[Shaggy scalycap mushrooms]
[Muttik discovering mushrooms under tree]
[Muttik examining and smelling the mushrooms]
Marina Muttik (interview): “Absolutely, I think I’ve been sent the link on the Australian case about 50 times by now. Everyone’s like: ‘Oh, you’re not sick?’ Yeah. It is annoying because there is so much misinformation about mushrooms out there. There’s a lot of fear about them, like a phobia, just because it’s something unfamiliar and when something like that happens, yeah, it’s not great when people die because of it.”
[Muttik walking through muddy forest floor]
[Muttik foraging by fallen tree]
[Muttik’s basket with some mushrooms]
Professor James Coulson (interview): “It was once said by a famous toxicologist who specialised in fungi and mushroom poisoning that the only rule is there isn’t a rule. There is no single way of identifying whether a mushroom is toxic or not.”
[Muttik discovering toxic webcap mushroom]
[Webcap mushroom]
[Muttik discarding mushroom and walking away]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.