Object Lesson: Don’t Pick your own Mushrooms

September is Mushroom Month and few things best the woodsy aroma and taste of wild mushrooms, especially just-picked morels and chanterelles. However (and I can’t emphasize this too much), DO NOT even consider hunting for your own. The slightest confusion could send you and your family to the emergency room–or worse.

Someone should have mentioned that to author Nicholas Evans. He and his family were hospitalized last week in Scotland after cooking and consuming cortnarius speciosissimus mushrooms, a highly toxic variety they mistook for chanterelles. Luckily, they all received medical treatment in time and are recovering.

Evans, 58, is the author of “The Horse Whisperer,” a sort of Cinderella story in publishing circles. The book was as yet unpublished when Robert Redford purchased the manuscript for $3 million in 1995 and turned it into a successful film.

Cortnarius speciosissimus is one of the most toxic forms of mushrooms. It attacks the liver, spinal cord, and central nervous system and can be fatal if those injesting it do not receive timely medical treatment.

^{(photo © Newscom)}