forever a geek no matter your age.

[smilingcat]

Good or bad? don't know. Was at a grocery store late at night cause I had a hunkering for sauteed mushroom.

Young man working as a cashier didn't know what kind of mushroom so he asks me, "what kind of mushroom is this?"

To which I said without thinking "Agaricus..." D**n, forgot the specie name... Xanthrodermus is slightly toxic, gives you a horrific upset stomach. It looks like any regular button mushroom in store except it stains (bruises) yellow. Edible kind we see in store bruises brown.

Young man is looking at me funny. Oh then I realize he wanted to know if was shiitake, white button mushroom, crimini or portabello. Don't get me started about crimini/portabello. Crimini and portabello are brown colored version of the white button mushroom and the two, crimini and portabello, are the same specie. One is is in button stage and the other is fully mature stage.

Came home, went straight to my definitive mushroom book and looked it up. Oh that's right, button mushroom is Agaricus bisporous.

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Do have a very funny story of an older couple visiting California for the first time and taking path less beaten in the mountains. mid 80's and I looked somewhat like a flower child minus the beads and wearing a pair of hiking boots. In my arm was a small woven basket, a trowel and staring intently at the ground. Run over to a spot, dig a bit and pull out a big mushroom...and repeating the process. From corner of my eyes, they were very keen and very interested in what I was doing... The couple had a real honest to goodness California experience of sort. Flower child/hippie collecting wild mushrooms for eating.

Sauteed mushroom late at night was very good.

[Pax]

Okay, that cracked me up! I can just see the look on the kids face.

[Catrin]

Thanks for the laugh, yes, it's easy to go there (for me it's authors and electronics rather than mushrooms but the same concept applies)

[Crankin]

I prefer to have as little interaction as possible in a checkout line. I am polite, but I don't talk. I like to just move quickly.

[shootingstar]

Funny. Now we know we're getting slightly ripped off on different mushrooms of same species. No doubt, in Oregon, smilingcat you're enjoying more different types of edible mushrooms beyond above species.