98% Sure I Won't Die

It had been raining for several days and I hadn't been in my backyard for a while. The yard is a mess. Grass, or something like grass, up to my knees and fallen tree branches scattered on the ground. Well. after a few days I was tired of waiting for the rain to stop so I headed out to do some chores. That's when I saw them. Papa Mush, Mama Mush and Baby Mush; I knew they had to be field mushrooms ( or meadow mushrooms, or horse poo mushrooms or Agaricus - something Latin here) because they were...in my grassy "field." There was a huge, beautiful specimen with its cap fully open. The gills had turned a deep brown and the cap was beginning to change from white to brown. Next to him was a Mama mushroom with its cap still white and pink gills. Then there was Baby Mushroom with the cap still closed and the veil attached at the stem. This Goldilocks was THRILLED! I had heard that wild field mushrooms have a stronger flavor then the store bought ones. What's this? You didn't know that button mushrooms, criminis and Portobellas are related to field mushrooms? They are!
So off I go to identify this mushroom to make sure I am not eating a poisonous one. After lots of reading I was 98% sure I would not die. Every website has this warning of death so I was 2% unsure of what I was doing. The field mushroom is often mistaken for the Death Cap Mushroom, lovely name huh? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Cap This guy is responsible for several Political murders back in the B.C. times. One recent survivor says they taste wonderful...but after a full liver transplant I am sure the taste is better left in memory.

Well, how do you tell the difference between the kind and pleasing field mushroom and the wicked Death Cap? 1. Death Cap has a white cap, and white gills its entire life cycle. Field mushrooms have a white cap early with pink gills the cap changes to brown and so do the gills. That is the major difference. 2. The Death Cap has a vulva (this makes it sound very un appetizing) at the base of the stem - field mushroom does not.
Since my guys had pink and brown gills and I saw no vulva on the stem - 98% sure I will live. Plus they had this nice almond scent.

So I fry them. Half my family passed. My husband said he would wait until tomorrow to see if I lived. Our Korean exchange student was game. There must be a biological reason why the Koreans jumped into this. After all, we do eat acorn jelly. Ate the mushrooms at 5pm last night. Fantastic flavor! It was like an entire cream of mushroom soup in one bite! The normal mushroom flavor we are used to was intense with these wild mushrooms. I loved it! I ate them with shredded raw cabbage, some raw tuna and pickled eggs. The salad dressing was Sueannfriendly soy sauce, rice vinegar and a little sugar!

7:35am this morning and I am still alive.