Paton talk unearths mushroom wisdom

SALISBURY — David Paton of Lakeville gave a presentation on wild mushrooms at the Scoville Memorial Library Saturday, June 14. The presentation was sponsored by the library and the Salisbury Association Land Trust.

In an interview earlier in the week, Paton, who grew up in Sharon and graduated from Housatonic Valley Regional High School in 1976, said he first became interested in wild mushrooms as a youngster attending camp at Sharon Audubon.

He recalled an adult pointing to an Amanita mushroom and saying, “This can kill you.”

“I thought, ‘oh, cool.’”

As an adult Paton worked for Sharon Audubon as a caretaker. An Audubon intern who was knowledgeable about wild mushrooms harvested one and made “puffball parmigiana,” which Paton told the library audience was incredibly delicious.

At the library, Paton brought a few mushroom samples and was answering questions as people filtered in.

He described one sample as “not a beginner mushroom,” a theme he returned to during the talk.

“I just found this out in the yard,” he said at the start of the talk.

Identifying a wild mushroom to determine if it is edible is not a simple process, although it is easier than it was when Paton first got started.

“In the olden days it was books,” he said.

Now he uses apps.

“The app says it’s edible,” he continued. “Should I eat it? No.”

“Apps give you a head start,” but they are not foolproof.

He noted it is difficult to be definitive, when there are at least 10,000 known mushroom species in North America.

With that in mind, he rejects the term “foolproof” in favor of “fool-resistant.”

The popular morel mushroom, prized by foragers and chefs, “are toxic if eaten raw.”

Of the many species of Amanita mushrooms, many are toxic.

“But some Amanita are delicious. But it’s not a beginner mushroom.”

Paton took the audience on a tour of the fungi world, with copious photographs.

The common Chicken of the Woods is a well-known edible mushroom, but beware. If it is growing on a hemlock tree, assume it’s poisonous.

“So, get it off a hardwood.”

Along the way Paton provided some excellent gossip from the natural world, including the carnivorous nature of morels.

These versatile mushrooms enjoy a symbiotic relationship with their host trees, which they provide with sugar in return for minerals.

But to supplement their diet, morels “lure in nematodes [tiny worms] and dissolve them. So, they’re carnivores.”

Paton was enthusiastic about Reishi mushrooms, which grow on hardwoods and hemlock.

He said Reishi is also known as “the mushroom of immortality.”

“I’ve been using a tincture I made — and I’m still alive.”

The tincture recipe: Chop up the Reishi mushrooms, stick them in a mason jar, and fill it with cheap vodka.

Paton stressed this last point. “You don’t want to spend a lot of money on this.”

Let the mixture soak for a month, then drain off the vodka and save it.

Boil the mushroom chunks and make a tea.

The tincture mix is two-thirds Reishi-infused vodka and one-third tea.

When he’s not rambling about in the woods looking for mushrooms, Paton is a musician with two groups, the Bog Hollow (American folk music) and Contrabhana (Irish music.) Both groups will perform at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Goshen July 25 to 27.

Paton also has a YouTube channel, “Whitewater and Wild Mushrooms,” which combines mushrooms, music and a third interest, kayaking.