Crumble cap mushroom harvest

 Tonight, I harvested about 4 cups of crumble cap mushrooms, Psathyrella candolleana.

While surveying the garden this morning, I spotted loads of crumble cap mushroom beginning to fruit. The heavy rains have created the perfect conditions, but the top layer of soil does dry out quickly when the sun shines, so I watered. Many of the tiny buttons had grown into caps 2 to 3 inches long and 2 to 5 inches tall.

Crumble cap  mushroom are far from being choice mushrooms -- they are small, have a weak flavor, and break easily. Foraging guides list them as edible but hardly worth the effort. Since they grow naturally in my yard and are incredibly plentiful, I harvest them.

Only about half of what I picked survived cleaning. They are simply too delicate and I made the mistake of piling them on top of each other. That not only broke many of the caps, but also needlessly spread dirt on otherwise clean mushrooms. Next time I'll be more careful.

Note about eating wild mushrooms:
The spore print was key in identifying Psathyrella candolleana, according to the person who identified it online. There are many mushrooms that resemble each other, but have different color spore prints or growth habits. Indicators for Psathyrella candolleana include the mushroom's size (2 to 5 inches tall, they are quite variable), change in color as it matures (they often start dark colored and begin to lighten as they grow; however, sometimes they are dark colored the entire time), and the way the cap matures (it splits and turns convex, before completely falling apart). The final bit of info that gave me the confidence to actually try eating one was having an experienced forager look at it and confirm it's a mushroom she'd eaten before.

When trying a new mushroom I've read that foragers keep a mushroom in safe keeping in case of poisoning, that way it can accompany them to the emergency room. At first, I ate a single cap and kept a few caps in the fridge, just in case. A few days later, I ate a handful. Since I didn't feel sick and they tasted earthy with a hint of radish, I decided to harvest all I could the next time it rain and made the dish in this blog post. I'm still alive!