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Potentially toxic mushrooms sold at B.C. market · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: A public health warning has been issued after a potentially
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  Speaker 1: toxic batch of mushrooms were sold at a farmer's market
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  Speaker 1: in the province's Kootenai region. Sarah is back with the
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  Speaker 1: details and a little bit of a mushroom lesson.
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  Speaker 2: Indeed.
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  Speaker 3: In fact, I just got a Zoom call with the
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  Speaker 3: farmer who sold these mushrooms. This goes back to yesterday.
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  Speaker 3: They had the annual end of the season Harrop Community
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  Speaker 3: Center Farmers Market. She and others look forward to this event,
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  Speaker 3: you know, all year long. And so in the morning
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  Speaker 3: of yesterday, she was out. She was a she'd been
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  Speaker 3: a farmer for three years and she was out getting
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  Speaker 3: the vegetables all together. She notices this patch of mushrooms.
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  Speaker 3: And she thinks that they're chanterelles. They smell like apricots,
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  Speaker 3: which is an identifying factor in chanterelle mushrooms. And so
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  Speaker 3: she picks them and she says that she had in
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  Speaker 3: past years picked them and she has herself eaten them
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  Speaker 3: with no effect. And so she went to the farmer's market.
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  Speaker 3: It's a small community. She sold these mushrooms there. Thankfully,
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  Speaker 3: small community, because she knew most of the people that
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  Speaker 3: she had sold to. There were 10, she believes, that
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  Speaker 3: she sold to. She was able to reach eight of
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  Speaker 3: them to let them know that, in fact, they have
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  Speaker 3: tentatively been identified on a Reddit thread. The pictures were posted,
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  Speaker 3: and I think we have those pictures we can show
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  Speaker 3: you here. They were posted to the subreddit thread, and
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  Speaker 3: people were commenting on them saying that this is not
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  Speaker 3: Chanterelle's actual identity. In fact, they have been identified as, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: here we are, brown or common roll rim mushrooms. And
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  Speaker 3: the thing to know about these, these would be fine
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  Speaker 3: to eat. These ones can cause serious health effects. She
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  Speaker 3: was able to reach most, not all the people that
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  Speaker 3: she sold to, and she wanted to apologize. Take a listen.
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  Speaker 4: Reaching out to them, well, felt like utmost importance. Like,
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  Speaker 4: oh my God, I have to make sure that you're okay,
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  Speaker 4: for one. But I think, too, reaching out to wider
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  Speaker 4: community and just like having a public apology to make
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  Speaker 4: sure that this is, you know, we're talking about it
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  Speaker 4: and we want to move forward in a good way.
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  Speaker 4: That's really important to me.
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  Speaker 1: So I asked this question with this story in mind,
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  Speaker 1: but even more widely, because I think these mushrooms are
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  Speaker 1: pretty widely, you know, grow quite widely in British Columbia.
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  Speaker 1: If you do eat these... what happens?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you can get sick. Within two hours, you
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  Speaker 3: can get gastrointestinal problems. You can experience nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.
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  Speaker 3: And if you do, public health, I mean, this is
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  Speaker 3: what led to the warning. This was a subreddit thread.
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  Speaker 3: It reached not only Naomi, but also reached Interior Public
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  Speaker 3: Health in British Columbia. I think we have the statement here.
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  Speaker 3: You can put up a little bit what they want
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  Speaker 3: people to do if, in fact, they did eat them
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  Speaker 3: and they're not feeling well. Well, one, don't consume them
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  Speaker 3: if you did buy them. Two, dispose of them if
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  Speaker 3: you have them. Yeah, here you are. This is just
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  Speaker 3: the two basic rules here. But if you experience those
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  Speaker 3: symptoms that I just listed off, you have to get
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  Speaker 3: in touch with get some medical help. You can call
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  Speaker 3: Poison Control at NBC and they'll also talk to you
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  Speaker 3: about it. at the same time, I mean, Naomi is
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  Speaker 3: speaking out about this because she wants others to know
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  Speaker 3: just how easy it is to confuse the two. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: she did it. She thought she was doing the right
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  Speaker 3: thing and it turned out might not have been. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: it's tentatively identified as the wrong kind of mushroom, but
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  Speaker 3: just listen to her talk about how easy it is
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  Speaker 3: to make that mistake.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, but they were foraged in my garden. I'm not
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  Speaker 4: like out on the mountain looking for these things like
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  Speaker 4: morel pickers are or things like that, but It doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 4: I think what I'm trying to, the message I'm trying
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  Speaker 4: to deliver is like, even if you.
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  Speaker 2: Think you know, you may not know.
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  Speaker 4: And right now, like, if you go anywhere, we've had
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  Speaker 4: lots of rain, mushrooms are exploding in September.
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  Speaker 3: If you go walking in the woods in British Columbia
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  Speaker 3: right now, you will start to see those mushrooms everywhere.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know what any of them are. I wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: even pretend. But, you know, one of the things, as
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  Speaker 3: I said off the top, is that they the chanterelle
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  Speaker 3: will smell like apricot. But there are many other identifying
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  Speaker 3: factors that you need to know before you pick something
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  Speaker 3: up off the ground and then just eat it, because
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  Speaker 3: otherwise it can make you quite sick.
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  Speaker 1: It is an unfortunate mistake, but good for her for
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  Speaker 1: getting in touch. Well, you got in touch with her,
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  Speaker 1: but talking to you and explaining what was going on.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Sarah, thank you. So let's stay on this story.
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to bring in Mary Burby. She's a professor
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  Speaker 1: emeritus in botany at the University of British Columbia. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you very much for joining us. How significant a mix-up
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  Speaker 1: was this?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it could have been worse. So the mistake involved
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  Speaker 2: a species of mushroom that some people eat, but it's
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  Speaker 2: usually recommended that you not eat it. And the reason
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  Speaker 2: is because it will, in some people, start a reaction
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  Speaker 2: that winds up leading to basically destruction of red blood cells,
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  Speaker 2: serious damage to kidney and liver, and sometimes death. So
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  Speaker 2: the costs of the error are probably... not going to
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  Speaker 2: be significant in this case, just based on chance. But
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  Speaker 2: it's not a good chance to take because it's just
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  Speaker 2: not worth risking that just for eating a mushroom.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So, you know, I think people can assume if they
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  Speaker 1: go to a market, whether it's a farmer's market or
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  Speaker 1: a supermarket, people will make, you know, careful choices about
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  Speaker 1: what they put on the shelf. But as you well know,
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  Speaker 1: across the country and here in British Columbia, especially, I
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  Speaker 1: think there are a lot of people that love to
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  Speaker 1: go looking for mushrooms, picking mushrooms. What should they be
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  Speaker 1: keeping in mind?
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  Speaker 2: Well, they should be keeping in mind that there are
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  Speaker 2: a huge number of mushroom species. There are very few
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  Speaker 2: that are actually poisonous, and there are also very few
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  Speaker 2: that are actually good. And randomly selecting mushrooms and eating
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  Speaker 2: them is a bit like going into your garden and
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  Speaker 2: randomly eating the plant leaves and berries and flowers that
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  Speaker 2: you see. So you might be just fine, but then
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  Speaker 2: on the other hand, you could wind up with a
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  Speaker 2: stomach ache, and you could make a really bad mistake.
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  Speaker 2: So Just as you have to know which plants you
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  Speaker 2: can eat in your garden, you really need to know
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  Speaker 2: the particular characters of different mushrooms, starting with the ones
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  Speaker 2: that are most toxic, so that you can be sure
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  Speaker 2: to avoid those. Then, any mistake that you make is
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  Speaker 2: likely to be, well, okay, I don't feel very good,
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  Speaker 2: but I'm okay. As opposed to the kind of mistake
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  Speaker 2: where you are seriously hurting yourself.
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  Speaker 1: How do you feel about going into the woods and
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  Speaker 1: getting mushrooms? Because I have some friends... who just love it.
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  Speaker 1: It's one of the things that they love about living
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  Speaker 1: in British Columbia. As a botanist, is that something that
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  Speaker 1: you've done over the years?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think of it as being something very human.
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  Speaker 2: We basically evolved by looking for food by foraging, and
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  Speaker 2: it's immensely satisfying to find a beautiful mushroom and knowing
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  Speaker 2: that it's one you can eat. But over the years,
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  Speaker 2: I've become more and more careful And if I'm trying
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  Speaker 2: a new mushroom, even if I, from what I know,
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  Speaker 2: it's edible, I'd always start by cooking it thoroughly and
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  Speaker 2: eating a very small piece because even an edible mushroom
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  Speaker 2: for most people might make me sick and I don't
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  Speaker 2: want to overdo it.
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  Speaker 1: Have you had any mishaps?
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  Speaker 2: Yes. So once when I was a college student a
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  Speaker 2: long time ago, I ate a whole bunch of what
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  Speaker 2: I thought were meadow mushrooms and I didn't get sick.
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  Speaker 2: but some of my friends who ate the same thing did.
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  Speaker 2: And since that time, I've become a much more cautious
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  Speaker 2: human being.
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  Speaker 1: And so let's finish on a positive note. When you
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  Speaker 1: pick the right mushroom, what's the upside? I mean, besides
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  Speaker 1: the joy in foraging, there must be something about the
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  Speaker 1: taste of some of these mushrooms that makes it all
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  Speaker 1: worth it.
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  Speaker 2: I think the taste for sure. And it's very difficult
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  Speaker 2: to explain what the tastes are because we don't really
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  Speaker 2: have a language for mushroom flavors. It's not like, where
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  Speaker 2: I could tell you it has a certain, I don't know,
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  Speaker 2: fruity smell and a lovely flavor. We just can't communicate
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  Speaker 2: mushroom flavors that way. I wish we could, but they're there.
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  Speaker 2: And for those who enjoy foraging, it's certainly a reward
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  Speaker 2: enough to continue to very carefully go out and collect
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  Speaker 2: and cook and eat.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure there's an app for it, but there probably
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  Speaker 1: also is a guidebook. Is there a famous guidebook that
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  Speaker 1: people should have in hand if they want to go
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  Speaker 1: out and forage for mushrooms?
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  Speaker 2: Well, God knows it's not famous, but we wrote one
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  Speaker 2: once because we had funding from the Wall Institute to
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  Speaker 2: try to help protect people from toxic mushrooms. So the
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  Speaker 2: book's name is Mushrooms Up, so it's sort of a pun.
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  Speaker 2: And in addition to the book, there's also a website
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  Speaker 2: and the website by the same name, is basically designed
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  Speaker 2: specifically to show you some of the most highly prized
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  Speaker 2: edible fungi and at the same time some of the
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  Speaker 2: most dangerous mushrooms. It's a totally incomplete guidebook and website.
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  Speaker 2: There are many more mushrooms that aren't included, but the
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  Speaker 2: purpose is to try to ensure that people who forage
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  Speaker 2: can do so with a good chance of not being harmed.
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  Speaker 1: Fantastic. A great place to start. Mary Burby is a
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  Speaker 1: professor emeritus in botany at the University of British Columbia.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for speaking with us.
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  Speaker 2: Well, thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Bye.