I would never trust an app in a phone to identify something that could potentially kill me.
I only had one mistaken mushroom experience when I harvested what I thought was a Hen of the Woods from the base of an oak in my yard. I was 100% certain that it was the correct species based on every indicator I had researched. Unfortunately, I didn't see any seasonal window for picking information in my research. I harvested and ate the mushroom in mid to late August and I was disappointed in the bland, unexciting flavor.
After telling an old Italian buddy of mine who really knows his mushrooms what I did, he asked, "What are you, stupid ?" I knew that was not a rhetorical question coming from this guy, so I said, "Yeah, I guess." He went on to tell me that don't pick anything that you might think is Hen of the Woods until late September and into October.
He later gave me a 3 lb. monster that he pulled out of a stump while he was stopped at a redlight and it was the most delicious thing ever. It froze well also so I had mushroom sides into the winter that year.
My saving grace was that Hen of the Woods has no poisonous lookalikes. I still don't know what I ate the first time but it didn't kill me, so I will call that a win.
From that day forward, I buy my mushrooms at the store. Picked out of beds of dehydrated horse shit out of commercial mushroom farms, they have to be good. Right ?
