Autumn Mushrooms

These LBMs (Little Brown Mushrooms are best left alone
 and not eaten

The drought is over and the warm Autumn rains have produced a heap of mushrooms.  The bottom picture is edible. It is the first edible mushroom we have had from our land in the whole 27 years we have been here!

How do you tell an edible mushroom?
1) its pink to brown underneath.  they are pink when they first pop up and get darker to almost black with age
2) The stalk breaks away cleanly and easily from the "hat"

These little cuties with a nipple on top are pretty but being
 white underneath (see middle mushroom Ed picked) I would
 not eat them.

3) when you crush the stalk and cut the cap in half it NEVER turns yellow.  It may go reddish brown that is OK But sulphur yellow is a no no.
4) the top layer is probably scaly and peels off easily
5) they should smell of mushrooms and not a horrible chemical smell.  Put them in a plastic bag for a few minutes and then you can easily smell them.  I did this and decided that ours didn't smell very nice but they actually turned out OK.

DO NOT EAT if in doubt.  Some mushrooms can really fuck your liver and kill you over several days - not worth it.

These plain white ones look pristine and beautiful but I 

suspect they are death caps - again they are white underneath

But these are some sort of fiels mushroom and

 are edible (else Ed and I would be ill as 

we had them for tea the last couple of nights) 

well to tell the truth Ed ate then the first night 

as I was too chicken but he was fine so 

I had them as well the next night.

Our harvest on the bench.

Basket Fungus is a fascinating one and have been plentiful this year