Mushrooms

[Harkonnen]

In ancient times, how was it decided who gets to taste, which mushroom is poisonous, and which is not?

[Harkonnen]

I'm thinking criminals or pows could have been ordered to take a nibble on on various edibles.

[JamesBond007]

I think the various tribes learned what characteristics , of mushrooms, usually denoted they were poisonous and generally avoiding them. However, maybe , in the very beginning , when gathering mushrooms they took extremely small portions, to eat, to see if it made them sick thus indicating a larger portion could potentially kill them. So , maybe even a high status person such as a Shaman might try it, but, who knows ? Anyway, a Shaman might try them because some might have what was considered healing properties, others hallucinogenic , and others poisonous etc..

[Harkonnen]

Good point. Slowly adding intake could very well work, notwithstanding the most poisonous of edibles.

[Benyzero]

I've read in the past days that death by eating poisonous mushrooms is pretty common even nowadays, They were learning in the hard way probably. Possible that they gave it to a goat or some other animal around the house first.

[Daos777]

>Take meat
>beat the meat
>beat the mushrooms
> put mushrooms inside beat meat
>make ball of meat and mushrooms
>make dog eat ball of meat

If dog is okay after 2 hours you can try one mushroom.

[frankhammer]

I'd hazard a guess and say that most of this experimentation took place prior to domestication of animals and was passed down through generations.

[Ellethwyn]

I've seen a lot of mushrooms in my garden with big bites taken out of them, and have see the squirrels carrying some away. They seem to love them. Maybe people would watch animals in the wild eat them, and choose which to try based off that?

[Harkonnen]

I've seen a lot of mushrooms in my garden with big bites taken out of them, and have see the squirrels carrying some away. They seem to love them. Maybe people would watch animals in the wild eat them, and choose which to try based off that?

Could be. Tho I think many animals can handle poison better than us beans.

Now, that is January and snow, it is good to mention that one year back in the day, I found chantarelles growing amidst January snow, which I thought was pretty wild.

[Celestia]

Perhaps they didn’t have a choice. They were starving and ate a mushroom that was poisonous, died and their neighbors took notes.