The Maine Sunday Telegram has published an update on the Maine mushroom foraging law.
But eight months later, the law still has not been implemented. The program to certify wild mushroom foragers and brokers has not been put in place. An advisory board established by the law has yet to be formed.
Meanwhile, wild mushrooms are still being peddled to restaurants and retailers — unchecked and unsupervised.
I’ve been foraging with a chef who is an experienced forager, though not a licensed one and he continued to emphasize the beauty and danger in the practice. There are minor differences between some lethal and edible mushrooms. A market in the Midcoast purchased bad mushrooms, sold them to an unsuspecting customer & if there hadn’t been an expert forager at her dinner party the effects would have been unimaginable (he immediately removed them and told everyone at the party not to eat one..).
I think the law should be changed to, “the, go to jail if you are an idiot and buy mushrooms from someone you do not know and trust, law”. And Sharon, please let me know more about this story, and who i can talk to about it! As far as I can tell, there has not been a serious mushroom poisoning in a restaurant in the united states in decades, (perhaps never), so it really was an amazing event!
Hi Stephen. I agree with the idiot law idea. The market that sold the mushrooms has since closed and I don’t know how to track down the owner. I think, but am not positive, it was Greg Marley (http://mushrooms4health.com/about-greg/) or one of his students who was at said dinner part and prevented everyone from getting sick. No one got sick, thankfully.