A woman who found 11 pounds of mushrooms while hiking was able to feed her family for a week, but experts warn that eating wild mushrooms could be life-threatening.
Alisimon Minit, 27, from the village of North Marston in Buckinghamshire, England, recently went hiking with his father when he spotted a large white object, news agency SWNS reported.
Minnit thought it was trash at first, but soon realized he had found a very large downy mushroom. She told the news agency that she had searched for mushrooms and brought them back to her parents' house. (See the video at the top of this article.)
2025 Hot Food Trends: Value Meals, Cold Beer, and Mushrooms
“I was shocked when I realized it was a mushroom,” Minit told SWNS. “Honestly, it was about twice the size of my head.”
When Minit arrived home, he weighed the mushrooms and set to work turning the giant mushrooms into a week's worth of meals.
Alisimon Minnit poses with a giant mushroom he found while hiking with his father. (@alissimon_music/SWNS)
She created four different items and recorded and rated them on her TikTok account.
The “Spicy Fried Mushroom” dish received a 10 out of 10, she said.
They gave the mushroom-based pizza (in which the dough was replaced with mushroom slices) an 8 out of 10, and the same score to the mushroom pasta and “meat” ball dishes.
Edible mushrooms are whipped into freshly prepared meals at a New York restaurant and are said to be delicious!
But the best thing she made was a mushroom “roast” that resembled meatloaf.
Minnit gave the dish a “10,000 out of 10'' and said it was “the perfect vegetarian meatloaf.''
A mushroom discovered during a hike in the UK weighed 11 pounds. (@alissimon_music/SWNS)
She also loved how easily it froze, calling it a “huge win.”
“I was surprised at how much I was able to harvest. The roasted mushrooms my mom made were so delicious that I froze some to take home,” she told SWNS.
Mushroom foraging warning
Experts say she was able to safely eat the mushrooms she and her father found, but foraging for wild mushrooms can be dangerous and requires extreme caution.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says you should not eat wild mushrooms unless they have been identified by a trained mycologist (a biologist who studies fungi).
The CDC says, “Ingestion of poisonous mushrooms can lead to serious illness and death.”
The outer skin should be as thin as an eggshell. If it's thicker, the fungus may be a toxic earthball.
According to the website of the University of British Columbia's Beatty Museum of Biodiversity, many poisonous mushrooms resemble edible mushrooms.
In the case of the dandelion mushroom Minnit found and ate, the same source said a similar-looking mushroom called “earthball” is poisonous if eaten.
For more lifestyle articles, visit: www.foxnews.com/lifestyle
To tell the difference between the two, suspect puffball mushrooms should be sliced in half from top to bottom before cooking.
Minnit said the mushroom was used in the preparation of several dishes. (@alissimon_music/SWNS)
“The rind should be thin, like an eggshell. If it's thick, the fungus could be a poisonous earthball,” the museum said.
In addition, “fluff balls” that are found to have a “small mushroom shape” inside can be deadly.
Click here to sign up for our lifestyle newsletter
“This specimen may be the 'egg' stage of a deadly or dangerous species, such as the deathcap,” the museum said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Also, mushrooms with yellow or brown interiors should not be eaten, although they may not necessarily be fatal, the Beatty Museum of Biodiversity said. Its color means “the specimen is old, bitter and inedible.”
