Wild Honey Mushrooms (Armillaria mellea): How to Harvest, Identify, Clean, and Cook

Rindfleisch
Published on Jun 27, 2021
This video was created to help mushroom hunting beginners safely identify wild Honey Fungus (Armillaria mellea). This isn't a comprehensive guide by any means, but my goal is to help supplement any other sources you use for wild mushroom identification. I show how to harvest, identify, take a spore print of, clean, and cook honey mushrooms. As well as how to differentiate from a few toxic look-a-likes. This will likely be the first in a series on wild mushrooms since that's been a lifelong hobby of mine, so subscribe if you want to be notified of future videos.

I made this video to try and help people be as safe as possible and avoid getting themselves sick by making mistakes. This is an extremely fun and fulfilling hobby but it must be treated with caution. However, if you approach things with common sense and a good knowledge base, you'll be fine.

Remember: Only you are liable for what you choose to eat. I obviously cannot be present with everyone while they're hunting wild mushrooms, so the responsibility falls on the forager and the forager alone. Please be safe.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I will try to answer them to the best of my knowledge. I do apologize for any strange audio issues in some parts of the video. I'm still very new at video and audio editing.

-----------Links and credits----------

One of my favorite YouTube channels for wild mushroom identification (Highly recommended) : www.youtube.com/channel/UCcbf8wnyVJl631LAmAbo7nw

***Links to products I use or have used (not affiliated)***:

Pretty much the best North American mushrooms field guide: www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Mushrooms/dp/0394519922

Another great pocket guide for North American Mushrooms: www.amazon.com/Mushrooms-Northeast-Simple-Common-Mushroom/dp/1591935911

A low cost mushroom knife I sometimes use: www.amazon.com/Mushroom-Folding-Camping-Truffles-Hardwood/dp/B074WDVLBK

The exact knife I used in this video: www.buckknives.com/product/673-bucklite-max-small-knife/0673FAM01

A great mesh Mushroom bag I like to take on long treks in the woods: www.amazon.com/Morel-Mushroom-Store-Foraging-Bag/dp/B07P5TRC5X

The exact microphone I use for voiceover: www.amazon.com/CAD-Studio-Condenser-Recording-Microphone/dp/B001AIQGUO

***Credits***

All music used in this video was obtained from: www.Bensound.com
Additional photos obtained from: www.commons.wikimedia.org
Free Audio editing software I used: www.audacityteam.org
Free Video editing software I used: www.shotcut.org (I really like this program)