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Maybe this is regional but all these comments seem way overblown. Just learn to spot death caps and if you're not sure, avoid mushrooms with gills completely and pick only ones with the spongy undersides like summer caps. I've eaten foraged mushrooms hundreds of times throughout my life based on only my grandmother's description of what I should and shouldn't pick.

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The ratio of edible:lookalike-and-very-poisonous is regional and varies widely. Would be a fun dataset to visualize.

Anecdotally, I've heard that northern Europe is a relatively "safe" place (i.e. a high score on that ratio) and that the U.S. is, in general, more "dangerous". No firsthand experience to make a claim on the subject, though.

You leaned what was safe from someone who'd been doing it for a long time. You had the kind of live expertise that's necessary to be safe.

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