I have a bunch of big mushrooms growing in the yard and in the compost pile. They look very much like the portabellos in the store. Large round brown tops with white gills underneath. They seem to thrive best when they have the fir needles in the compost. Any Ideas as to if these are good to eat? I seem to remember my mother and grandmother picking these types when I was a kid. I think they called them medow mushrooms but I also think they were brown or pink underneath. Thanks JP

Without a picture your best feeding them to methheads and watch the obits.

Bingo... Pictures are worth a million words with mushrooms...

+100

Meadow mushrooms do have pink gills, are usually no more than three inches across - and surprisingly grow in meadows. Even with a photo it can be hard to make a certain identification.

Those don't sound like meadow mushrooms.
I wouldn't mess with them unless a pro made a positive ID and they were safe.
Here's a pic of a light brown Amanita that is poisonous :

BTDT...I once fried super hard on Shitakes.

Never again.

PS---The pool cue was hilarious though.

BD, I usually roll my eyes at some of your posts but that one was perfect.

JP, chantrelles are the only ones I eat because they are the only ones I can ID with 100% accuracy. When people ask me about 'shrooms I always tell them about how ~12 years ago my uncle signed up for a course given by a UW professor on NW mushroom identification. He (my uncle) received a notice a few days before the course started to inform him that it was cancelled. Later, he learned that the professor died as a result of eating a mushroom he misidentified. The moral? Only eat 'shroom you are 100% confident in...and even then you should second guess yourself. That said, sauteed chantrelles served on top of a grilled ribeye is worth dying over.

+1, +1.

I think it was in cub scouts on the very 1st nature walk they told us don't eat any wild mushrooms unless you like you would very much enjoy a slow, painful death.

Morels and Chantrelles are obvious, but the other "brownish kinda maybe edible" are like playing Russian Roulette with only one empty cylinder.

If you send me a pic, I know a dude who either runs or is a bigwig at the WA Mycological Society and will give you an answer.

Thanks everyone I will try and get some photos and send them to Irie. I am unable to post them here.. okbye JP

Might as well get on the liver transplant list now

Sorry, couldn't resist that low-hanging fruit

As a rule of thumb, if they are plentiful and easily accessible.....not good to eat.
<kidding>

OK so I "m unable to get any pictures in the computer so I think I will make up some Mushroom soup and take it down to the river to the meth heads camp Free soup I will proclaim 100% organic. Hope you like it. I will keep you posted ok bye JP