Mushroom Spores and Spinach! Delicious?

[johndoughertyart]

Hello Everyone,
I have another paranoid mushroom question. I love the mushrooms growing in my garden. I let them thrive as long as they will, but I have come across a particular situation which actually made me think lets ask for another opinion. Recently in a small 2ft by 3 ft bed where I grow my spinach, I had some little brown mushrooms start to come up from the bed. This bed is heavily composted and mulched which explains the mushrooms. What has happened over the last couple of weeks though was a mushrooms explosion. Roughly a 1000 mushrooms popped up over my luscious spinach and dropped a heavily layer of brown spores all over my spinach. My luscious green spinach is now completely covered. Its quite amazing really. I have brown spinach, almost looks bronzed really. This spinach is tasty and ready to be eaten. Can I eat it? Keep in mind this is not just spores carried by the wind to a rosemary bush but a layer of spores, like a heavy spore print worth of spores caked onto my spinach. Thanks for any help and I apologize in advance for my paranoia. It is what we do not know, that scares us the most sometimes.

[applestar]

I think they won't be a problem as long as you wash the spinach.
It sounds like this is a fungus that grows in the mulch. It's possible the spore coverage help to protect the spinach from mildew and other fungi and bacteria that would be inimical to the plants.

HOWEVER -- Perhaps as precaution, don't eat the spinach fresh and par boil first -- throwing out the water before preparing to eat -- until you are sure you or others won't exhibit allergic reaction or sensitivity. Maybe sampling only small amounts at first.

You may want to wash/rinse the spores before they spoil on the leaves and create an environment that could then cause the leaves to be affected.

[johndoughertyart]

Good call! I forgotten that having them covered like that could cause harm to the foliage. Thanks for the quick reply. Generally I love the taste of mushrooms but as a precautions I will at least rinse and maybe par boil. Thanks a bunch!

[jal_ut]

As others have said, wash the spinach and you should be fine.

There is some sentiment that mushrooms are actually edible................... However, for me anything fungal is compost/mulch. It is not even good plant food. It is not food! Many kinds are highly poisonous. Hard to tell which is and which may not be poisonous. You won't catch me eating any of it.

[johndoughertyart]

Thanks for the reply jal_ut. I could be mistaken but I think I may have read some previous posts from you about growing carrots. I will wash the spinach but I won't be eating any little brown mushrooms. I'll stick to my morels for now.

[jal_ut]

Oh yes, I do grow carrots. I plant the short fat type since I can't get the long ones out of my tight ground.
Plant carrot seed very early, and just cover it 1/2 inch. I try to not get it too thick and don't thin until the
thinnings are large enough to be eaten.



Royal Chantenay

These can get quite large up to 2 pounds each. But not very long.