I asked the grower this afternoon and they said the same thing that you did. Don't eat it.

Smart move. But by all means get some real mushroom starter spores ideally with very specific instructions about what they're supposed to look like, and grow your own!

ditto. it is not a puffball. it is not wise to consume.

Great advice Dan! Even when I found what I was pretty sure were morels growing in my yard, I took them in to the extension agent who was very familiar with them and I.D'd them as morels. Even then, my husband wouldn't eat them. I did, and lived to tell. :) But.........mushrooms are nothing to play around with, for sure.

I hear that toxic amanitas actually taste pretty good, so you can hold that thought while you keel over and die. Most things that you'd put in your mouth that are deadly taste pretty bad. That may be an evolved survival trait. But not about mushrooms.

Daninthedirt, I'm sure the 14 people poisoned after eating amanitas in northern CA this past December would agree. Tastes good, after effects very bad.

Yes, I believe that several of these people ate them because they were a gift from others. Sort of like finding them in mushroom compost gotten from another. They all eventually recovered, but an 18 month-old had permanent neurological impairment and a few needed liver transplants. That's the bad story I was referring to. Please, please, please everyone. Don't take the possibility of toxic mushrooms lightly. It isn't worth it. It's not just about getting sick to your stomach.

As a mushroom forager I wholeheartedly agree that it is a very bad idea to consume any mushroom unless you have identified with absolute certainty that it's an edible species. Which is impossible to do from looking at a picture or growth medium. Based on that picture it looks like it could be a mushroom of the genus Agaricus, which contains both edible and poisonous species. Please do not consume.

Dan and CC, I live in No Ca and my sister has always picked wild mushrooms!

I say she is F*****g NUTS! Some of our wild mushrooms are almost identical to some called Death Caps (hence my hesitation!)

I'm sure this is the poisoning you are referring to. It's been happening for YEARS!

Many Asian people think these are the type of mushrooms that they are used to, but end up consuming the death caps!

I've tried some mushroom growing kits with little success, so now I just buy them! Nancy