Comments on: Charles McIlvaine, Pioneer of American Mycophagy http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/02/charles-mcilvaine-fungi/ A Heaping Helping of Food News, Science and Culture Sat, 18 May 2013 18:34:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: Marc http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/02/charles-mcilvaine-fungi/comment-page-1/#comment-14936 Marc Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:39:42 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/?p=11352#comment-14936 John Cage was more than just a devoted mushroom eater. According to a medium-sized piece in the New Yorker from 2010 about Cage's experimental music and creative drive, Cage co-founded the New York Mycological Society, made his living partially by selling wild mushrooms to fancy restaurants like the Four Seasons, and in 1959, he was on an Italian game show ("Lascia o Raddoppia?" and won several thousand dollars answering questions about white-spore mushrooms. When I read that, I almost dropped the magazine, as I must have bought into the false idea of the artist as living in some kind of temple of music and art, not tromping around the woods collecting food for fancy meals or specimens for scientific meetings. Link: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_ross John Cage was more than just a devoted mushroom eater. According to a medium-sized piece in the New Yorker from 2010 about Cage’s experimental music and creative drive, Cage co-founded the New York Mycological Society, made his living partially by selling wild mushrooms to fancy restaurants like the Four Seasons, and in 1959, he was on an Italian game show (“Lascia o Raddoppia?” and won several thousand dollars answering questions about white-spore mushrooms. When I read that, I almost dropped the magazine, as I must have bought into the false idea of the artist as living in some kind of temple of music and art, not tromping around the woods collecting food for fancy meals or specimens for scientific meetings.

Link: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_ross

]]> By: Britt Bunyard http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/02/charles-mcilvaine-fungi/comment-page-1/#comment-14913 Britt Bunyard Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:52:44 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/?p=11352#comment-14913 Great story! The author is very much correct: we DO need more written about him. I edit the mycological journal FUNGI and we've had a few short stories on him and there is SO much more about him that's interesting--he was quite a character. I wonder what he'd think if he were alive today...foraging for wild foods including mushrooms is now becoming the rage. He was way ahead of his time. I echo the author's sentiments, too, about McIlvaine's book: it's fun to read, if only for his comments about palatability (or not) of the mushrooms he put into his mouth. One last comment on how he avoided being poisoned: believe it or not but comparatively few wild mushroom species are actually toxic (comparatively few are tasty too)...the vast majority of mushrooms, while "edible" and safe are not palatable. Great story! The author is very much correct: we DO need more written about him. I edit the mycological journal FUNGI and we’ve had a few short stories on him and there is SO much more about him that’s interesting–he was quite a character. I wonder what he’d think if he were alive today…foraging for wild foods including mushrooms is now becoming the rage. He was way ahead of his time. I echo the author’s sentiments, too, about McIlvaine’s book: it’s fun to read, if only for his comments about palatability (or not) of the mushrooms he put into his mouth. One last comment on how he avoided being poisoned: believe it or not but comparatively few wild mushroom species are actually toxic (comparatively few are tasty too)…the vast majority of mushrooms, while “edible” and safe are not palatable.

]]> By: Philip http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2012/02/charles-mcilvaine-fungi/comment-page-1/#comment-14912 Philip Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:47:24 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/?p=11352#comment-14912 Interesting !...but almost unbelievable that he could have tasted 600 species and lived to tell about it! Interesting !…but almost unbelievable that he could have tasted 600 species and lived to tell about it!

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