>>2819827The season was much earlier here in central NC. This was from back at the end of March.
Sadly I only know of a single spot that produces a handful of fruiting bodies a year, and I always leave some to spread the spores. I've got some cotton mesh bags to help the ones I do pick leave spores too.
>>2819832Good advice given already, especially regarding starting with the ones that are easy to ID. Sure, you could try to go for the caesar's amanita, which is a highly-regarded edible, but it's in the same genus as so many other deadly toxic mushrooms that it's really not worth the risk. Meanwhile, things like
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactarius_indigoor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureoboletus_betulaare so distinctive (at least where I live) that it would be basically impossible to mistake for something else.
Another important thing to note: mushrooms that might be very easily identifiable, or have little to no poisonous look-alikes in one region, might easily be confused for poisonous mushrooms in another region. Supposedly a (relatively) large number of south-east asian immigrants mistook wild death cap mushrooms for the edible paddy straw mushroom which they were familiar with from their home region, and subsequently poisoned themselves. Or in other words, mushroom ID knowledge is localized.
