Is it edible, or poisonous?

And the moral of this story...

I once heard a story about a man in Russian village who was an avid mushroom gatherer. In the warm time of year he would go to nearby woodland, or to the fields, and bring back a good crop, the greater part of which would be dried, pickled or frozen by his wife to be enjoyed during long Russian winters, and some of it she would make into family dinner. One day they got a neighbour, who came to settle in their village from a city. The delicious smells of mushrooms cooked in sour cream reached his nostrils, he knocked on their door, and they grudgingly invited him to share their meal.

The culprit

The next morning the man and his wife were working in their garden when their new neighbour staggered out of his house, all green-faced, and claimed that they had fed him poisonous mushrooms. The man pointed out that it was nonsense because they were all eating from the same pot, and both he and his wife were well. With gardening done, he got his basket and went on another foraging trip, and came back in the evening with more mushrooms. By that time the neighbour recovered enough for the delicious smell of mushrooms to lure him again to the man's house, and the meal was shared again.

In the morning... you guessed it. It is unknown how many attempts it took for the neighbour to get the message, but apparently in the end he thought that village life did not suit him at all, and he went back to the city.

If you read this post, you probably realised by now that the mushroom stew contained common ink caps, Coprinopsis atramentaria, and also that the good man and his wife were teetotallers, while their neighbour was a drinker. A common ink cap is edible and tasty on its own, but consume any alcohol with it, and you'll be off mushrooms, and food generally, for a while.

To summarise: someone you know likes to turn up to dinner uninvited? Now you know how to deal with the problem.

Image credits:
Soviet anti-alcohol propaganda poster from 1980s, public domain
Faltentintlinge (Coprinopsis atramentaria). Illustration by Albin Schmalfuß, 1897, public domain