Think twice before eating that berry – or buying that foraging guide

August 23, 2024 by
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Alicia Silverstone, star of the popular 90s comedy Clueless, almost lived up to the name of the movie last week. She posted a video of herself taking a bite out of an unknown red fruit, which online sleuths determined was Jerusalem cherry, a mildly toxic plant. While some people were worried because she didn’t post anything for over 48 hours after making the video, Silverstone didn’t encounter any ill effects from sampling the fruit.

Morel mushroom tartine with chives from Serious Eats

This story touches on a popular trend, that of urban foraging. As a former Master Gardener who gave a presentation on the subject as part of earning my MG designation, I am delighted that others find the topic interesting. However, as with almost any trend, there are going to be people who discount the risks that are present with the pastime. If you take a nonchalant attitude toward foraging, you can easily make yourself ill, and possibly even ingest something that could kill you. Many delicious-looking berries will make you regret eating them. There are also many look-alikes, such as the Queen Anne’s lace and poison hemlock, and many in the mushroom family such as morels and false morels, and parasol mushrooms and their poisonous twin, green-spored parasols. I thought I had found a parasol mushroom in my yard but alas, upon closer inspection it was the green-spored variety. Fortunately I consulted a trusted source for identification before throwing them in the frying pan.

However, even when people are being careful, AI can steer them wrong. A family was recently hospitalized after eating poisonous mushrooms that had been misidentified by an AI-generated foraging guide. This is a growing problem that affects even large retailers like Amazon: a book becomes popular, and scammers use AI to make a knockoff with the same (or very similar) title to take advantage of the book’s popularity. The hastily printed copies are often filled with poorly written text and are rife with misinformation. Apparently you can’t even ‘forage’ for books without being able to identify doppelgangers! While getting a crappy AI copy of a romance novel would only be a mild disappointment, it could have serious consequences for topics like foraging or medicine.

While I haven’t seen any articles about AI cookbook clones, I’m sure it will happen if it hasn’t already. That is just one more reason to choose an independent bookseller (like the ones found in our list of cookbook stores around the world). They are not likely to risk their reputation purchasing knockoff books from a dodgy source. The moral of the story: don’t eat berries that you can’t identify, and be careful with your online book buying.

Category: Antipasto

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8 Comments

  • KatieK1  on  August 23, 2024

    Morels aren’t easily confused with false morels.

  • Batterbabe  on  August 24, 2024

    I imagine that an ounce of common sense plus any one of many reputable books would prevent most bad outcomes. This is all a bit alarmist. This platform shares a love of cooking and ingredients and surely wouldn’t rely on AI sources for foraging. Or weird books on social media.

  • lean1  on  August 24, 2024

    I will never eat wild mushrooms. Only farm grown. Period stop!

  • janecooksamiracle  on  August 24, 2024

    “ All Fungi are edible.

    Some fungi are only edible once.”

    ― Terry Pratchett

  • averythingcooks  on  August 24, 2024

    So many stories about illness (& the tragic death a 3 old in 2016) linked to death cap mushrooms in BC. There is just no chance I’m picking, cooking or eating a mushroom that didn’t come the store.

  • annmartina  on  August 24, 2024

    It also makes me think of the death of Chris McCandless in Alaska and the Erin Patterson case in Australia.

  • TeresaRenee  on  August 24, 2024

    Being aware that I know nothing about toxic and poisonous plants, I don’t forage at all. Something that looks and smells like mint is growing wild and out of control in a local park and it’s soooo tempting to harvest some for a few mojitos but I just can’t risk it. With my luck it will turn out to be some exotic poison ivy that I end up being allergic too…

    FTR Resource material written by AI scares me. AI hallucinations are way too common.

  • KatieK1  on  August 24, 2024

    Just like with cookbooks, it helps to find out who the trustworthy authors are. There are also local mycological societies you can join which have experts who will ID what you find. Becoming knowledgeable is better than living in fear.

    Foraging is great fun. The only reason I’m not doing it anymore is to avoid getting bitten by Lyme disease ticks, a real scourge here in the U.S. northeast, and probably other regions as well.

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