One day I hope to find some here on PEI and know enough to recognize them . Not a lot to pick in my woods , very dry sept. I have ben lucky to find some oaks with maitake last year and again this year they are fruiting . I would like to know what distance from a road you would consider safe to pick them ?
Merci
75 ft is a very safe distance on lightly travelled roads and 150 ft for heavily travelled highways and busy city streets. Often is the day we walk by large amounts of roadside wild mushrooms to gather smaller safe quantities in the surroundings. These wild mushrooms exposed to toxins do offer us an indication of what may lay ahead and also provide spores flowing into cleaner areas. Maitake are great mushrooms, really rare in my area as we have very few large oaks, glad to hear you are gathering them at this time on the island. cheers
1left 
One day I hope to find some here on PEI and know enough to recognize them . Not a lot to pick in my woods , very dry sept. I have ben lucky to find some oaks with maitake last year and again this year they are fruiting . I would like to know what distance from a road you would consider safe to pick them ?
Merci
75 ft is a very safe distance on lightly travelled roads and 150 ft for heavily travelled highways and busy city streets. Often is the day we walk by large amounts of roadside wild mushrooms to gather smaller safe quantities in the surroundings. These wild mushrooms exposed to toxins do offer us an indication of what may lay ahead and also provide spores flowing into cleaner areas. Maitake are great mushrooms, really rare in my area as we have very few large oaks, glad to hear you are gathering them at this time on the island. cheers