Is It Edible? <laugh track>

A la David Letterman's "Will It Float," I'm hoping to get a thread on "Is It Edible" (ie, "Can I Eat It") going for foraged items in this brilliant new subforum (Gardening, Farming, and Foraging). I think this can be tongue in cheek (pun intended), and that of course, all requesters should take identifications with a grain of salt, but I think many posters will be pleasantly surprised by the erudition and field experience of our foraging members.

I'll start this off:

1. Is it Edible?



2.



3.

with wild mushrooms in this area, i think the rule is if the base is hollow it's safe (morel, etc)., if it's solid it's not edible ... of course this can't be universally true with all mushrooms, since the ones you buy at the store aren't hollow... so i don't know ...

In regards to #3 - he's too cute to eat. Look at him. He seems to be saying "I'm too cute to eat". What a smile

Santander wrote:

I'm not going to speculate on the edibility of mushrooms without a mycologist handy, but typically amphibians secrete poison with varying degrees of efficiency through their skin. I vote the tiger salamander to be inedible.

In Patzquaro, Michoacan several years ago, in the funkiest primordial Mexican market I have had the pleasure of exploring, one lady was selling these whopping-huge hellbender-like salamanders. I had wondered if they were meant to be eaten or had medicinal or ritualistic uses. With a little wiki- research it looks like that while hellbenders are out of range for southern Mexico (it must have been a cousin,) I also learned that Native American peoples would eat such salamanders, so those hefty critters at the market were likely meant to be consumed. I also found evidence of consumption of "ajolote" salamanders in this region of Mexico, though this breed more resembles the axolotl blind cave salamander with the ruffly red gills. At http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/recipes/puebla/kg0306.html I found the following description:
"Ajolote: salamander, a pre-Hispanic food still eaten in the lake regions of central and southern Mexico. They are steamed with onions and tomatoes in corn husks, or fried and served in a tomato sauce."