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11/22/2017 07:30 AMHave you looked out your kitchen window and seen a destroying angel in the backyard? Not sure if you’re holding a trumpet of death or an inky cap?
If mushrooms are a mystery, then Dr. Terry Doyle is the detective. With 42 years of experience collecting and identifying mushrooms, Terry’s Killingworth friends and neighbors know who to call when they spot a foreign fungi.
“People call me or send photos when they’re not sure about the mushrooms growing on their property or they find an unusual mushroom in the woods. I’m always happy to help,” he says.
Terry has condensed his vast knowledge into an illustrated presentation, “Mushroom Collecting for the Table,” that he will share at Killingworth Library on Thursday, Nov. 30.
“Basically, the goal is to tell people how to avoid killing themselves,” he says with a smile. “With mushrooms, there’s always more than meets the eye.”
While it may sound drastic, wild mushrooms are a very different beast, when compared to the common supermarket varieties. Included in Terry’s photographic collection is an Amanita virosa mushroom, better known as the destroying angel, that he found just two weeks ago in Parmelee Farm, Killingworth.
“If you ate one of the destroying angel mushrooms, you’d need a liver transplant next week. If you ate two, you’d be dead,” he says.
From the bright orange, glow-in-the-dark jack o’ lantern mushroom that “looks great but will make you ill” to the toxic specimens that are “very hallucinogenic and may give you a trip you don’t want,” Terry’s collected them all right here.
“I found some inky cap mushrooms two weeks ago at Parmelee Farm and those are good, they’re edible. But if you have alcohol in the 24 hours before or after you eat them, you’ll get violently ill,” he says.
But it’s not all bad news for mushroom lovers. There are the delicious chanterelles that Terry says are “very edible and highly valued for the table,” the sulphur shelf mushrooms that “are popular as a substitute for chicken in many recipes,” and “the horse mushroom that grows right outside our house that are meaty and delicious.”
After 42 years of collecting, Terry does have a favorite.
“The Boletus edulis, also known as 'the king.' I found it at Chatfield Hollow and it was the most beautiful mushroom I’ve every had. But I only ever found it once.”
Canadian by birth, Terry grew up in Montreal and studied at Loyola College. He completed his PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and his postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University on New York.
A research chemist, Terry worked for Bristol Myers from 1967 to 1993, moving from a lab in Montreal to head up a research team at the corporation’s home base in Syracuse, New York in 1975. His work focused on the discovery development of cancer drugs, including approved drugs for the treatment of breast and ovarian cancer.
“I worked with the drugs from discovery through to phase one and -two clinical trials and was involved with 20 drugs that went to clinic,” he says. “The chemistry was fun. It was one of the most exciting things I got involved with.”
After leaving Bristol Myer, Terry helped found a pharmaceutical company in New Haven and was a consultant for a company in his hometown of Montreal.
“I really enjoyed going back and being in the old stomping grounds. I left Montreal in 1975 and I was amazed by the changes. When I left all business was conducted in English, but now 80 percent of all meetings are in French. Fortunately, chemistry has its own technical language so it’s not any different,” he says.
Terry and his wife Felicity have lived in Killingworth for 32 years. When Bristol Myers and Terry’s job relocated to Wallingford in 1986, the town’s excellent school system motivated them to build their new home in Killingworth and here they raised their three children.
While they happily call Killingworth home, the Doyles are world travelers with Terry listing trips to Australia, China, Europe, and Hong Kong and more than 25 visits to Japan. Felicity was born in Ireland and the Doyles visit relatives and friends when returning to her homeland every few years.
It was a microbiologist friend who introduced Terry to his life-long hobby.
“My friend was a member of a mushroom collecting group, so we’d go out hiking in the state parks in upper state New York and collect everything we saw. We’d learned to look at the shape, the vein remnant, the cap attachment, how the base goes into the ground; sometimes we’d get really fancy and use microscopes or stain the mushrooms to identify them,” he says.
In 2006, Terry retired and now volunteers at Parmelee Farm almost every day, exercising his 40-year passion for carpentry, a craft honed while making 18th-century reproductions for his home.
“I did the trim work on the pavilion and I built the doors in the farmhouse, and I do the mowing there. There was a tree that came down on the property, so I aged it three years and made the live edge coffee table in the Pond Room there,” he says.
“When I got my first house, a friend gave me some advice. He said, ‘If you have a job around the house or something needs fixing, go buy the tools and read up how to do it, then try it. After you’ve screwed it up and you have to do it again, you’ll really know how it’s done and you’ll have the tools.’ So, now I have whole workshop of tools and I like to put them to good use.”
Terry joined the Killingworth Lions Club in 1990 and has served on the Board of Directors since then, including a term as president in 2008-’09. He also serves on the Parmelee Farm Committee and next year will take on the job of chairperson of the Inlands Watercourse and Wetlands Commission.
Terry collects most of his mushrooms at Parmelee Farm, Chatfield Hollow, and his own backyard. If he comes up empty-handed, then it’s off to the market.
“Mushrooms will grow anywhere and are most bountiful a few days after heavy rain, but certainly with the open land and woods here, we’re in a great place to find mushrooms,” he says.
Once the species is safely identified, Terry recommends a simple recipe for the mushrooms that make it to the kitchen.
“I saute them in olive oil and, once reduced, I add butter, then fresh garlic, sometimes some finely chopped ginger.”
Terry has some sound advice for new collectors.
“Go with someone who has been there before. If there is only a single specimen, take it, but don’t eat it. Mushrooms change in various growth stages so you need to identify it before it reaches the table.”
Of course, if in doubt, you can always call on Killingworth’s mushroom man.
Dr. Terry Doyle presents “Mushroom Collecting for the Table” at the Killingworth Library. 301 Route 81, on Thursday, Nov. 30. The event is free; registration required. For more information, call 860-663-2000.