Bearded milk capLactarius pubescens

Yes, but only after thorough processing: soak it for 2-3 days, changing the water often, or boil it for 15-20 minutes and discard the water, then salt it for 40 days. Without processing, the raw mushroom is very bitter and can cause gastroenteritis — nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea.

Technically, yes — after boiling. But it still tastes somewhat bitter, and the Bearded milk cap's traditional use is salting or pickling. That's where it shines. Fried, it's an acquired taste — and not safe for everyone.

Always near birches. It can grow in deciduous, mixed and even pine forests — but always where there are birches. It loves damp hollows, moist forest edges, boggy clearings and mossy “carpets.”

Polissia, the Forest-Steppe and the Carpathian foothills. The richest harvests come from the Chernihiv, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Volyn, Rivne and Lviv regions. In the steppe and Crimea it's rare, found only in planted birch stands.

July–September. It's an earlier species than the Woolly milk cap — it starts in mid-July and peaks in August. By the end of September it has mostly finished fruiting.

Rarely. If autumn is warm and long, you may find the odd one into the first days of October. But you won't find it in numbers in October.

Most often with the Woolly milk cap (L. torminosus). The difference: the Bearded milk cap is entirely white with no zones and no brick-pink tints. In the kitchen the two are equivalent (both are salted). It can also be confused with Lactarius resimus — but that one is much larger, with a yellowish tint.

In modern taxonomy the question is debated. Many sources treat the Bearded milk cap as a subspecies of the Woolly milk cap — L. torminosus subsp. pubescens. For a forager it makes no real difference in practice: both are processed the same way and are often salted together in the same jar.