A great book for beginners with a focus on easily identifiable edible mushrooms that have few or no lookalikes.
Foraging for mushrooms can be very dangerous, with many mushroom lookalikes and difficult-to-identify variations out there. This book eschews most of those in favor of a handful of distinct mushrooms that a beginner might be able to identify with ease. Because of this, it doesn't cover quite as many mushrooms as other field guides might, but it's a very strong place to start. Notes on identification, along with best ways to harvest, and how to tell them apart from potential lookalikes, are present. A handful of notes on flavor profile and how/when to prepare are greatly appreciated. The final chapter covers several deadly mushrooms to avoid, which is also a great thing to learn. Credits in the front list all the photos as stock images, so I won't really review the quality of those here. I wouldn't have minded seeing several of mushrooms in their various stages of life, but …
Foraging for mushrooms can be very dangerous, with many mushroom lookalikes and difficult-to-identify variations out there. This book eschews most of those in favor of a handful of distinct mushrooms that a beginner might be able to identify with ease. Because of this, it doesn't cover quite as many mushrooms as other field guides might, but it's a very strong place to start. Notes on identification, along with best ways to harvest, and how to tell them apart from potential lookalikes, are present. A handful of notes on flavor profile and how/when to prepare are greatly appreciated. The final chapter covers several deadly mushrooms to avoid, which is also a great thing to learn. Credits in the front list all the photos as stock images, so I won't really review the quality of those here. I wouldn't have minded seeing several of mushrooms in their various stages of life, but the photos that are included get the job done admirably. As always, foraging with a local expert is the only way to be certain, but you'll get more out of it if you read this book before you go.
Thanks to NetGalley and Callisto Media for the review copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.