I have a new favorite mushroom foraging book. How to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Identifying 29 Wild, Edible Mushrooms was released this month and I can’t recommend it enough.
I was lucky enough to receive a digital Advanced Reader’s Copy of the book last spring, and I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the book to purchase a physical copy of my own.
The publisher says:
With the surging interest in foraging for mushrooms, those new to the art need a reliable guide to distinguishing the safe fungi from the toxic. But for beginner foragers who just want to answer the question “Can it eat it?”, most of the books on the subject are dry, dense, and written by mycologists for other mycologists.
Frank Hyman to the rescue! How to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying is the book for anyone who walks in the woods and would like to learn how to identify just the 21 edible mushrooms they’re likely to come across. In it, Hyman offers his expert mushroom foraging advice, distilling down the most important information for the reader in colorful, folksy language that’s easy to remember when in the field. Want an easy way to determine if a mushroom is a delicious morel or a toxic false morel? Slice it in half – “if it’s hollow, you can swallow,” Hyman says. With Frank Hyman’s expert advice and easy-to-follow guidelines, readers will be confident in identifying which mushrooms they can safely eat and which ones they should definitely avoid.
I read a LOT of foraging books (and have written a couple, as you probably know) and own dozens of foraging books and mushroom ID books. This is my favorite mushroom foraging book of all the ones that I’ve read.
It’s filled with color photos and really complete information about mushrooms. It tells all the ways to ID them, doesn’t overly rely on spore prints, tells the mushrooms to avoid, and even tells you the best way to eat and preserve them.
From the book:
I appreciate that the author focuses on the mushrooms you want to eat, the mushrooms you’re likely to find, and the mushrooms to watch out for. There’s also really in-depth information about how mushrooms grow, the different types, and much more, all presented in an interesting, easy-to-read, enjoyable format.
It’s also really reasonably priced, retailing at $16.95 and currently even cheaper on Amazon if you’re an Amazon shopper. It’s also available for the Kindle. (Note: These are affiliate links and will earn us a small commission if you purchase through our links.)
You can also purchase the book through your local booksellers or request for your library to carry it.
This is a fantastic book for beginners but will also be well loved by those of us who are already used to gathering mushrooms. It even gives advice for expanding your mushroom foraging, plus so much more. It’s just such a helpful guide.
I am thinking of getting copies as gifts for a couple of my favorite family foragers (and to borrow it often). 🙂
Highly recommended.
