books on mushroom picking

[hawthorns]

does anyone have a recommended book on mushroom identifying

[kernowyon]

i was going to ask this as well, so will keep an eye on this thread. sorry its no help to you tho Hawthorns

[veg4681]

Many, many years ago I was given this book called "Mushrooms & Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe" by Roger Phillips. It's a very comprehensive visual index with
"full-colour photographs that illustrate and identify more than 900 species, generally showing several specimens to indicate the various stages of growth". Against each mushroom, it tells you whether it's edible or not and of course poisonous. Edible does not necessarily mean that it's palatable.

[Alison]

One of OH's colleagues has a copy of Mushrooming Without Fear: The Beginner's Guide to Collecting Safe and Delicious Mushrooms by Alexander Schwab which they've been using for the last couple of weeks as a side track to their weekly cycling trip - apparently it's dead good and very easy to follow and we've not killed ourselves yet. Tried to get a copy ourselves but Borders didn't have it on Saturday. It's available via Amazon for just over £11 from private sellers and probably elsewhere.

[witch-1]

Can't recommend any books, but do know that the poisonous ones are few and far between!

Jan

[mrs potato head]

Collins print one called 'How to identify edible mushrooms' Its compliledPatrick Harding, Tony Lyon and Gill Tomblin.
Its a fantastic guide. I've collected s'rooms for years and learnt a lot from it. Its has instruction to on how to talk spore prints for more accurate IDing, essential in some cases, although there aren't manys'rooms out there which are that poisonous. Know is a good time to get out there gathering, although down here in S.Devon there hasn't been much about. Early days hopefully.

Happy Gathering

[momol]

Collins print one called 'How to identify edible mushrooms' Its compliledPatrick Harding, Tony Lyon and Gill Tomblin.
Its a fantastic guide. I've collected s'rooms for years and learnt a lot from it. Its has instruction to on how to talk spore prints for more accurate IDing, essential in some cases, although there aren't manys'rooms out there which are that poisonous. Know is a good time to get out there gathering, although down here in S.Devon there hasn't been much about. Early days hopefully.

Happy Gathering

Just want to add to Mrs PH, that Collins has printed pocket size mushrooms hunting book too, but I just can't find it now... sorry.

[kernowyon]

got to get my hands on a decent book now, thanks for the great suggestions.

one ethical question tho, i was walking through a huge military cemetary in our village and spotted some of what i think was Horn of Plenty growing there, would you eat mushrooms/fungus from a graveyard??

[Alison]

Personally I'd eat them if they were just growing in general areas, if they were actually against the grave stone then I'd be a bit more iffy about picking them. I wouldn't think that it would look great rummaging around graves.

[mrs potato head]

Just want to add to Mrs PH, that Collins has printed pocket size mushrooms hunting book too, but I just can't find it now... sorry.

The pocket size are good, they are called Colins Gems, and do Mushrooms, wildflowers, the nights sky, loads. I imagine that they are still in print, WHSmiths are generally very good at finding them

Have just looked on Collins website (am in process of editing post)
Collins Gem is avaliable at £4.99
My first recommendation - How to id ediable mushrooms is£9.99

[HeyWayne]

Recently I had a load of mushrooms growing on my lawn so I looked them up here: http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/Recip...lt~GID~253.asp

Still have no idea what ones they are mind!

Kinda orangey colour, look a bit like chanterelle, but I steered clear just to be safe.

[mrs potato head]

Have just looked on collins web site Pocket size 'gem' guide is still in print, updated 2004.
You can purchase it for £4.99 on line, although i expect good bookshops would get it for you minusing P&P.

[BayViewPlot]

Have looked at a fair number of books and bought a few....

I would say, look for detailed guides with plenty of pictures, preferably with a guide on how to identify different patterns of gills,spores, caps and stipes (stems)

It is better to have several books to compare and contrast the specimen you have. They have different characteristics in different books and different edibility ratings.
Go with the majority opinion.

Caution when you are starting out is advisable and don't eat anything that is ambiguous. (especially not the small brown mushroom (v hard to identify)

A few good websites out there including Rogers..probably the best one and always to be cross referenced!

Books I own are...

New Field Guide to Fungi by E Soothill & A Faifhurst
Detailed and very good descriptions coving most common fungi and general characteristics. Wish there were more (and larger) pictures. Doesn't explicitly deal with edible/poisonous mushrooms so is more of a straightforward fungi ID book. Very reliable.

The Complete Encyclopedia of Mushrooms by G J Keizer
An easier reading book with a better variety of pictures but fewer overall descriptions. Again a more traditional fungi ID book with less emphasis on edibility. Some of the edibility recommendations are on the conservative side when looking into alternative sources of info.

Mushrooms by J Wright (part of the River Cottage Handbook series)
Explicitly an edible/non-edible reference book with recipes in the back. Not the most scientific descriptions but easy and pleasurable to read and a joy to own. Good pictures and a good flow-chart for ID via spore colour that I have not seen elsewhere and some fungi characteristics. Features the most sought-after shrooms but is not exhaustive.

Hoping to get more books very soon...sometimes descriptions differ and I can change my mind several times on a definative ID before chucking it away as not worth the risk!

Happy hunting!

BVP

[veg4681]

Here's a useful website I found showing the season for different edible mushrooms.

http://www.buymushrooms.co.uk/acatalog/More_Info.html

I think a good start would also be to check out the gourmet mushrooms at your local supermarket. Even if you don't want to buy them (on price), just have a good look at them, there's bound to be Oyster and Shiitake to name a few. Sorry I don't know if the Japanese Shiitake is native to this country and may be grown in kit.

Also Chinese food stores would stock imported mushroom (from China) in dried form (e.g. Shiitake and Cauliflower mushroom) or tinned (straw mushroom etc). For more exposure to wild mushroom, stores like Aldi does affordable mushroom antipasto at 99p. At least it gives you the chance to try them safely before you decide to go seriously into mushrooming.

For me personally, I would only prefer to concentrate on edible wild mushrooms that are the tastiest and thus more established among (posh) restaurants/supermarkets in gourmet section.