Mushrooming with Confidence: A Guide to Collecting Edible and Tasty Mushrooms

by Alexander Schwab

Picking mushrooms in the woods on a sunny day can be fun for the whole family . . . but only if you do it safely! Here mushrooms are divided into four identification categories so anyone can recognize what he or she is looking—and forage without worry!

There are thousands of different species of fungi, so it can be hard to tell which are edible and which are poisonous when you are picking them for yourself in the wild. Safe and unsafe species often closely resemble each other, and worrying about which mushrooms are safe and which might be deadly can take all the fun out of mushrooming. Enter Mushrooming with Confidence !

Improving on the usual overwhelming and exhaustive wild plant guidebook, Mushrooming with Confidence is a slim, handy manual that focuses on the tastiest and most common mushrooms, so that you can easily spot those that are not only safe to eat, but also a delight to cook and share!

Here mushrooms are divided into four identification categories so that anyone will be able to recognize what he or she is looking at quickly and correctly. Thirty of the most common and delicious types are explained in detail, from the common field mushroom to the pretty purple amethyst deceiver and the prolific and tasty charcoal burner. Each mushroom includes a “Positive ID Checklist” that the reader can go through to be absolutely certain they have the right species, and more than 300 color photographs make it a snap to know exactly what kind of mushroom you’ve found . . . and whether you really want to pick it!

With lists of the best tools for mushrooming, the best techniques for getting a mushroom out of the ground in one piece, and even how to remove worms, Mushrooming with Confidence will extinguish any fear or doubt that might stop you from hunting down your own delicious mushrooms. This will prove a fun and essential guide for novice and experienced pickers alike!

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Food, Plants, Health, Science, Ecology

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Latasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t wait to put this book to use!

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most concise and clear mushrooming book and identification resource I've read to date. There's not a huge list of mushrooms but I've screen captured and saved all of the identification check list pages. Highly recommend

[L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excited to try and memorize the key details from this book. A helpful starting place

[BrittiniZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best simple mycelium book I've read so far! Love the colorful images and descriptions 🍄 It will definitely help you feel more confident in identifying common edible and poisonous mushrooms.

[Leala · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for beginning mushroom hunters. Schwab highlights a few mushrooms of particular culinary interest, most generally easy to identify. The identification checklist included with each species is handy, and I appreciate Schwab's insistence the book be read twice, and a thorough understanding of the difference between gills, ridges, spines, and tubes should be gained before venturing into the woods.

However, I would recommend a few more books be picked up prior to your first mushroom collecting expedition, as the descriptions aren't always as thorough as I'd like. Additionally, this may not be the ideal book for mushroom collectors in the Northeast U.S., as many of the species featured are more prevalent on the West Coast. Still- it's an easy, entertaining read for those foraying into collecting mushrooms for culinary use.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What sets this guide apart from other foraging guides is the principle of positive identification. Rather than worrying about the countless varieties that may kind of sort of look like edible mushrooms, this guide steers the hunter to check for the features that ONLY the desired mushroom will have. About 25 wild culinary specimens are provided with these positive-identification checklists; if any of the identifiers is not present, or can't be determined, DON'T PICK IT.

Does this mean you'll likely miss out on some edible mushrooms you pass? Yes. Is this a much easier and safer way to approach mushrooming? Absolutely.

I borrowed this from the library, but will be purchasing a copy to keep on hand.

[Allen Butler-Struben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this to any casual or beginner forager and tell them to still be even more careful. I just started and the advice given around is to not trust anyone but be sure to listen to warnings. This book is good for learning what those mistakes can be and about the more common edible mushrooms that you almost can't go wrong with. I say almost because, as the book warns, you can still go wrong. The mushrooms listed here absolutely won't kill you aside from very obvious and few look alikes. This is akin from foraging for berries, where you sometimes have to look at the leaves despite the fruit. Also there are images of mushrooms it's warning you NOT to eat. There are two you shouldn't even touch or breath around! Do not skim this book, read it and consult it. I know myself like many others have just picked up this hobby.

As an example, I got slight intigestion once from what should have been ideal chicken of the woods. Can't go wrong right? Wrong. I was one out of 3 that can get an upset stomach from it the following day. Mind you this was almost nothing, just a mild irritation that put a damper on me the next day. It also turns out you should avoid any mushroom growing on a mentholated tree if you can. This was growing, oddly, on a eucalyptus which is very unusual and almost unheard of by many of my foraging friends. Do extra research but if you follow this guide as a beginner you really can't go wrong. It's a bit like learning to fall when skateboarding for the first time. You should, and it will improve your life. But don't be surprised by bruises, it's part of the process.

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For more bookish thoughts, see my blog: Craft-Cycle

A helpful beginner's guide to foraging and identifying mushrooms. Schwab provides information on how to confidently identify a mushroom based on specific characteristics. Because of this, Schwab does not give information on lookalikes, focusing on positively identifying the mushroom in front of you against the characteristic requirements and therefore eliminating lookalikes in the process.

The book covers 20+ common mushrooms and how to identify them. It is broken down into sections with mushrooms with gills, tubes, ridges, spines, and the oddballs that don't fit those categories. There is also a short section of basic tree identification and the mushrooms common around them, as well as some basics on handling, storing, and cooking your finds.

Each entry contains multiple full-color photos of the mushroom and an explanation of key features. There is also a Positive ID Checklist for each, perfect for referencing in the field or at home after a foraging trip. These contain a checklist of features that must be present for identification, information on size, season, and habitat, and a helpful color bar for gauging cap and/or gill color.

The book gives a nice starting place for beginners on some common mushrooms that are easy to identify. Great for honing your mushroom identification skills.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for beginners. Would have liked more edibles listed such as pheasant back which is likely the easiest mushroom for a beginner. I think the idea of using spore prints to help identify would be great practice for the beginner as well but was not mentioned in this book. Overall a good quick read and worthwhile.

[Isabella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great photos/organization/checklist approach to identifying the most common culinary mushrooms so a good beginner book. One significant negative is that I was unsure what region of the world this book was primarily relevant for because the author is Swiss and I didn’t recognize a bunch of the mushrooms- based on the reviews I read afterwards seems like it might be more for the U.S. West Coast.

[Pyroclastic Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first mushroom foraging guide, which is sentimental to me due to who got it. The pictures are clear, the descriptions are concise, and the risk of misidentification and how to tell a healthy mushroom from an infested one is helpful. In my opinion, it is lovely.

[Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, easy to use guide to forging for the best culinary mushrooms. Highly recommended

[Bear Paw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great starter book , for first timers, or someone wanting to start mushroom hunting

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the pictures, concise language and culinary tips. Alexander Schwab knows what's up.

[Kayla Ault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great photo references and tips on what parts and stages of the mushroom are best for cooking.

[Zell Murdy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information for beginners, easy to read and follow. Would have liked information on more varieties, as well as information on spore prints (they are mentioned briefly but never defined or discussed). Overall a good intro for someone new to mushrooms.

[Gabriel Eggers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well laid out and easy to read with a very clear and deliberate system. This book seems to contain everything you need to start learning about hunting and cooking mushrooms without poisoning yourself. Some of the pictures are a little dubious in terms of their color balance but almost all of them are quite good and clear and the color bars used for identification with the checklists seems to be quite accurate. I need to read the book a second time and start hunting mushrooms before I can speak with any real confidence about the usefulness of this book. There are are 25 commonly found and tasty mushrooms included in this book, so it seems like a good number to start with before expanding further into the discipline.

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst case scenario: you think mushroom hunting looks like fun, you pick up this book to use as a guide, you go out and start collecting, you cook up your find, YOU DIE!!!

Seriously, please don't read this book and think it's enough information to guide you safely to choice edibles. Pick up a copy of David Arora's 'Mushrooms Demystified.' Get some guide books with lots of photos -- my favorite is the 'National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms.' Go out with an experienced collector. Then start looking for the most easily identifiable edibles -- chanterelles, morels, shaggy manes.

[Michelle Holm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good starting point

This is a good starting point for the new mushroomer. It gives you a good idea of what you're looking for and where to look, and what to do with it when you find them.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the checklist format. Great pictures and information. Even the digital edition was easy to read. Would have liked more comparisons between easily confused species of edible vs. poisonous. Adding to collection.

[Debra Lowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, not a must have for mushroom foraging, though. There is nothing on "false" mushrooms. But the pictures were wonderful, particularly when they captured a fungi at various growth stages and the top color guide was interesting. I learned something here.

[Stuart G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great first book for someone interested in mushrooming.

[Gary Gardner]

A very good instructional guide, for gathering some hyper-locally grown produce. Excellent photos and instructions.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy to follow guide for the budding mycologist.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and has a good system for identifying mushrooms, but has no look alikes