Mushroom Hunting

by Patrick Harding

This one-stop practical guide will show you how to identify, pick and cook edible mushrooms. To make your progress easier, it comes in a handy format with colour photos and expert advice throughout. From identifying and picking edible mushrooms to growing your own mushrooms, from recipes for seasonal dishes to important information on poisonous species, this book provides all the helpful information you need to relish the exhilarating experience of collecting wild mushrooms. An introduction to what fungi is and where you can find mushrooms (as well as issues of access and trespass, bye-laws etc), it also covers all the equipment you might need and how to dry, pickle and preserve your mushrooms. Over 75 of the best edible species with warnings about poisonous lookalikes are detailed, along with advice on where you will find them and when, and recipes for seasonal dishes. Finally, the book covers growing your own mushrooms (and the kits available), the food value and medicinal uses of fungi, hallucinogenic mushrooms (and the law), and fungi in folklore.

Paperback

First published August 7, 2006

Reviews

[Mila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not as detailed a guide as some of the other mushroom books I've read perused; however, it's the first book to describe the Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus) well enough that I was able to recall it from my forays with my parents a half a century ago. "Its surface dries like varnish, often with moss and leaf litter fragments stuck to it. The slimy surface layer should be removed before cooking." Aha!

Also, I must remember to check the elder for Auricularia auricula-judae aka Jew's Ear.

"The myth that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an elder, the principal host of Jew's Ear, is perpetuated in William Shakespeare's play Love's Labour's Lost (Act, V, Scene II)."

Of course, no mushroom book would be complete without a mention of the red and white-spotted Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria). Harding describes the Santa Claus connection the best.

"Knowledge of the antics of the Fly Agaric-fuelled shamans from the reindeer-herding Saami tribes of Lapland is thought to have inspired another author, Clement Clarke Moore. His poem, first published in 1823, begins 'Twas the night before Christmas'. It transforms the saintly, sober, horse-riding St. Nicholas into an inebriated, fur-clad figure flying high on a sleigh pulled by reindeer. The origin of the red and white colour of the modern-day Santa's coat may owe more to the red and white mushroom than to the advertising campaign of a well-known fizzy drink. For a more detailed account of this, see my book The Magic of Christmas (2004)."

Yes, Patrick, I will do that.