For a most interesting book and look at a most fascinating subject, MUSHROOMING THE JOY OF THE QUIET HUNT, is a change of pace publication. People consume mushrooms on pizzas, salads, and in other ways on your plate, but it is certainly something you do not ponder. NOw you can.
Diane Borsato delves deeply into mushrooming, giving readers a most entertaining visual spectacle. Thanks to the illustrations of Kelsey Oseid, it brings the topic to life like few could imagine. The author says, “I started mushrooming because I was offered a wild chanterelle to eat and was afraid of being poisoned. Like many beginning mushroomers, I was first interested in edible fungi—hunting with my stomach, as they say—and proceeded to inform myself about the deadly ones.” One of the most impressive things is the fact there are so many types of mushrooms, the book covering more than 120 of them, many with names that are as unique as the mushroom itself. While you may see a few varieties at your local supermarket, it cannot compare with what is actually out there. But every mushroom featured in the book is not something you could pick up and consume. There are many varieties that are deadly, as the author points out in her explanations of each. To see the various types in the book, is to view a most unusual part of nature.
Before her passing, my mother took upon the hobby of photographing certain types of mushrooms, only capturing a handful of types. If she could see this book, she would definitely be most impressed.
It is the names of some of the mushrooms to deepen their mystique. Some of the names include: ghost pipe, eyelash fungus, destroying angel, the sickener, death cap, bleeding tooth, Satan’s bolete, witch’s butter, dog’s vomit slime mould, dead man’s fingers, and honey mushroom, to name but a few.
Each mushroom named in the book has identifying features, notes, and their edibility. This should not be taken as the ultimate guide to whether you should consume them, as there are variables in some of them. Even touching certain ones may cause health concerns.
Diane Borsato has been mushrooming for more than a decade, and she shares her passion for this, along with her knowledge, to give readers a mushrooming sense of the joys of finding fungi. And it can be more than fascinating and fun for guys and girls.