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

by Alexander Schwab, paperback, 174 pages in color, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., $14.95

As a child I would accompany my father and sometimes my grandmother on mushroom picking trips in the woods of eastern Massachusetts. My grandmother, from Poland, knew those wild mushrooms well. We would get big baskets full sometimes. She would jar some, to be used in pierogis, and dry others, used in mushroom and barley soup.

Sadly, as a teen, mushroom picking was unimportant to me. When I was ready to start again both my grandmother and my father had passed away. I didn’t remember which ones to avoid, and I did not have a good reference. After eating a few really bad tasting mushrooms I gave up trying the wild ones.

I have been looking for an adequate reference ever since.

Mushrooming with Confidence is the best one I’ve seen.

All the other guides to mushrooms I’ve seen have had all the mushrooms in them. Good ones, bad-tasting ones, poisonous ones. Intimidating. Identifying the mushroom usually required making a spore print.

When I find a wild mushroom in the woods, all I want to know is this- is the mushroom in front of me safe? Is it delicious?

That is the beauty of Mushrooming with Confidence.  Schwab doesn’t overwhelm you with lots of useless information. He tells you how to easily identify the 25 most common delicious mushrooms, leaving out all the other ones. In addition to the outstanding photography, a checklist of specific identifying features is provided for every mushroom covered. If the fungus in question doesn’t have every one of those features, you don’t pick it. Very simple.

The edible mushroom checklist. If the fungus doesn’t pass every item, leave it there.

Mushrooming with Confidence is not without flaws, though. Dr. Spence, my botany professor, was colorblind. He disliked any plant guide that used flower color as a means of identification. He would not like Mushrooming with Confidence because one of the identifying features used by the book is a range of colors, beautifully illustrated by the use of color plates, that you match to the mushroom in question.

If your color perception is good the use of these color plates will not hinder you in your search. Actually, you will find them quite useful.

Mushrooming with Confidence tells when (and in what habitat) you can find each type of mushroom, using approximately 45 degrees north latitude as its baseline. Since I’m in Florida having some way to “adjust the calendar” so to speak, would have been a nice addition. I’m sure I can work around that minor omission.

Outstanding photography aids your search.

If nothing else, Mushrooming with Confidence will make you more aware of the fungus you encounter in the woods. During my walk this morning I was paying way more than usual attention to the ground. Although I didn’t see any mushrooms that might be edible, that day will come. I can’t wait until Mushrooming with Confidence helps me have a dinner of delicious wild mushrooms again.

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2012. All rights are reserved.