Mushrooms: River Cottage Handbook No.1

Got this for my wife so we could harvest mushrooms growing around our house. The book gives very simple instructions on determining if certain mushrooms are edible and even provides recipes on some of them. We have used it a couple of times and are still alive. Good book for any beginner.

The book was beautiful; however, I didn't realize that it was written in 'American' yet, based on UK fungi. I'm not sure if it will be at all useful here in Maryland, USA.

Thanks

Nice guide with great recipes!

The emphasis is on being able to identifying what is edible amongst our native fungi, however it has some fantastic profiles of fungi for sheer identification purposes, as well as some great recipes too. I bought it principally for its use for identifying different mushrooms. The style of writing is fun and light-hearted as it isn't necessarily being sold as a 'straight' naturalist's field guide, but rather one for foragers. Having said that, there is good anatomical and ecological detail and keys are included. The profiles are entertaining, highlighting identifying features, habitat etc and including warnings on unpalatable/poisonous confusion species.

Really informative.I've only been foraging mushrooms for two years but am very proficient now. I began many years ago foraging fruit, leaves and the like but wanted to expand my repertoire.I didn't eat anything for a full year though until I was sure of what I was picking. This book is handy for the mushrooms side. I've only stuck with the easy I'd ones so far like Puffball, jelly ears, Chicken of the woods and Velvet Shank.

This is a great guide for the forager or anyone interested in fungi. It concentrates on the best edible fungi, points out the most important things to watch out for and includes some lovely recipes. It's also written in a very lively and enjoyable style. It has pride of place on my foraging shelf and I also bought a copy for my sister. Thank you!

I bought this book and others in this series for my wife as a present as she is very into using what nature provides rather than the Supermarket. We have collected field mushrooms and Ink caps for years and enjoyed them. We wanted this book to take us furthur on that journet into discovering what else is out there in the fungi World. The book does not dissapoint in any way. Well written with plenty of help and warnings not to try anything unless you are 100% sure of whatyou have picked. I agree these warnings are necessary but with a few other identification books we have managed to expand our knowlege quite quickly and add new flaours to the food we have grown and found. This is a good strating point for the beginner and useful for the more experienced find you own food person. Like this book and the series very much and will gradualy get the whole set as they have added lots of free and easy to get food to our table. The hedgerow book in the series has been great as well and we now have some Rosehip wine on the go. Overall a quality book well bound with a wipe clean cover and can easily be taken out on fungi hunting trips.

My son loves this book. He takes it in his back pack for when we are out on walks and loves to identify the different mushrooms we come across. My son is 7 and doesn’t have much trouble with this book