How to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Identifying 29 Wild, Edible Mushrooms

Frank Hyman

Oct 2021 · Sold by Storey Publishing, LLC

About this ebook

With the surging interest in foraging for mushrooms, those new to the art need a reliable guide to distinguishing the safe fungi from the toxic. But for beginner foragers who just want to answer the question “Can I eat it?”, most of the books on the subject are dry, dense, and written by mycologists for other mycologists.
 
Frank Hyman to the rescue! How to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying is the book for anyone who walks in the woods and would like to learn how to identify just the 29 edible mushrooms they’re likely to come across. In it, Hyman offers his expert mushroom foraging advice, distilling down the most important information for the reader in colorful, folksy language that’s easy to remember when in the field. Want an easy way to determine if a mushroom is a delicious morel or a toxic false morel? Slice it in half – “if it’s hollow, you can swallow,” Hyman says. With Frank Hyman’s expert advice and easy-to-follow guidelines, readers will be confident in identifying which mushrooms they can safely eat and which ones they should definitely avoid.

Ratings and reviews

Excellent Friendly and Informative Guide to 29 Mushroom Species.... and More — For nearly a decade, I was an inhabitant of mushroom country on the Mendocino Coast. Foraging for mushrooms was so popular in the fall that we actually had a festival just for mushrooms and an expert on hand who would make sure foragers’ finds were safe. This is a book I wish I had back then to sell at my specialty food store. It is geared for the true foraging novice (though any interested in mushrooming would enjoy its easy-to-read text and wonderful mushroom photos), providing lots of general information about safe mushrooming and specific information about 29 different edible mushrooms commonly found in the wild. This book has a lot of mushroom photographs, often showing differences between mushrooms and aspects of them. An introductory section helps educate about mushrooms in general, including their appearance. Not sure what warts, veils, or gills look like? You'll find illustrated examples and illuminating but easy-to-read text that helps you understand what they mean when you are looking for safely edible mushrooms. The author broadly splits edible mushrooms into ones that can be found on trees or on the ground. Within these sections, the author further divides them into mushrooms with gills and ones without. Again, this is a perfect way to divide mushrooms for the novice: where do you find them, and what easy characteristic differentiates them? Each section about specific mushroom types has similar general information, how to handle them, how to cook them, and all its specific defining characteristics. I absolutely love this book and wish that I were still in mushroom country. I learned so much, and you will, too, if you decide to purchase this book... which you should if you want to safely forage for mushrooms. — I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

HOW TO FORAGE FOR MUSHROOMS WITHOUT DYING by Frank Hyman As the title implies, this is a very interesting book. People ask all the time if the mushrooms you see growing wild are edible. I happen to be married to a Shiitake mushroom grower, so I have all the mushrooms I'll ever need. I think this book would be a very handy resource to have, in the event of an apocalyptic event, if food becomes hard to attain. Everyone would become a forager and it would be awesome to know what mushrooms are edible and which are not. We live in the woods and are always on the lookout for morels. I have known people who hunt all of the wild mushrooms for food and fun. The author gives expert advice as to what you are looking for and what to avoid when hunting for mushrooms. Highly recommend. Much gratitude to #netgalley for the complimentary copy of #howtoforageformushroomswithoutdying I was under no obligation to post a review.

About the author

Frank Hyman is a professional mushroom hunter, certified to sell wild mushrooms to the public. He teaches workshops across the country on mushroom foraging and identification and has written about mushroom foraging for publications such as Paleo magazine, Hobby Farms, and Modern Farmer. He is a member of the North American Mycological Association, lives in Durham, North Carolina, and forages everywhere he travels.