Mushroom books??

[leroy77]

Is there a book or books I can buy to help me get started into mushroom hunting?? I have been reading some of the posts on here for a while and it sounds like something I would be interested in. Any help or names of books would be greatly appreciated. Is there a specific book for Minnesota mushrooms?? Thanks for the help ahead of time.

Leroy

[pushbutton]

just started last fall and looking forward to spring......this book was recommended as a good beginner book........... National Audubon Society field guide to mushrooms.

[leroy77]

Thanks pushbutton I will head to the library and see if they have it. If there are others please let me know!

[trolloni]

Check out Morel Mainia they have what you need to get started !

[Cicada]

I picked up a couple of booklets from Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge near Detroit Lakes. One has pictures, the other drawings. Kind of like the pictures better. When your life could be at stake by picking the wrong mushroom, the better the description and picture gives you more confidence.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Get the one Pushbutton said for sure.. I am new like you and this one helps to identify quite well.. the other book I got that has been quite good is..

Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-to-kitchen Guide by David W. Fischer and Alan E. Bessette

[jerkin'm]

Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora is considered the "bible" of mushroom hunting-I would always go overboard on books if you are a rookie and not going with an expert-I always have my crackberry in my pocket as well as a backpack with several books when I head out- find the name in the book and then google it while in the woods looking at it-works well and can make a better I'd this way-It is a very addicting activity-

[leroy77]

Thanks for the info guys it looks like I need to head to the book store/library and do some more research. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[Trashguy]

I have the "Mushrooms Demystified" also along with a few others. I usually go to this one first though "Mushrooms of North America" by Roger Phillips. It has some pretty good color photos in it & lots of them. Might be kind of hard to find though.I couldn't find it on Amazon right now, but it has been there in the past. I see he (Phillips) has a new one out now also, but I can't speak as to how good that one is. Spring can't get here soon enough.

[ramjam]

Being that your new to mushroom hunting, I would advise sticking to the easily recognizable for now: morels, chanterelles, trumpets, sulfer shelf, lobsters and hen of the woods. These will keep you busy all year long and are quite safe with very few look-alikes. The first couple years I hunted, I tried many different kinds of mushrooms. Just because a book says they're edible doesn't mean they taste good. Now I just stick to the ones I listed above with an occasional bolete for good measure.

If you decide your going to try for the more hard to id mushrooms, be very careful. While there's not too many that can actually kill you, many will make you extremely sick. Don't rely on just one book. Some may have good pictures and vague descriptions and other may have poor illistrations and very detailed descriptions. A lot of the mushroom's characteristics are very subjective such as color, size and gill spacing: one author's orange may be another's yellow. Age of the particular mushroom can also have a dramatic effect on it's appearance and can lead to misidentification.

[DARK30]

A guy named Larry Lonik has a book called "basically morels". I picked up a copy at the sport show a few years ago..very helpful for morels anyway.

[teal50]

Others of mentioned two that I use a lot Mushrooms DeMystified and Mushrooms of North Armerica. You cannot have enough guide books. Pictures of mushrooms may vary a bit from book to book depending on lighting/ age of mushroom etc. I like being able to compare in several books. Learn to ID your mushrooms exactly by gill type or lack of gills, stalk (if any), spore print (not hard to do) and other identifiers from the guide books. Until you know a mushroom perfectly, do not rely on pictures along..read the description. Making a mistake with a mushroom is not like goofing on a fish ID. Other books to look for are Mushrooming With Fear, Mushrooms Wild and Edible, Eyewitness Handbooks Mushrooms, and the Glick The Mushroom Trail Guide. Peterson and also Simon & Schuster make Field Guides. If you are not sure, don't eat until you are. There are many types that are fairly easy to ID in Minnesota and I don't think you'll have difficulty finding them. The DNR also used to put out a small pamphlet on MN Edible Mushrooms.

[jerkin'm]

Another really cool book is "Abundantly Wild" by Teresa Marrone-It has a lot of the other wild edibles from our area listed as well as recipes and good seasonally specific hunting info-It is one of my favorite all around foraging books and is specific to the upper midwest-maybe a spring/summer forage event could be possible if anyone has interest?

[NoWiser]

Another one I like is "100 Edible Mushrooms" by Michael Kuo. Before this year all I ever felt comfortable with were morels and puffballs. This year I expanded to lobsters, a couple boletes, comb tooth, sulfer shelf, and hen of the woods. It was a blast! My goal this year is to find some chanterelles and oysters.

[leroy77]

Do most book stores carry these books or is it easier to order them online somewhere? Thanks for all the info everyone, I knew that some mushrooms are poisonous but I didn't realize how careful you had to be.

[teal50]

I've purchased all of mine from places like Barnes and Noble but I'm sure you can find them on Amazon or online. I need to correct one title...magic fingers mistyped...Mushrooming Without Fear rather than Mushrooming with Fear as I posted.

There are many fine mushrooms that you can easily find in MN other than Morels. Shaggy Manes, Puffballs, HoneyCaps, Chanterelles, edible Boletes, Oyster Mushrooms, Sulfur Shelf, and Meadow Mushrooms are fairly plentiful if we have decent conditions. This allows you to pick mushrooms from spring to freeze up.

Be careful and have fun. Lots of great flavors out there...there is an old quote. There are old mushroom pickers but there are no old, bold mushroom pickers.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I got the two I got from Amazon.