Mushrooming with Confidence: A Guide to Collecting Edible and Tasty Mushrooms Paperback – Import, 13 November 2012

This is a fantastic tool to help identify various mushrooms. Live that there are actual photos and NOT DRAWINGS. Having a colour chart for each mushroom is also extremely helpful.

I judge a non-fiction book by how well it delivers what it promises. By that measure, this one is close to perfect. The back cover says the author grew up in Switzerland. This may partly explain the meticulously organized format!This is most certainly a field reference work. Don’t look for inspiring words about nature or foraging here. It is designed with the sole but critical purpose of allowing you to positively identify the 22 most popular edible mushrooms. Like many people, I have kept my inner mushroom collector in check for fear that picking a single wrong specimen could be fatal. Mr. Schwab addresses this fear head on in a reassuring way. Where most field guides confuse with an excess of choice and detail, this one takes the unarguably practical approach of sticking to only what you can definitely prove is safe.To this end, the prose is sparse, clear and to the point. General comments about mushroom anatomy, gathering and preparation are picked clean to the essentials. Where the book truly shines, and cannot be surpassed, is in the abundant and detailed colour photographs that accompany the descriptions. Each species is the subject of a short chapter that culminates in a list of fail-safe identifying features, all of which must be satisfied to pass inspection. It may sound rigorous, but it is simple and safe!

This is a wonderful beginner mushrooming guide. I wish it included lions mane because I feel like that would have been another safe, beginner mushroom. It’s possible that is just a local wish, it does a great job in general of helping to identify eatable, safe, common mushrooms. As I’ve become more advanced I’ve realized that mushrooming is not so black and white as people make it out to be. There are many “safe” mushrooms to collect. The horror stories you hear of people eating mushrooms and dying are people who just eat any mushroom that resembles a single characteristic of the one they’re looking for. This book takes the guesswork out of which characteristics must match.

I have used this book for several years now as a reference for mushroom hunting. I find it invaluable for mushroom hunts in the Pacific Northwest region. Real life photos and accurate descriptions help me to ensure that what I am harvesting is safe,

terrific book. wish it covered some more mushrooms, now that I've caught the bug!