The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms

by Britt Bunyard and Tavis Lynch

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Beginner's Guide to Mushrooms is a tutorial and informational guide to mycology, cultivating, and foraging presented by Britt Bunyard & Tavis Lynch. Due out 22nd Dec 2020 from Quarto on their Quarry imprint, it's 160 pages and will be available in paperback format.
This is an appealingly colorful guide with good general information for beginners. The format is logical and accessible. The authors provide a good basic primer including safety, reliability, responsible foraging, and identification. A short introduction leads into the majority of the content in the forms of an herbal. ID sections are divided by morphology: agarics with pale spores, pink spores, brown spores, dark spores, stalked mushrooms, aspitates, shelf like, ball shaped, and so forth. Part 3 includes a good DIY tutorial for cultivating mushrooms. I liked that the authors didn't just essentially say "buy a kit" (which defeats a lot of the fun and challenge). They show growing on straw and other substrates. The final section includes some good general recipes and some tips for preservation.

This is not a one-size-fits-all manual. Readers -will- need more resources in the form of positive ID field guides or (even better) a mentor/guide who can positively identify finds safely and reliably. I also found the recipes quite generic. It is however a dandy guide for beginners and advanced beginners to whet the appetite and appreciation for foraging and culture (and use) of native mushrooms.

This would be a superlative addition to the smallholder's library, maker's groups, foraging groups, libraries and the like. Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.