Wild Mushrooming
A Guide for Foragers
By: Alison Pouliot, Tom May
Find, identify, collect and prepare 10 edible fungus species using a 'slow mushrooming' approach.
Fungi are diverse, delicious and sometimes deadly. With interest in foraging for wild food on the rise, learning to accurately identify fungi reduces both poisoning risk to humans and harm to the environment. This extensively illustrated guide takes a 'slow mushrooming' approach – providing the information to correctly identify a few edible species thoroughly, rather than many superficially. + Full description
Wild Mushrooming: A Guide for Foragers melds scientific and cultural knowledge with stunning photography to present a new way of looking at fungi. It models 'ecological foraging' – an approach based on care, conservation and a deep understanding of ecosystem dynamics.
Sections on where, when and how to find fungi guide the forager in the identification of 10 edible species. Diagnostic information on toxic fungi and lookalike species helps to differentiate the desirable from the deadly. Wild Mushrooming then takes us into the kitchen with cooking techniques and 29 recipes from a variety of cuisines that can be adapted for both foraged and cultivated fungi.
Developing the skills to find fungi requires slowness, not speed. This guide provides the necessary information for the safe collection of fungi, and is essential reading for fungus enthusiasts, ecologists, conservationists, medical professionals and anyone interested in the natural world.
Shortlisted, The 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards: Small Publishers' Adult Book of the Year
Longlisted, The 2022 Indie Book Awards: Illustrated Nonfiction
News
View more of Alison Pouliot's stunning photography on her website (external link).
Read more on our blog: Read an edited extract from the book, including a mouth-watering recipe for Drover's Egg and Mushroom Pie: Feasting on Fungi: Wild Mushrooming in Australia
Reviews
"I highly recommend this book as the first place to begin for someone interested in getting started in mushroom foraging. And don’t worry that the book is written by Australians and uses Australian habitat or mushroom species. The concepts explained in this book work everywhere. [...] it has everything that a beginning mushroom forager or curious mycophile would need to learn."
Britt A. Bunyard, Mycological Society of America (MSA)
"What is different from other guides is the authors’ emphasis on conservation issues and what they call 'slow mushrooming' . . . It’s well written, chock full of attractive and useful photographs, and would make a great gift for a friend who wants to try their hand at finding and eating wild mushrooms. Highly recommended."
Steve Trudell (from: Summer 2022 FUNGI Volume 15:3 69)
Gardening Australia, April 2021
"Not only do we get stunning images focused on the details required for aiding identification, plus detailed information on the chosen ten edibles, but more importantly we also get a variety of images and information on their commonly mistaken and poisonous lookalikes, which is fantastic."
Paul Vallier, 13 February 2021
"A marvellous new book, a work of art."
Robyn Williams, The Science Show, ABC Radio National
"It is a book I have dipped into several times while trying to identify some of the many Agaricus species that grow in my area. I will continue to use it as I try some of the recipes, and as a beautiful resource in training new amateur field mycologists."
Frances Guard, Australasian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, June 2021
"If you want to enjoy foraging (and cooking) this book will educate you to identify desirable species. Central to the philosophy of this book is that building comprehensive knowledge reduces both poisoning risk and environmental harm."
Geoff Lay, Growing Australian #256, June 2021
"Combining scientific and cultural knowledge with stunning photography, I wouldn't go mushroom picking without this at hand."
Grass Roots #264, April-May 2021
"Wild Mushrooming is beautifully illustrated throughout with Alison’s luminous photography – the photos are a wonderful combination of beauty and scientific illustration... Wild Mushrooming is a wonderful primer on the world of fungi and is a welcome and vital addition to any fungus-lover’s bookshelf, and highly recommended."
Tanya Loos, August 2021
"I know of no other book at this level which shows so many examples of the variation to be found in fungal fruitbodies. ... This is excellent as one of the hardest things for beginners to learn is just how variable and changeable fungi are in appearance. …. All in all this is a beautifully produced and very useful volume for anyone wishing to forage for fungi."
Geoffrey Kibby, Field Mycology 22(3), 2021
"Wild Mushrooming: A Guide for Foragers is well-written and researched. The photos and illustrations are clear and instructive. The book will provide potential foragers with ecological and mycological background information everyone needs and should know to forage safely and responsibly. It is a refreshing and original read."
Dianna Smith, The Mycophile, November-December 2021
Details
Paperback | March 2021 | $ 49.99ISBN: 9781486311736 | 320 pages | 245 x 170 mm
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Colour photographs, Illustrations
ePDF | March 2021
ISBN: 9781486311743
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers
ePUB | March 2021
ISBN: 9781486311750
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers
Features
- Provides basic guidance on how to find, collect, identify and prepare 10 edible wild fungus species.
- Includes details on known poisonous fungi to avoid, as well as common lookalikes to edible species.
- Discusses the diversity, ecological significance and conservation of Australian fungi.
- Illustrated with captivating colour photographs, including a variety of images for each species to assist with identification.
- Includes 29 recipes that readers can follow using foraged or cultivated fungi.
- Covers both native Australian fungi and species that have been introduced to Australia.
Contents
AcknowledgementsDisclaimer (PDF, 1.2 MB)
Chapter 1 – The rise of wild mushrooming in Australia
Chapter 2 – What fungi are
Chapter 3 – Fungi in Australian biodiversity conservation
Chapter 4 – Major groups of fungi
Chapter 5 – Features of fungi
Chapter 6 – Names and identification
Chapter 7 – Finding fungi
Chapter 8 – Poisonous fungi
Chapter 9 – Edible fungi and their lookalikes
Chapter 10 – Fungi in the kitchen and on the table
Glossary
Further reading and resources
Index
View the full table of contents (PDF, 112 KB)
Authors
Alison Pouliot is an ecologist and environmental photographer with a focus on fungi. She is active in Australian and international fungal conservation and her writing and images appear in both academic and popular literature. Alison’s fungus forays, which she conducts across both hemispheres, attract a range of people from foragers and philosophers to rangers and traditional owners. Her recent book The Allure of Fungi poses fundamental questions about human-fungus liaisons.
Tom May is a mycologist who has spent more than four decades getting to know Australian fungi. He has published widely on fungal taxonomy, ecology and conservation in scientific and popular literature, including checklists of Australian fungi and a key to genera of Australian mushrooms (FunKey). He is active in international mycological groups such as the Nomenclature Committee for Fungi and in community natural history organisations, founding Fungimap in 1995. He was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion in 2014.
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