The past few years has seen a glut of mushroom books, some being better than others. Here's a selection our favourite texts covering identification, cooking and growing mushrooms, alongside some excellent wild food titles. Scroll to the bottom of the page for videos and a CD-rom and add new dimensions to your myco-education.
Brian Spooner, 255 pages, 170mm x 100mm, colour, softback.
A compact study guide and identifier by one of the most highly respected British mycologists. Over 240 commonly found species are illustrated with clear colour photographs, written descriptions of habitat, appearance, structure and easy to use reference symbols. An ideal first book for a newcomer to the field. £8.99
Patrick Harding, Tony Lyon and Gill Tomblin, 192 pages, 210mm x 145mm, colour, softback.
With over 900 colour illustrations, this book details all of the important edible species and compares them with undesirable look-alikes. Spore prints, scale drawings and histograms are provided, together with practical information on related subjects such as fruiting seasons, poisoning, conservation, preserving and cooking fungi. £12.99
Roger Phillips, 288 pages, 290mm x 210mm, colour, softback.
Consistently superb photography, a huge range of species and illustrations of specimens in various stages of development make this a favourite reference text for many mushroom collectors £16.99
Jean-Marie Rocchia, 174 pages, 250mm x 150mm, colour/b+w, hardback.
This unique text must be essential reading for every gastronome. The author, an expert truffle hunter and cultivator, guides the reader through the wild and mysterious world of the European truffle industry, peppering his text with entertaining anecdotes and rounding off his encyclopaedic work with an awesome twenty-page recipe section. £19.99
Olle Persson and Bo Mossberg, 120 pages, 245mm x 175mm, colour, softback.
This delightful appreciation of one of our most sought-after edible mushrooms contains a wealth of historical fact, gorgeous illustrations and sumptuous recipes, alongside practical advice on collecting, preserving, preparing and cooking chanterelles and associated species.
Patricia A Taylor, 116 pages, 240mm x 180mm, black and white, laminated cover and spiral bound. A mushroom cookery text that is devoted entirely to vegetarian dishes and is based on the variety of species now available in UK shops. Contains a selection of tried and tested recipes ranging from quick and easy snacks to wholesome vegetarian meals and traditional recipes with a mushroom twist, as well as techniques for preserving fresh mushrooms, useful addresses, guidance on good practice in mushroom collecting and recommended reading.
(Profits donated to RAFT, a medical research charity) £11.99
Jennifer Snyder, 128 pages, 225mm x 150mm, b+w, softback.
One of the few english-language mushroom cookbooks that is fully vegetarian, just available from the USA. Useful sections on the medicinal properties of the shi-itake, its cultivation and preservation compliment a host of excellent recipes, many of which would work perfectly with any variety of mushroom. £7.99
Helen Siegel and Karen Gillingham, 95 pages, 120mm x 140mm, b+w, softback.
Unusual mini-cookbook from the USA in a fun ‘mushroom’ format. Over 50 mushroom recipes with plenty of hints and advice notes - an ideal small gift or stocking filler. £4.99
Joanna White, 172 pages, b+w, softback.
Everything you need to know about dehydrating fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry and fish, plus delicious recipes for using your bounty. The book features only natural pretreatment methods, and covers times and temperatures for dehydrating over 50 types of produce to retain the highest possible nutritional value.
Roger Phillips, 159 pages, 290mm x 215mm, colour, softback.
An excellent all-rounder for foragers. Ordered chronologically throughout the year, notes and recipes are provided for all the important edible plants, accompanied by superb in-situ photography. Mushrooms are well represented in this comprehensive work, which is superbly presented to Phillips’ usual high standard. £19.99
Simon Frazer and Penny Dale, 30 pages, 250mm x 230mm, colour, softback.
Any junior nature enthusiast will love this realistic and beautifully illustrated story, packed with clear information on many important species and habitats. Part of the highly acclaimed ‘Read and Wonder’ book series. Suitable for ages four years and upwards. £4.99
Hellmut Steineck, 152 pages, 210 x 160mm, softback, black & white/colour. A highly practical book, translated from german and published in America, it has been recommended as the ideal text for newcomers by some of our most experienced mushroom cultivators.
It includes clear and accurate sections on the main humus and wood-inhabiting fungi, the various environments that can be used for their cultivation (both outside and indoors) and methods for growing, harvesting and use, alongside a useful bibliography. £20.95
Miriam C Rice & Dorothy Beebee 154 pages, 220mm x 140mm, softback, b&w/colour.
Common fungi can yield outstanding colours over the whole spectrum and their dyestuff has been shown to be more colourfast than many artificial compounds. 'Mushrooms for Colour' introduces the reader to the techniques of selecting and preparing mushrooms for dying, treatment of materials and testing, identifying and classifying dyes. A detailed colour index and a biography of the important fungi and their attributes completes this fascinating text. £15.95
Mushroom expert Peter Jordan is joined by TV presenter Kay Avila in this 90-minute video, which features a series of forays throughout the season that yield over 30 types of edible fungi from the St George’s mushroom and morel in Spring to the boletes and blewits at the end of Autumn. Each foray concludes with a selection of recipes and cooking/preserving techniques appropriate to the species. An identification guide showing more than 50 common British fungi in detail follows, allowing the viewer to examine shape, scale, seasonal variation and bruising and staining pattern when cut or rubbed. Commonly confused species are compared and danger signs emphasised.
Highly acclaimed for its photography and a wealth of information on many of the world's most beautiful fungi, this interactive CD runs on PCs with Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Over 1000 high-quality images of beautiful fungi
Illustrated identification guides
Quizzes, animations and videos
Colour and shape variations shown as fungi develop
Fascinating facts about each of the species
Video film showing the development of a fruiting body
Guides to fungus foray planning, mushroom menus, photography and conservation... and a great deal more.
Hardware requirements: Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME or NT; 4x CD-ROM drive; 64Mb RAM and a screen set to display at least 256 colours and small fonts. £12.50
This newly expanded CD-ROM, produced by a joint initiative between the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Toxicology Unit of Guy's Hospital, allows to you safely and accurately identify fungi and poisonous plants on your PC. It covers more than 120 groups of fungi including a number of common non-toxic and edible species as well as 229 plants which are either poisonous or are commonly thought to be.
It will be invaluable for people who enjoy foraging food from the countryside, nurses or doctors treating suspected poisoning cases and parents, teachers or local authority agencies wanting to provide a safe environment for children to play and learn in. Identifications are quickly and easily achieved by answering simple questions about the plant or fungus that you wish to identify. If you are unsure how to answer a question you can skip it, and at any time you can review and change your answers. Your answers are used to reduce the number of remaining suspects, and the next best question is offered. When five or fewer suspects remain, photographic images can be called up to visually complete and confirm your identification.
Key features: No previous botanical or mycological knowledge is necessary; Clear interface and mouse control make the software easy to use; Simple non-technical questions using many illustrations; Comprehensive list of common names and synonyms; For each plant and fungus the CD provides toxicity information (including clinical features), toxicology with full bibliography, up to six photographic images including close-ups of important features and a detailed description.
Hardware requirements: Windows 95, 98, 2000 or NT 4.0; 4x CD-ROM drive; 16 Mb RAM and a screen set to display at least 256 colours and small fonts. £19.95
