Opinions on mushroom foraging books

[Geoff Dann]

Hope this is within the forum rules...

I've been collecting photos of edible/poisonous/common fungi for the last five years. I've done extensive research into what species are known/thought to be edible, and have personally tried eating well over 200 of them. Probably 300. I am now seriously thinking about putting a book together.

I'd be interested in what people might be looking for in terms of a fungi foraging book - what would be likely to get you to actually buy it?

Would you only be interested in species of culinary interest, and the seriously poisonous ones?
What about very common species that are neither worth eating, nor dangerous?
What about species that might be confused with edible species, but aren't dangerous? A complete entry on them, and a picture, or just a mention?
What about edible species that are rather uncommon?
What about edible species that taste weird?
What about species that are edible, but only a person in a survival situation would think they were worth eating?
What about species that aren't edible, but have other uses, or claimed medicinal properties? Good in the same book, or different topic?
Would you be willing to pay more for big colour pictures, making it easier to identify stuff?
What do you think is lacking in what is currently available on the market?

Any opinions or questions are welcome. The question I'm really asking is this: how would you describe your ideal mushroom foraging book?

 

[mountainm]

The more pictures the better. I find a lot of books leave you with a nagging uncertainty as to whether you've id'd something correctly given they don't include a lot of the common inedibles.

I'd also like of to be split down in ways that help me ID. Time of year and habitat as well as distinguishing features.

False friends are always useful. As are poisonous ones (which should be differentiated with a different colour background).

I'd certainly be more willing to pay for better pictures.

 

[mrmike]

I woild say yes to all the stuff you asked, the more information and detailed photos the better.
If there is something nasty that looks similar to something tasty, I would want to know about it and make an informed decision myself.
Put it all in and I would happily buy it.

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[demographic]

Hope this is within the forum rules...

I've been collecting photos of edible/poisonous/common fungi for the last five years. I've done extensive research into what species are known/thought to be edible, and have personally tried eating well over 200 of them. Probably 300. I am now seriously thinking about putting a book together.

I'd be interested in what people might be looking for in terms of a fungi foraging book - what would be likely to get you to actually buy it?

Would you only be interested in species of culinary interest, and the seriously poisonous ones?
What about very common species that are neither worth eating, nor dangerous?
What about species that might be confused with edible species, but aren't dangerous? A complete entry on them, and a picture, or just a mention?
What about edible species that are rather uncommon?
What about edible species that taste weird?
What about species that are edible, but only a person in a survival situation would think they were worth eating?
What about species that aren't edible, but have other uses, or claimed medicinal properties? Good in the same book, or different topic?
Would you be willing to pay more for big colour pictures, making it easier to identify stuff?
What do you think is lacking in what is currently available on the market?

Any opinions or questions are welcome. The question I'm really asking is this: how would you describe your ideal mushroom foraging book?

Small enough to fit into a pocket but for me its absolutely got to have info about spore prints. That's where the Collins Pocket book fails totally.
If the stuff on medicinal use is proven I'm all for it but if its all that wishy washy "Some herbalists use it for blah blah blah" stuff personally I'd rather not see it in a serious book. That unproven herbalist stuff is just sloppy in my opinion.

There is a bloke I did a mushroom/fungi course with a while ago (Paul Nichol) who has done a little pamphlet thing with a good mushroom identification flowchart.
Id like to see one of those in a book with more pictures as well.
From memory it enabled a person to put the mushroom into its basic family and then with effort they could sort out what type from there.

I'll think of more if I can.

 

[xylaria]

I would buy a buy a book that covered edible mushrooms to suppliement a good field guide. Most field guides aren' t good with edibility information. Most books on eating wild mushrooms concentrate on too few species and ones that arent common in the uk. I dont need to recipes that require caesers and hedgehogs, or to be told grissettes are excellent. That cursed yellow swamp russula can be eaten or that amethyst deceivers are good with bacon is more useful.

Personally if I was to write a mushroom book I would put the entrants in family groups and the groups in spore print colour. I started writing a foraging book this week but I am leaving fungi out it like you I have hundreds of photos. I will do botanic drawings as well.

Maybe a big picture of the correct mushroom with little pictures of the look a like with exactly the same arrangment on every page. The pubilishers might think differently though. A written description of how to tell them apart is important. Collins nature guide is a good layout but written work is appaling (the one written by grunwieder or some name like that)

Google scholar seaches are a great way of preventing the sloppy herbalist say so type writing. But I have have to stop myself getting too heavy.

 

[yomperalex]

Would you only be interested in species of culinary interest, and the seriously poisonous ones?

All - culinary, non culinary but not poisonous, poisonous, the weird, the beautiful, the interesting

What about species that might be confused with edible species, but aren't dangerous?

Definitely an "easily confused with...." listing

Would you be willing to pay more for big colour pictures, making it easier to identify stuff?

I wouldn't consider any book without quality pictures of all entries. Prefereably multiple pictures showing development stages, gills, spore prints etc

What do you think is lacking in what is currently available on the market?

IMO Roger Phillips has set a pretty serious bench mark for all other fungi books to consider. He does the pocket and coffee table edition, both incredibly technically detailed and illustrated.

In those terms it's difficult to think there is a gap on the market.

The gap or niche in the market will be somewhere else - celebrity tie in, folk lore, recopies, artistic binding..... whatever.

Good luck.

Alex

 

[Geoff Dann]

Thanks for your comments. All useful for me.

I would buy a buy a book that covered edible mushrooms to suppliement a good field guide.

Indeed, I am certainly not intending to produce a field guide. It's been enough work collecting decent photos of the edible, toxic and very common ones. Field guides, if they are any good, feature five times (and more) as many species as anything I can produce, even if I was as comprehensive as I can manage.

Most field guides aren' t good with edibility information. Most books on eating wild mushrooms concentrate on too few species and ones that arent common in the uk.

Yes. That is where I see a gap in the market. Apart from John Wright's book, everything seems to be either non-UK-specific or not very comprehensive, or poorly illustrated, or all three.

I dont need to recipes that require caesers and hedgehogs, or to be told grissettes are excellent. That cursed yellow swamp russula can be eaten or that amethyst deceivers are good with bacon is more useful.

Yes...I was thinking small notes on cookery, rather than pages devoted to recipes. Learning about fungi, and identifying them, is not the same thing as cooking. Anybody can look up a recipe once they are sure what they've got to work with.

Personally if I was to write a mushroom book I would put the entrants in family groups and the groups in spore print colour.

I am going to put them in families, but haven't decided on what order to put the families in yet. Maybe spore print colour. I might just do it alphabetically, so Agaricaceae, Amanitaceae and Boletaceae are at the front - good way to start a book on edible and poisonous fungi.

I started writing a foraging book this week but I am leaving fungi out it like you I have hundreds of photos. I will do botanic drawings as well.

Not an option for me - my drawings aren't good enough. I've got nearly all the photos I need though. The only really important things I'm missing are Grifola frondosa and the morels. (Anyone out there who has got a good photo of any of those, and who would be willing to let me use it in exchange for a credit and a free copy of the book, please let me know!!!)

Maybe a big picture of the correct mushroom with little pictures of the look a like with exactly the same arrangment on every page.

Another thing I haven't decided. Same arrangement on every page, like a reference guide? Or slightly different, reflecting the different situation with the different groups. There's so many edible agaricuses - do I really need a page for each one??

The pubilishers might think differently though.

I think I'm going to self-publish. Want to retain control. Plus I'm not sure how hard it would be to get a publisher interested. I've never tried, so have no idea. It's a bit of a specialist area...

 

[Coldfeet]

Personally, I would like a book small enough to take with me on trips, that shows me the mushrooms I can eat, how to positively identify them, and what not to confuse them with. Good quality, full colour photographs of each specimen at various stages of development is also a must.

 

[xylaria]

I should have a piccy of a grifola somewhere. We got a huge one two years ago before the mower drove around the tree. I am sure I have piccy somewhere.

I wouldn't self publish. When you get three quarters through start looking into it. I don't think you make much out of self publishing. But I don't know much about it either.

 

[Toddy]

I would like clear explanation of terms, of how to identify, and how to put those into families.
I would like one that really only had those we have any chance of finding in the UK, and when and where. I know that those latter two are so very variable, but even a season would be an enormous help.
I like photographs, but I need the clearly drawn illustration too, the ones that show features that are specific to the mushroom, and not leave it up to the perception of the viewer on seeing only photos that might well not be in the same light as that which I spot the fungus.

I don't need every mushroom, but a clear guide to those that we are most likely to see, those that are edible or useful, and a seperate These Are Deadly part to the guide. Don't muddle them together, even if you do the what they might be confused with stuff. Clear comparisons would be so excellent.

Even a small series of booklets would do....something that fold slim, but opens up to A5, might do very well. Small enough to fit in a deep pocket but large enough for clear illustrations.

Geoff, you'll never please everyone, but I reckon that if you make it something useful, something that folks will absorb and check on easily, and it should do very well.

Best of luck with whatever you publish.

Toddy

 

[mountainm]

Have you considered an app not a book?

 

[Geoff Dann]

Personally, I would like a book small enough to take with me on trips, that shows me the mushrooms I can eat, how to positively identify them, and what not to confuse them with. Good quality, full colour photographs of each specimen at various stages of development is also a must.

That's pretty much impossible. There's just too many fungi out there.

 

[Geoff Dann]

I would like clear explanation of terms, of how to identify, and how to put those into families.
I would like one that really only had those we have any chance of finding in the UK, and when and where. I know that those latter two are so very variable, but even a season would be an enormous help.
I like photographs, but I need the clearly drawn illustration too, the ones that show features that are specific to the mushroom, and not leave it up to the perception of the viewer on seeing only photos that might well not be in the same light as that which I spot the fungus.

I don't need every mushroom, but a clear guide to those that we are most likely to see, those that are edible or useful, and a seperate These Are Deadly part to the guide. Don't muddle them together, even if you do the what they might be confused with stuff. Clear comparisons would be so excellent.

Even a small series of booklets would do....something that fold slim, but opens up to A5, might do very well. Small enough to fit in a deep pocket but large enough for clear illustrations.

Geoff, you'll never please everyone, but I reckon that if you make it something useful, something that folks will absorb and check on easily, and it should do very well.

Best of luck with whatever you publish.

Toddy

Thanks. I'll need it. It's a daunting prospect...

 

[Geoff Dann]

I should have a piccy of a grifola somewhere. We got a huge one two years ago before the mower drove around the tree. I am sure I have piccy somewhere.

If you could send me a high-res copy to geoffdann@hotmail.com, along with your real name so I know who to credit it to, that would be great. Free copy of the book if and when I finish it!

 

[Geoff Dann]

Have you considered an app not a book?

Thought about it, yes. I used to be a software engineer. Now I get ludicrously stressed at the first hint of something going wrong with a computer. Not sure I can face doing an app. Then again, if I self-publish then I'm going to have to learn InDesign anyway....

I rather like real books.

 

[Alreetmiowdmuka]

That's pretty much impossible. There's just too many fungi out there.

Could the book not be seperated into some sort of binder sections.so you only have too take certain parts of it with you at any one one time. Lamenated too would be nice.


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[scottishpinz]

Thought about it, yes. I used to be a software engineer. Now I get ludicrously stressed at the first hint of something going wrong with a computer. Not sure I can face doing an app. Then again, if I self-publish then I'm going to have to learn InDesign anyway....

I rather like real books.

I'd second an app. I have a great Fungi book, but it is a massive bookshelf beast. An app I could have on the phone would be so much more versatile.

 

[Leigh Robinson]

If you can make it similar to Francis Rose - Wild flower Key book that would be perfect. Then we can 'key out' the features to correctly ID. The Wild Flower Key is the primary text for botanists. Something on par with that is dearly needed for fungi.