The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms Review
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The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms by Pella Holmberg and Hans Marklund is a great resource for any wild food forager.
While no book can take the place of an experienced guide, this pocket guide should provide you with the information you need to forage safely for mushroom varieties that are new to you.
Fall is typically prime season for many mushroom varieties, so I am looking forward to taking this book out with me more later this year. I shared it with my neighbor last week, and if the weather cooperates this fall (you need rain for mushrooms, and it’s been a dry summer), we’re going to go investigating in their woods to see what we can find.
How The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms is Organized
The book begins with an introduction and discussion of what exactly mushrooms are and where they are likely to be found. It then continues with a thorough explanation of proper picking, cleaning and preparation.
The authors also note that mushrooms contain fiber, important minerals, antioxidants and vitamins B and D in significant amounts. Not bad for a “free” food. This book focuses on varieties that are suitable for cooking (edible varieties), but also gives mention to potentially inedible look-alikes, if any.
Given that the authors hail from northern Europe, so too are the mushroom varieties featured in the book generally found in northern forests.
Each mushroom is categorized from 1 to 4, with 1 being the easiest to identify with only edible mushrooms that look similar, to 4 being those that are edible but could be confused with poisonous lookalikes.
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You can stick with the #1 mushrooms (or beginner mushrooms) when you are just starting out and nervous about your identification skills.
In the interest of thoroughness, the authors also offer a detailed description of the potential symptoms of mushrooms poisoning. Stay safe, folks.
The bulk of the book is filled with two page spreads of52 edible mushrooms featuring detailed photos of the mushrooms in studio conditions, including cross sections, and photos of the mushroom in its natural habitat.
Each entry provides a description with distinguishing features, a guide to preparing and preserving, and a description and photo of look-alike mushrooms.
I particularly appreciate the extremely detailed photography with horizontal and vertical cross sections of the mushrooms. As anyone who has done any amount of foraging can tell you, good photos make or break a guide book. These qualify as good photos.
The Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms is a useful addition to the library of any northern wild food forager, and the photos are beautiful enough that it would make a good “coffee table book” as well.
This post originally included a giveaway, which has now ended.
When I was a wee lil’ girl, I used to go picking mushrooms with my dad. I don’t recall much, but that is probably due to the fact that my mom always filled all of my pockets with something to keep me occupied, mainly with crunch bars as I remember. I do remember eating the fresh picked mushrooms fried in butter…oh my mouth is watering already!
Another great giveaway. Would love to add this to my library.
Morels are “Da Bombdiggity!
Hope I win!!! 🙂
How awesome! I would love to learn how to tell the what mushrooms are safe for consumption.
I have always wanted to know how to tell safe mushrooms from harmful ones, so this looks like a fantastic book.
This book looks amazing. I love the ease of looking up a shroom and getting all the pertinent info quick with just a glance. That makes it handy. Thanks for your review and I absolutely LOVE your blog!!!
Thank you!
Yea! What a cool giveaway! 🙂 Some of my fondest childhood memories of spending time with my dad was when he took us on adventures, foraging for all sorts of things…morels, berries, nuts, paw paws, persimmons. When I married 10 years ago, I really got back into it because my husband’s father was a real “wildman” of the woods and we made frequent trips out with him and on his property. His big thing was hunting “sang” (ginseng) and he passed away unexpectedly in his sleep 4 years ago during a weeklong ginseng foray. Today, I do most of my foraging alone (although I’m looking forward to sharing this passion with my 2 girls when they get just a little bigger) and have expanded my mushroom hunts to include oyster, puff ball and chantrelle mushrooms as well. I also like to collect and use edible and medicinal “weeds” and that is particularly my favorite segment on your blog.
My grandma would take me mushroom hunting and foraging for wild edibles growing up. Those are great memories.
I used to go mushroom hunting with my grandma, too, and mom. They used to make pickled mushrooms that were slimy and can them.
My dad and uncle have gone ‘shrooming and have tried to teach me, but I just can’t seem to remember what I’m looking for like they do. I’d be scared to death to do it on my own. Having a guidebook like this would be mighty helpful.
I would dearly love to at least have a chance to win the “Pocket Guild to Wild Mushrooms” but I don’t do face book.
Just click the first option to enter and it should let you enter your email since you’ve already left a comment. I keep trying to do it to check and make sure it’s working, but the darn thing keeps automatically logging me in with Facebook. Leave another comment if you can’t get it to work, and I’ve have one of my kids try and log in from a different computer and enter your email.
I have always wanted to forage for my own mushrooms, but was afraid of making mistakes. This book looks like it would come in handy. Thank for the opportunity to enter to win one.
I went mushrooming once years ago with a friend who has since moved away. I’d like to go again but am afraid of picking the wrong kind of mushrooms. My husband likes calf brains. I have seen a mushroom that looks like brains but he said the ones I saw were poisonous. This book would be a wonderful way to learn the difference between edible mushrooms and poisonous mushrooms.
I’m 21 and started foraging this year…and I’ve been okay with all the leaves, berries, roots, etc that I’ve found…but I’ve been skeptical about mushrooms. I have an app to help me identify them on my phone…but in the middle of the woods I dont get reception so its really pointless. I would LOVE a book like this…gotta get one!
Everyone has such wonderful comments.
My dad used to hunt mushrooms in the woods behind his town when he was a kid, but he never taught us what to look for. Just last week I was talking to some friends about mushrooming as one friend came across a paw paw tree near her home and we got on about foraging. It would be great fun to go hunting next time we get together as we’re all into these things.
My family had mulberry trees growing in our backyard. As an adult I happened on a wild raspberry patch near our present locale, which my youngest and I hit every year until someone mowed it down. About 5 years ago our raised bed garden busted out in purslane. We experimented and found it makes a nice pesto when combined with basil. Also good in a salad with slivered red onion, cherry tomatoes and a vineagrette. 4 years ago I went onto making weed flower wines from dandelions and violets in our yard. All these positive experiences give me a desire to learn more.
We only know of a couple types that are safe to eat. Sure would like to learn more.
Just thinking I needed a book like this. Keep noticing mushrooms popping up in all the weirdest places!
I need this Book.
Love foraging when out hiking and this book would definitely be a great asset to any hiker/ foragers library.
We collect morels in the woods behind our house.