This book was very informative for a first-time mushroom forager. It made identifying mushrooms easy with the descriptions and pictures included in the book. The tips and advice to foraging will be useful to me this spring as I try to find more edible mushrooms in my home forests in western North Carolina.

This is a good basic beginner's guide to wild mushrooms to have in addition to others. It has good info on mushrooms in general and only covers a few dozen that are fairly easy to identify and that you'd want to forage. There could be more photos, especially as most wild mushrooms look different at different stages and they often do vary a fair bit in how they look even at the same stage. The photos are stock photos of perfect specimens, not necessarily representatives of ones you're likely to actually find. Still a great resource.

A needed book for mushroom lovers. Perfect to take with you on your hunting adventure! I wish some of the terms had phenetic spelling but other than that an amazing resource.

Beginner's Guide to Safely Foraging for Wild Mushrooms by Karen Stephenson is nicely arranged with details including what mushrooms actually are, the three types (saprotrophic, parasitic and mycorrhizal), simple anatomy, spore prints, seasonal information, equipment, photographing fungi, how to harvest and what to do with it. The author then describes thirty edible and five toxic mushrooms (the latter are even more important to know than edibles) with habitat, identification characteristics, taste profile, lookalikes, and so on.

As a expert forager who knows these mushrooms inside and out, let me say you need knowledgeable foraging guidance when first starting out, a passion to learn and guides such as this which are not daunting or overwhelming with scientific information which will naturally come later.

My only criticism is the lack of illustrations and photographs at various life stages and from various angles. Knowing what "babies" versus "adults" look like is crucial, especially when it comes to identifying deadly Amanitas. However, this is still a great starting point and inspiration for those eager to get out and explore! There is absolutely nothing as gratifying as mushroom foraging and identifying. Highly addictive! Once you start you will look for mushrooms in every situation.

This guide is written in an easy-to-read format with excellent tips, hints and strategies, perfect for the absolute beginner who has no idea where to start. Refer to it over and over and take it with you on your forays.

My sincere thank you to Callista Media and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this fabulous book.

Great pictures, very clear instructions and appropriate focus on safety! Super interesting.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

i love mushrooms! unfortunately it is a bit too late in the season to try out these foraging techniques but i’m sure i will make use of it in the spring. the photos are beautiful and the descriptions are helpful for any skill level

I have been foraging my whole life with my grandmother and have been working to expand my knowledge. I loved this guide and could see myself getting a physical copy

Stephenson introduces us to the world of mushroom ID through 30 of the most common and easily identifiable edible wild mushrooms in North America. Chapters 1 and 2 offer and introduction to identification starting with the very basics, while the remaining chapters focus on those specific 30 mushrooms, 20 without gills and 10 with gills. I really appreciated the chart at the end of the first chapter listing all 30 mushroom varieties, their range, and what time of year to find them. For each mushroom detailed here, the author provides common names, type, a brief description, habitat, when to harvest, look-alikes, taste profile, keys to positive ID, spore print, storage/preservation info, and other foraging tips. I found this guide extremely useful as a beginner mushroom forager, and I think it will be great to take with me when I head into the woods.

I'd been looking for a book to help me identify the numerous wild mushrooms in this area when a friend recommended this one. And she was right. With easy to understand and identify descriptions, this book was designed for people who like me. Now I'm recommending it to others, including you.

This is a very informative book. I found the information is ready to understand, the pictures are well done and provide confidence in safe identification. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, I look forward to using the information to try my had at foraging for mushrooms

I requested this book on NetGalley because family and friends talk about harvesting mushrooms and made me curious. I ordered another one before and was disappointed in the info given...BUT NOT this time.
The author has beautifully clear photos and great descriptions. She also relates flavor palettes which is important when you aren't familiar, but know what you want them for.
I was impressed and have already recommended to a friend who tried to go out before, but threw away her picks because she was unsure.
I received a copy from NetGalley gratis and will probably grab a copy for my collection soon.

I grabbed this book because I have young kids and we have various mushrooms growing in our yard and around our small town. I don’t know anything about mushrooms and wanted to be better educated on what my kids may be coming into contact with.

This book was extremely detailed, butt in a way the layman amateur can understand and follow. It was interesting learning about all the different parts of mushrooms that I didn’t even know existed. I will definitely be keeping it loaded on my kindle for easy reference. I like how detailed the author is on the small details for deciphering the toxicity possibilities of the mushrooms. An excellent resource.

Truly a beginners guide. This book made me feel better about starting to forage for mushrooms and I appreciated all the information included in this book. The author used straight-forward, engaging language that made this book easy to read and remember. I loved the included Fungi Facts throughout the book that provided cool historical and cultural information about mushrooms. The mushroom identification information was helpful and comprehensive and the author included pictures of the specific species for every type mentioned in the book. I wish the author had included more information on poisonous look a-likes (a table or pictures showing the differences between a safe-to-eat and unsafe species would be super helpful!), but the author does include those ones in the back of the book in their own section which is helpful for identifying those poisonous species. Overall this is a book that I feel confident in taking with me to forage with.

The author begins by explaining the different kinds of mushrooms, and the categories of each. He also discusses the anatomical features of mushrooms, and how these factors can be used in identifying species. The book contains information on many common mushrooms, including poisonous varieties; the author goes on to state the seasons that specific mushrooms can be found. The book details beginning foraging techniques, and how and where to harvest. Finally, it contains a great amount of information on specific species and how to properly identify them in the field. A recommended read.

Karen makes a good point when it comes to mushrooms, it takes courage (Robinson, 90) to forage for mushrooms, especially if one has never done so in the wild, and the fact it’s not as easy as it seems to discern a safe mushroom, from a potentially dangerous one.

As advised, when reading about mushrooms, especially in her book, the first two chapters are essential to take the time to read thoroughly. The reason is its use of extensive imagery, and the eye-catching, detailed sidebars, which stress the importance of understanding parts of the mushroom which are edible, and how to identify "safe" mushrooms as part of the equation of foraging for wild mushrooms.

In Chapter 2, the second "essential" chapter, along with a concise detail of equipment to use, Stephenson makes an excellent point when cross-checking mushrooms, to use the Latin name and not the "common name" for them.

The additional chapters, the image, and details of the mushrooms, both edible and toxic, are detailed and broken down to make her book a helpful reference to keep both on the shelf and also in the backpack while out foraging. When in doubt, it helps to check with experienced experts first before consuming anything, but the book is a delightful read into the world of mushrooms and a great foundational guide to have on hand.

Thank you to NetGalley, Callisto Media, and Rockridge Press for the opportunity to read the book in exchange for my personal opinion. The book will be a valuable resource, both in an ebook and as a hard copy.

As a competent mushroom forager I was excited to check out a book that would help get more beginners comfortable out there. Kudos to Karen Stephenson as I found the book was easy to read and understand and had excellent photos. The book is organized into edible and toxic, and includes warnings abut lookalikes. I think it's great book to add to any forager's library.

Excellent. I just got this book today and I can give a great review because it's easy to read and understand. Photos are excellent. Descriptions excellent. It's a very iffy thing to harvest a wild mushroom and have the guts to eat it. One must be certain about it's identification. This book s organized into edible and toxic, with photos for all andwarnings abut lookalikes. I think I would trust this book but I would always talk to locals before heading for the frying pan.

Thank you to Netgalley and Callisto Media & Rockridge Press for the ARC!

I very much enjoyed this Beginners Guide, as I'm a total beginner! I love the basic primer and info, the breakdown of the anatomy of a mushroom and the terms used before you ever get to the actual mushrooms.
The written descriptors are fantastic, but more photos in different angles and specimens of the same type of mushroom would have been helpful. After reading this, I think I would feel able to go out and at least go mushroom foraging, even if it's just for discovering and identifying and never bringing any home. If you're curious about mushrooms or foraging in general, this is a great start!

Arc netgalley review both in app and kindle

This book is everything I’ve been looking for and more. I’ve been deep diving into mushrooms and foraging, and there is all kinda of info out there but this author clearly gives everything a beginner need within these pages. This is a instant buy and keep on hand. I’ll be keeping this paired with my journal as well.

tl;dr
A great book for beginners with a focus on easily identifiable edible mushrooms that have few or no lookalikes.

Thoughts
Foraging for mushrooms can be very dangerous, with many mushroom lookalikes and difficult-to-identify variations out there. This book eschews most of those in favor of a handful of distinct mushrooms that a beginner might be able to identify with ease. Because of this, it doesn't cover quite as many mushrooms as other field guides might, but it's a very strong place to start. Notes on identification, along with best ways to harvest, and how to tell them apart from potential lookalikes, are present. A handful of notes on flavor profile and how/when to prepare are greatly appreciated. The final chapter covers several deadly mushrooms to avoid, which is also a great thing to learn. Credits in the front list all the photos as stock images, so I won't really review the quality of those here. I wouldn't have minded seeing several of mushrooms in their various stages of life, but the photos that are included get the job done admirably. As always, foraging with a local expert is the only way to be certain, but you'll get more out of it if you read this book before you go.

Thanks to NetGalley and Callisto Media for the advance copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.