The Complete Mushroom Hunter: An Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying Wild Mushrooms

I go hiking and wanted to identify mushrooms and find out info on them and this is the perfect item to do that with. So glad I ordered this book.

If you've meet or seen the author before you may have your doubts. To say "odd" is a slight blurring of reality. He knows his stuff and can relate that information superbly. This book will coax you out of your safety zone and into the woods were a mushroom hunter belongs. Also the Oyster Recipe is pretty good so go enjoy yourself.This is a really well done guide. It gives a "brief" history on mushroom hunting which makes a good read. The book also covers what to take with you on your field trips for a more enjoyable hunt.There is a moderate amount of information and wonderful pictures for edible and poisonous mushrooms. There is a decent section in medicinal mushrooms.Here's a list of what's included: morels,truffles,chanterelles,black trumpets,tooth fungi,hedgehog,coral fungi,boletes,polypores,giant puffball,lobster mushroom,jelly fungi,agaricus mushrooms,oyster,honey,shaggy mane,mastutakes,shrimp russula,milk caps,blewits and bluefoot.There are a good amount of poisonous and psychedelic mushrooms covered with more wonderful pictures.The best part of the book is the recipes in chapter five. A great starter book for identifying and cooking safe mushrooms.

As you head out to forage for mushrooms, if you have room in your pack basket for only one book, this is not it. The one book you would carry is Lincoff's compact, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. The Complete Mushroom Hunter, however, is useful in ways the "Guide" is not. The photos of mushrooms in "Hunter" is a feature the "Guide" lacks. The organizational structure of the "Hunter" is different from the "guide" as it divides up fungi into convenient categories, such as edibles, poisonous, mind-altering. "Hunter" restricts its presentations to the most prevalent. Lincoff obviously designed it for mushroom hunters who see the kitchen as the last step in the foraging pipeline. it is the readable book I lend to friends who are wondering if mushroom foraging is an activity they might wish to pursue. You will want "Hunter" on your shelf along side with the "Guide" and a number of other scholarly research books--and internet resources--that you will acquire as your interest, or appetite, in mushrooms deepens.

Bought it as a gift for friends new to wild mushroom picking. A great introduction to US edible fungus with excellent photography. Lincoff is a marvelous writer, extremely knowledgeable and really delightful in person. Makes a great coffee table book. Of course nobody should eat anything they gather without a really experienced person checking out their fungus. This book does point out a few of the safest edibles that are pretty no doubters. Beware the Blewits however--the only weakness of the book is the failure to warn about lookalike purple Cortinarius species that grow in similar locations at the same time of year and can only be positively identified as different by looking at the spores. The Corts include some species with slow poisons that can take weeks to take effect and can cause serious kidney damage so great caution is required before eating the otherwise choice edible Blewits.

Four years later and I'll post am accurate review. I got this for my dad, who lives out in the wild and wonderful state of WV. He followed this book and found some very delicious mushrooms and also some that he knew were dangerous. One day, he found some and couldn't exactly identify if they were poisonous or not. He wanted to try them so badly, although many said the book showed they were poisonous. Four days and several episodes of vomiting and diarrhea, he now always follows the advice of the book.

This is a beautiful book, fit for any coffee table. I am interested in identifying mushrooms just for fun. I'm not gong to risk eating any of them. It's not worth the risk of a stomach ache or worse, in my opinion. I read this book cover to cover and thought maybe I might know something. I went outside on our 5 acre property and found 6 different mushroom varieties, and couldn't identify a single mushroom.Mushrooms are beautiful things. This book opened my eyes to the beauty of mushrooms, like the smells of individual mushrooms. I find it pleasing to go on a mushroom hunt; it helps me reduce stress from work and my everyday life, etc. But there is no way I would eat a mushroom based on this guide.

Gary Lincoff has obviously been involved in mycology and everything mushroomy for a long time, and his book The Complete Mushroom Hunter: An Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying Wild Mushrooms, is a wonderful digest of all his knowledge put into a very enjoyable Guide. Touching on all of the important aspects of mushroom knowledge, this book encourages the novice to explore deeper into the wonderful world of mycology and, even if this is the only mushroom book they might own, be a safe and confident consumer of the most delicious and easily identifiable mushrooms that grow quite often very near our homes. I am very happy to have this book in my mushroom library!

I live out here in the old Pacific Northwest, where we have an overabundance of fungi. I bought this as a gift for a budding mycologist in the family, who put it on her wishlist. The pictures are large and detailed, and for the entries it does have, it has quite a lot of information. However, even a smaller pocket guide she owns has more information and entries on mushrooms both nationwide and here in the Northwest. The issue really is that many of the mushrooms found out there are NOT going to be edible, therefore the focus should be on identifying them (as the pocket guide does) and less on providing recipes for cooking them (as Lincoff's book does). Any mycologist going out on a foray is a) going to be looking for morels or another edible mushroom and b) trying to determine if the mushroom he or she just found is edible. This does not help you do that.

Curti muito, aprendi muito com esse livro, pude melhorar meu vocabulário no inglês. Um ótimo guia para campo bem detalhado e rico em imagens e informações.

I am very pleased with my purchase of The Complete Mushroom Hunter.It's a beautiful book with lots of pictures and clear descriptions. I also love the little side notes and stories on each mushroom.The foraging stories bring me back to my favorite mushroom spots and wish I was there.I am only have 5 years experience with the whole mushroom world and from the start, I was addicted and still am.I especially liked the text on where to find particular mushrooms.

very helpful to not only identify a mushroom , but also how to hunt for it in likely spotslots of trivia I didn't know but very much appreciated. I learned to pick mushrooms withmy mother when I was a child but this helps to complete my knowledge base. this is onebook I can pass on to my kidsI

I have waited quite awhile to buy a Mushroom Hunting book and as I read other articles on hunting the author of this books name came up often so I felt confident this book might provide insight that most general books don't. Ironically this book is the superficial kind I feared I might end up with. Its kinda like 'the idoits guide' series or at best aim solely at beginners who don't really want to get into mushrooms on a regular basis. Its more a coffee table book or a childrens how to on mushrooms. I'd look elsewhere for a more serious hunters guide book.

Complements my other books - some unique and useful information. Great photos, well organised.