Mushroom Wanderland: A Forager's Guide to Finding, Identifying, and Using More Than 25 Wild Fungi Hardcover – August 17, 2021

This book is packed with information. There's a section that talks about the glories if foraging. Following that you learn eating them, using them for medicine and for spiritual growth. In relation to foraging, safety is important. Yes, there is a section for that. It includes the growing habits and harvesting. In the cooking and preserving section, you can find how to store them, safety in cooking, recipes including fermented mushrooms to help your gut flora! This section made me hungry. Following that are the types of mushrooms, beginning with the ones that are best for cooking. There is a picture of EVERY mushroom in this section in color to helpthe reader identify all the features of each mushroom. The author includes nutritional value, medicinal value for dual use, look-alike species, as well as any cautionary advise that needs to be shared with each mushroom in this book, including the medicinal mushroom section. There is a curiosities section with things I have never seen before! For those who want to learn more, the author includes a detailed list of all her sources to enable those curious to explore further.

I’m slowly reading, and savoring every chapter of this book. I’ve been honored to meet Jess in person by attending her informative nature/foraging hikes, but this is my first chance to hear her deeper thoughts, feelings, and life experiences. What a remarkable woman, and role model. I haven’t read such prose since Henry Beston’s The Outermost House, which is one of my most treasured books. As if the prose was not enough, she took the stunning accompanying photographs. This will live on my coffee table forever! This is not meant to be a field guide, nor a White Paper on the taxonomy of fungi, but rather a beautiful look at how the lives of trees, plants and humans are intertwined with mycelium which circles the Earth without need for borders. I’m truly enjoying getting to know mushrooms and Jess Starwood better.

Mushroom Wanderland is brilliantly written. The author inspires the reader to open their minds to Nature's often-overlooked fungal gifts, with the rewards being not only new delights to the senses but paths to better health. The photography throughout the book is amazing and gives the readers the sense that they're accompanying the author on a foraging hunt, gaining a deeper understanding of the natural world through its hidden mycelial network. The foraging instructions, as well as their related explanations and anecdotes, are clear and to the point while the recipes reveal new possibilities to one's menu.If you want to gain a greater appreciation for the mushrooms that find their way into your cooking, I encourage you to accept this author's "invitation to the forest" by reading Mushroom Wanderland. I'm glad I did.

There is nothing to dislike about this book. it oozes creativity and sensibility. The photography is just gorgeous and will make you dream. One could buy the book just for the photos.I have many mushrooms books at home, this one is different. The writing is superb and flows like a gentle stream in the forest. I could not stop reading the first chapters where the author takes you on a deep exploratory journey into our relationship with nature.For Jess, it's not just "picking" mushrooms, it's about shifting our perspective of the modern world, reestablishing an intimate connection to the environment and cultivating an appreciation for the gifts the forest provide. She will write about the "Language of the Land" and "Tasting the Landscape" and within a couple of chapters, you will totally understand what she mean.But the book is also very pragmatic and will provide you with guidelines on how to ID the most common mushrooms, hints on where to find them, what tools you need and even how to store them properly using various traditional preservation techniques. You also have some interesting recipes as a final touch.Overall, it's a 5 stars book, a perfect balance of poetic and sensitive writing, practical information and gorgeous photography. It's hard to read this book just once!

Get the book for the full experience! The book has a look and feel that sets it apart as something very special. People of all ages and interests will find the experience captivating while flipping through the pages. Once the hook has been set, Jess the wordsmith further draws her readers into the world of wonder that is the world of mushrooms.

As an introduction to the idea of foraging for wild mushrooms, this is a beautiful gateway. It is a lavishly illustrated, coffee-table-type book with the kind of artsy photography you would expect to find in a National Geographic Magazine feature on fungi. As for the prose, the author emphasizes her woodland wandering is motivated by a search for more than mushrooms. I found the New-Agey touch a little heavy, because I was looking for a practical guide to conclusively identify edible mushrooms. There are general tips on collecting and some recipes, but I found the warnings of how easily toxic species can be confused with safe ones discouraging. This is more of a showcase of the rewards the hard-core mushrooming community will enjoy. I will continue to forage for a guide for beginners that not only entices, but enables.

The photography of this book is gorgeous art and museum worthy! The images alone are worth buying this book! Although her descriptions eloquently describe the fairytale settings of mushrooms, she also vividly describes identification and toxic look-alikes. Those new to the mushroom world will not find this book an overly dry scientific and those in the herbal world will appreciate the research she shares. There are awesome recipes included as well. Overall, this book is now one of my prizes possessions in my herbal library.