“A beautifully written portrait of the people who collect and distribute wild mushrooms . . . food and nature writing at its finest.”—Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia “A rollicking narrative . . . Cook [delivers] vivid and cinematic scenes on every page.”—The Wall Street Journal In the dark corners of America’s forests grow culinary treasures. Chefs pay top dollar to showcase these elusive and enchanting ingredients on their menus. Whether dressing up a filet mignon with smoky morels or shaving luxurious white truffles over pasta, the most elegant restaurants across the country now feature one of nature’s last truly wild foods: the uncultivated, uncontrollable mushroom. The mushroom hunters, by contrast, are a rough lot. They live in the wilderness and move with the seasons. Motivated by Gold Rush desires, they haul improbable quantities of fungi from the woods for cash. Langdon Cook embeds himself in this shadowy subculture, reporting from both rural fringes and big-city eateries with the flair of a novelist, uncovering along the way what might be the last gasp of frontier-style capitalism. Meet Doug, an ex-logger and crabber—now an itinerant mushroom picker trying to pay his bills and stay out of trouble; Jeremy, a former cook turned wild-food entrepreneur, crisscrossing the continent to build a business amid cutthroat competition; their friend Matt, an up-and-coming chef whose kitchen alchemy is turning heads; and the woman who inspires them all. Rich with the science and lore of edible fungi—from seductive chanterelles to exotic porcini—The Mushroom Hunters is equal parts gonzo travelogue and culinary history lesson, a fast-paced, character-driven tour through a world that is by turns secretive, dangerous, and quintessentially American.

Cookbook focused on wild mushrooms.

In The Complete Mushroom Hunter, Revised, Gary Lincoff escorts you through the culinary history of the mushroom and on to preparing and serving the fungi.

Mycologists Alan and Arleen Bessette offer a field guide for the identification of common edible and poisonous mushrooms of New York State. Written for readers interested in the safe collection and consumption of a variety of mushrooms, this book includes identification keys for each species and detailed descriptions of poisonous species. In addition, the book is filled with vivid color photographs. Celebrating the culinary adventure of mushroom gathering, the authors include attractive recipes accompanied by photographs of the recipes' preparation. With concise, accurate, and easy-to-follow descriptions, the book provides a safe and reliable introduction to mushroom gathering.

The essential guide for seeking and savoring North America’s edible species.

This beautifully illustrated guidebook provides specific, easy-to-understand information on finding, collecting, identifying, and preparing the safer and more common edible and medicinal mushroom species of New England and Eastern Canada. Author David Spahr, a trained commercial photographer, here combines his mycological expertise and photographic skill to produce an attractive and detailed overview of his subject. Based on decades of practical experience and research, the book is written in a clear and forthright style that avoids the dry, generic descriptions of most field guides. Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada also provides useful ideas for cooking mushrooms. Rather than simply providing recipes, the book discusses the cooking characteristics of each variety, with advice about matching species with appropriate foods. Many mushrooms contain unique medicinal components for boosting the immune system to fight cancer, HIV, and other diseases, and Spahr offers practical and prudent guidelines for exploration of this rapidly emerging area of alternative therapeutic practice.

Ideal for hikers, foragers, and naturalists, the Timber Press Field Guides are the perfect tools for loving where you live. Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest is a comprehensive field guide to the most conspicuous, distinctive, and ecologically important mushrooms found in the region. With helpful identification keys and photographs and a clear, color-coded layout, Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest is ideal for hikers, foragers, and natural history buffs and is the perfect tool for loving where you live. Covers Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia Describes and illustrates 493 species 530 photographs, with additional keys and diagrams Clear color-coded layout