Joseph Bolas wrote:Richard Brittain wrote:The only downside of eating wild fungi is that you could suddenly keel over and die after eating one, but with a decent guidebook one would have to be pretty stupid to pick a poisonous one.
Whats the best guidebook to buy when it comes to poinsonous mushrooms?
I don't know what the best one is, but I would recommend the Easy Edible Mushroom Guide (of Easy Nature Guides). A comprehensive book written by Prof. David Pegler, which details virtually all of the edible and poisonous species found in Britain. Each species has two pages to itself, with a photograph, pictures and diagram of it and a 'Lookalikes' box, and there is lots of other general information about fungi in Britain. A reasonably small book, and quite light, so can easily be carried around in a coat pocket. More comprehensive guides on fungi do exist, because this book doesn't include all of the quite numerable inedible-yet-not-poisonous species, such as the common birch polypore mentioned at the top of this thread, but you can't go wrong with this guidebook if you're looking to find edible (or poisonous) mushrooms. £12.99 RRP.
Another book I would recommend is the tiny pocket-sized Collins Gem 'Food for Free', which lists all sorts of plants, flowers, berries, nuts and fungi which can actually be eaten. Carry these two books on you at all times, and you basically need nothing else.