Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
no farther for them than the front lawn, or a neighboring park or
woodlot. With no more time or trouble than it takes to learn to
recognize half a dozen different kinds of flowers or shrubs that
grow in our gardens we can learn to know an equal number of
the choicer mushrooms.
There are about half a dozen types of mushrooms that appear
regularly in sufficient abundance to make it worth while getting
acquainted with them from the culinary standpoint. No special
abilities, training, or equipment are necessary, and the time and
effort expended will be amply rewarded with many a dish of
fungi fresh from the field.
There is no risk in eating wild mushrooms of proved quality,
kinds that have been eaten in many lands and for thousands of
years. There is danger in eating all wild mushrooms indiscriminately.
Even children who go berry picking in the woods do not
pick and eat all kinds of berries, because they have been taught
that some are good and others are inedible or harmful. Instead,
they go after certain specific, known kinds. In the same way one
should not pick and eat any wild mushrooms he happens to find
but should seek morels, shaggymanes, puffballs, or other particular
kinds, like those described in this book, that can be recognized
with ease and certainty and that are positively known to be good.
If you follow this rule you will find them as delicious, wholesome,
and safe as any other wild vegetable, though less nourishing
than most. To those who know and like them, their flavor more
than makes up for their lack of nourishment. Indeed, their low
calory value recommends them to many!
This book has been written to introduce a number of the
common edible mushrooms so that people without previous training
or experience can learn how to recognize them, where and
when to find them, and how to prepare them for eating. Since it
is intended for the beginner it will not enable you to identify
offhand any mushroom you happen to pick up. Of the hundreds
of common species only about fifty are described, and these fifty
were chosen primarily on the basis of ease of recognition and com-
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