Field Guide to Wild Mushrooms of Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic

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Preface

How far back can your memory reach? If I really stretch, my earliest memory is of hunting mushrooms as a toddler with my parents, early on a misty summer morning, in an old graveyard near our home. Mushrooms grew everywhere. To me, they looked like big white buttons hiding in the grass. My parents carried tomato baskets and kitchen knives. Because I was so small—and thus close to the ground—I spotted a few tiny ones that my parents had overlooked. Afterward, I sat in my high chair near the kitchen table, impatiently waiting while my mother cooked the mushrooms we had brought home. She served me a little dish with three small sautéed button mushrooms—the mushrooms that I had found. To this day, I remember the earthy, sweet taste. From that moment I became hooked on mushroom hunting.

After I learned to read, my father bought me a wild mushroom identification book. Over the winter I memorized many of the mushroom descriptions. The following summer I studied the mushrooms that were growing in the woods, fields, and backyards around my home. My parents knew only one edible mushroom species (the one that grew in the graveyard), which they called a field mushroom. No one else in the area knew any others. I realized that if I wanted to discover other edible mushrooms, I would have to do it on my own.

Discover them I did. The first edible mushroom I identified by myself, with enough certainty to sample, was the glistening inky cap. Because it appeared in large crops in my backyard several times a season, I had plenty of opportunities to examine it closely and consider its edibility. The first time I ate it, I followed the advice in my book and sautéed a small sample. It was delicious, with a flavor very different from those of the supermarket white button mushrooms and the field mushrooms. I was eager to learn more about edible mushrooms, but I knew that it was important to move ahead slowly and carefully. Within a couple of years, I learned on my own to identify several edible species confidently.

My parents constantly felt torn between encouraging their budding mushroom hunter and saving their lives. Thanksgiving Day marked the beginning of velvet stem mushroom season where we lived. Lots of them grew on a log pile in the woods not far from the house, and every year I gathered a big basketful for the turkey stuffing. Every Thanksgiving morning, I would bring the basket into the bustling kitchen and proudly announce that I had the mushrooms for the turkey stuffing. Every year I would be greeted with silence. Yet every year I went ahead and stirred the velvet stems into the turkey stuffing mix. When dinner was served later in the day, a mountain of stuffing covered my plate. For days after, I had stuffing for breakfast, stuffing sandwiches for lunch, and warmed-over stuffing for dinner. Every year I had all the Thanksgiving turkey stuffing I could eat—because no one else would eat it.

By the time I graduated from high school, I had learned to pick about fifty edible mushrooms. Then, as an undergraduate physics student, I made a wonderful discovery: the library had a huge collection of mushroom books. Over the next four years I learned about dozens of other edible mushrooms. A year after graduation, I began an extended period of postgraduate studies in the biological and botanical sciences that further expanded my knowledge and understanding of mushrooms.

There’s no end to learning about mushrooms. You could study them over several lifetimes without knowing everything there is to know about them. My mushrooming friends and I get together several times a year to share each other’s knowledge and experiences. You can do the same. Form a circle of friends who are interested in mushrooms, and you will all learn faster. To meet other mushroom enthusiasts, you may want to check out the North American Mycological Association. Find them on the Internet at www.namyco.org.

The difficulty of reading a mushroom guide often puts off a beginner. To make it easier, I have avoided using many technical terms in the mushroom descriptions. You don’t have to be a botanist in order to use this book. You only need to have an interest in nature and the willingness to look closely at the mushrooms growing around you. You will discover that certain mushrooms are easy to identify, while others need your time and attention. With a bit of dedication, you should soon be able to name many of the wild mushrooms that you meet in your backyard, on your walks, and on your outings. You will also find directions for transplanting wild mushrooms into your backyard, suggestions for gathering and using certain species, and fun things to do with mushrooms. Even experienced mushroomers will benefit from the tips and personal observations I offer based on many years of mushrooming.

This book is not intended to be your only guide to identifying, gathering, and using mushrooms. To learn a new mushroom, you need to become a detective, gathering clue after clue from your observations and from mushroom books that will lead you to a positive identification of the species. It’s well worth the effort to seek out a knowledgeable teacher. But when your teacher is not available, you will have to rely on as many mushroom guidebooks as you can get your hands on. Each author has his or her own photographs, illustrations, descriptive details, and comments that will help you, and experienced mushroomers know that all sources of clues are important. The more information you have, the better.

Happy mushrooming!

Bill Russell

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