[ajacksified]

Hot takes aside, if you're looking for great foraging books, I'd suggest anything by David Arora, such as "All That the Rain Promises and More" and "Mushrooms Demystified". The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms is, of course, pretty good too.

Outside of identification, "Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares" and "Radical Mycology" are good reads too.

[jerrysievert]

came here to suggest "All That the Rain Promises and More". it's a fantastic book with spore identification as well.

thanks to that book, I've eaten ~10 additional fungi that I would not have eaten before, and they were all quite delicious.

also, thanks to that book, I did spore tests on mushrooms that I was "pretty sure" were correct, and found out that I was wrong.

do your research, and you may find some delicious new meals. don't, and you may find death.

[hilbert42]

"...and you may find death."

Right, see my comment to jbandela1'

[jerrysievert]

thankfully, I tend to stick with fairly easy to identify fungus, or even ones that have false versions that are not very toxic (false chanterelle are edible, but can give you a stomach ache, but still easy to tell the difference if you've been foraging before). I tend to stay away from morels, just out of fear of a false morel.

cauliflower, lion, an oyster, on the other hand, are very easy to recognize and the bolete family has some nice slimy cousins that are nice when dried and ground.

I think my favorite poisonous mushroom is what becomes the lobster mushroom due to an infection - great when infected, dangerous when not. thankfully it's easy to tell the difference.

I had one that surprised me, turned out to be quite delicious, but my book is put away, and I can't remember the name off the top of my head. now that it's coming to foraging season around here (pacific nw, usa), might be time to get it back out.