Mushroom book and walk for cheap!

[urbpan]

When I went up to Drumlin to give my mushroom walk and talk yesterday (which cost each participant about the same as a membership to the Boston Mycological Club) I stopped by the Audubon Shop, and discovered a new mushroom book! It's called Fascinating Fungi of New England. There are two things great about that: first, it's specific to New England, and so limits itself to species found here (although anyone east of the Rockies can make perfect use of it); and second, it's not "Edible and Poisonous Fungi of New England," no, the adjective is FASCINATING. Now that's an approach to natural history I can get behind. Nothing against the wild food foragers, but that ain't why I go outside, and I mostly stick to the raspberries anyway.

I've only flipped through it a bit, but I can honestly say that it feels like a book I would have liked to have written. The text covers the natural history of each species, focusing on what makes the mushroom in question interesting, beyond whether it can kill you or if it's nice in an omelette.


Gotta love seeing the urban mushroom species, the winecap, on the cover!

As it turns out, the author is going to be at Drumlin Farm on October first (that's this Saturday) to do a book signing and mushroom walk! For the cost of my field walk, or the BMC membership, you could buy the book and attend the walk--you get a few bucks off if you are a Mass Audubon member, which you should be.

Fine print: I don't get anything from publicizing this event, I just figured some of you would be into it. Also I genuinely like the book, and it's very reasonably priced

Comments

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Memberships can be funny things. Eleanor and I attended a local folk concert over the winter, part of a series that had been running since the previous fall. Not being the type to steal from a fellow folkie (and seeing at least one bankruptcy trustee in the audience), we made no effort to get any discount off the non-member price we'd paid online. Dude at the door refused- insisting that the difference in price more than entitled us to the remainder of the year's membership, and threatening to refund us two bucks until I insisted back that he keep it as a donation. It did get us on the mailing list, though, and there's at least one upcoming show (some former 10,000 Maniacs alums in a vocal group called Girls Gone Mild) that we now know of, and will probably see, as a result.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

i've been on larry's (lawrence's) mushroom walks around fresh pond a few times (they were free too), neat specimens.

larry is QUITE fond of eating winecaps too :)

heh. looks like a good book. i shall have to acquire it.

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[roaming.livejournal.com]

I'm going to try to get to that this Saturday. Thanks for pointing it out!

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

I could see that getting sold on late night t.v. by the guy who did the "another fabulous product for K-TEL".

I love it. Seriously.