Call number
Publication
New York : Rodale : Distributed to the trade by Macmillan, c2011.
Pages
xix; 348
Description
An incredibly versatile cooking ingredient containing an abundance of vitamins, minerals, and possiblycancer-fighting properties, mushrooms are among the most expensive and sought-after foods on theplanet. Yet when it comes to fungi, culinary uses are only the tip of the iceberg. Throughout history fungus has been prized for its diverse properties-medicinal, ecological, even recreational-and hasspawned its own quirky subculture dedicated to exploring the weird biology and celebrating the unique role it plays on earth. InMycophilia, accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century. Engrossing, surprising, and packed with up-to-date science and cultural exploration,Mycophiliais part narrative and part primer for foodies, science buffs, environmental advocates, and anyone interested in learning a lot about one of the least understood and most curious organisms in nature.… (more)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2011
Physical description
xix, 348 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
9781609619879
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User reviews
LibraryThing member cameling
When I started this book, I was vaguely interested in mushrooms. I've always liked mushrooms from the culinary end, and I've taken photographs of mushrooms during hikes. But apart from that, I've never really given them a great deal of thought.
But this book has raised not my just consciousness into
Apart from providing an indepth look at different mushrooms, both wild and farmed, their reproductive habits, their preferred habitats and how to hunt for them, I now know the symptoms of mushroom poisoning. I like the advice shared in the book about mushroom hunting ... just stand and take in the view. Especially in today's busy world, when we're all trying to multitask, just standing still, being quiet and letting our eyes take in the bounties of Mother Nature before us, is a task worth cultivating, and one that is bound to bring us a few moments of inner peace ... until we spy that one shy mushroom to leap upon!
If there's only one thing I'm taking away from this book alone, it's that I'm no longer going to be wasting my money buying expensive bottles of truffle oil. Want to know what? Read the book!
But this book has raised not my just consciousness into
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the wonderful world of mushrooms, but my level of interest as well. Who knew that mushrooms share about 80% of the same RNA as humans do? I certainly didn't. Or that the chiten that coats mushrooms so that they can push out of the ground without bruising themselves is the same thing that's found in crab shells and squid beaks? Or that mushrooms have more in common with the animal kingdom than the plant kingdom? I now know that there are mushroom conferences and mushroom hunting festivals around the world should I ever feel the urge to don a pair of wellingtons and root around animal dung or forest floors with company.Apart from providing an indepth look at different mushrooms, both wild and farmed, their reproductive habits, their preferred habitats and how to hunt for them, I now know the symptoms of mushroom poisoning. I like the advice shared in the book about mushroom hunting ... just stand and take in the view. Especially in today's busy world, when we're all trying to multitask, just standing still, being quiet and letting our eyes take in the bounties of Mother Nature before us, is a task worth cultivating, and one that is bound to bring us a few moments of inner peace ... until we spy that one shy mushroom to leap upon!
If there's only one thing I'm taking away from this book alone, it's that I'm no longer going to be wasting my money buying expensive bottles of truffle oil. Want to know what? Read the book!
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LibraryThing member RandyStafford
I don’t know how she is as a food writer, but, as a popular science writer, Eugenia Bone is pretty good.
To be honest, I had a little trepidation that this book would be filled with rhapsodies on the culinary qualities of various mushrooms and a lot of recipes.While the stomach of Bone led her
We go on mushroom journeys and to mushroom festivals and scientific conferences and trade organizations. Bone tags the five groups of mushroom enthusiasts as conspiracy theorists (here, oddly, a mostly Canadian group), Masters of the Forests (guys and gals who like hanging out in the woods and nature as a whole), World’s Leading Experts, Off the Gridders, and Belly Feeders. Some hunt for food. Some are migrant harvesters of mushrooms. Some are involved in mushroom farming – mostly of white button mushrooms – while others hope to crack the tough problem of commercially growing truffles.
But fungi as food is just the beginning of modern economic interest in the fungi kingdom. Some are promoting the potential of mushrooms as a “superfood” or as medicines. I think Bone walks the right line between being skeptical of these claims – you have to eat a lot of mushrooms to get any particular benefit (outside of hallucinogenics) and just because something is a part of traditional Chinese medicine (the “discipline” that thinks rhino horns are nature’s Viagra) doesn’t mean it has any value -- and noting that many drugs have come from fungi and that fungi may turn out to be a good future source of Vitamin D for vegans.
Then there is the promise of using fungi to clean up sites polluted with any number of substances that contain carbon. But, because she has done such a good job explaining the biology – what’s known of it – before that point of the story, we can already anticipate some of the technical and scientific problems of realizing that potential. Her explanations of the symbiotic, mutualistic, and parasitic roles fungi play is clear and interesting. And, while the black and white photos don’t add much to the book (many are kind of murky), the book is very well sourced so the reader can pick up any of several threaded ideas to pursue on their own. That includes the role fungi play in various diseases – including the dropping off of limbs via ergot poisoning.
And, speaking of ergot poisoning and its sometimes attendant hallucinations, Bone does have a chapter on magic mushrooms and their possible place in human social evolution. It’s capped off by her munching some psilocybin bearing mushrooms. Psilocybin is a chemical relative of LSD, but Bone’s trip is void of hallucinations but does give her at least one of those useful personal insights that those advocating LSD and psilocybin as therapeutic chemicals cite.
While I liked the science aspect, Bone also give enough time to some of the celebrities in the mycophiliac world and -- a bit of a travelogue when she goes places like Telluride or the Breitenbush Retreat in Oregon -- to probably please those whose interest may center on other aspects of the mushroom world.
To be honest, I had a little trepidation that this book would be filled with rhapsodies on the culinary qualities of various mushrooms and a lot of recipes.While the stomach of Bone led her
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into the woods to look for mushrooms, we don’t get any specific recipes. And, by the end of the book, she’s taken us on a chatty, gossipy, personal trip not just into the world of mushrooms but the larger kingdom of fungi.We go on mushroom journeys and to mushroom festivals and scientific conferences and trade organizations. Bone tags the five groups of mushroom enthusiasts as conspiracy theorists (here, oddly, a mostly Canadian group), Masters of the Forests (guys and gals who like hanging out in the woods and nature as a whole), World’s Leading Experts, Off the Gridders, and Belly Feeders. Some hunt for food. Some are migrant harvesters of mushrooms. Some are involved in mushroom farming – mostly of white button mushrooms – while others hope to crack the tough problem of commercially growing truffles.
But fungi as food is just the beginning of modern economic interest in the fungi kingdom. Some are promoting the potential of mushrooms as a “superfood” or as medicines. I think Bone walks the right line between being skeptical of these claims – you have to eat a lot of mushrooms to get any particular benefit (outside of hallucinogenics) and just because something is a part of traditional Chinese medicine (the “discipline” that thinks rhino horns are nature’s Viagra) doesn’t mean it has any value -- and noting that many drugs have come from fungi and that fungi may turn out to be a good future source of Vitamin D for vegans.
Then there is the promise of using fungi to clean up sites polluted with any number of substances that contain carbon. But, because she has done such a good job explaining the biology – what’s known of it – before that point of the story, we can already anticipate some of the technical and scientific problems of realizing that potential. Her explanations of the symbiotic, mutualistic, and parasitic roles fungi play is clear and interesting. And, while the black and white photos don’t add much to the book (many are kind of murky), the book is very well sourced so the reader can pick up any of several threaded ideas to pursue on their own. That includes the role fungi play in various diseases – including the dropping off of limbs via ergot poisoning.
And, speaking of ergot poisoning and its sometimes attendant hallucinations, Bone does have a chapter on magic mushrooms and their possible place in human social evolution. It’s capped off by her munching some psilocybin bearing mushrooms. Psilocybin is a chemical relative of LSD, but Bone’s trip is void of hallucinations but does give her at least one of those useful personal insights that those advocating LSD and psilocybin as therapeutic chemicals cite.
While I liked the science aspect, Bone also give enough time to some of the celebrities in the mycophiliac world and -- a bit of a travelogue when she goes places like Telluride or the Breitenbush Retreat in Oregon -- to probably please those whose interest may center on other aspects of the mushroom world.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
Part memoir, part mushroom science book and part insider view into the cult of mycophilia I found this book to be really informative if somewhat overblown in some places. Unlike some reviewers, I didn’t find Bone’s personal asides and insights annoying. A book like this is supposed to have that
Bone begins her book by telling us that she’s not much of an outdoors woman (and boy does it show later), but that by finding, eating and loving some wild mushrooms she found (or maybe it was someone else) she bit the bullet and started sleeping in tents in the middle of nowhere so she could find more. I only hunt mushrooms for food casually. Most of my mushroom fascination goes into photography not my kitchen. But I admit I got a bit entranced by her description of candy caps and the fabled matsutake. Some of the chapters went on a bit too long, like truffles and her brush with the “magic mushroom people”, but overall it’s breezy, diverse and interesting.
So what did I learn from this book? That the reason I found so many varieties and specimens in an old growth forest is because of the symbiotic relationship mycorrhizal mushrooms and trees have. Older, established trees have had the time to accumulate a large and intricate network of fungus underground. Through this webbing and their own roots they can better do things like nutrient uptake. If a forest is logged heavily too many trees die and the mycorrhizal network is damaged or destroyed, leaving saplings to struggle and possibly die because of it. I already knew about the importance of fungi in soil from my connection to biodynamic farming and how many farmers are abandoning the traditional soil tillage methods for ones that don’t break up the fungus network. It’s more labor intensive, but the soil is a much better substrate for whatever they plant.
I also learned that mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of fungus, don’t grow so much as expand. The cells of a mushroom are fixed as soon as it forms. From button stage to disintegration, no cells are added to the structure. They merely fill with water and inflate, like balloons filling with air. Crazy huh?
Oh and there’s a type of fungus that invades the head of a certain caterpillar and when it sprouts it shoot straight up and basically hollows out the caterpillar; absorbing its entire insides replacing it with mycelium. In parts of Asia this is a delicacy and mushroom and worm are collected and sold for hundreds and thousands of dollars, proving once again that Asians will eat practically anything.
In America though, mushrooming is a fringe thing, practiced by lunatics. Indeed when I told some people that I’d found some gorgeous chanterelles they looked at me like I grew another head and said that wild mushrooms were scary. True, many are, but once you come to know certain species, it’s very hard to be fooled by impostors and while I probably won’t join local clubs or forays I will continue to pick from the groves of chanterelles I’ve already found and keep my eyes peeled for the glorious hen of the woods.
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kind of thing in it, although after a while the litany of mushroom dishes and elbow-rubbing vignettes with mushroom “royalty” was a bit repetitive. Bone begins her book by telling us that she’s not much of an outdoors woman (and boy does it show later), but that by finding, eating and loving some wild mushrooms she found (or maybe it was someone else) she bit the bullet and started sleeping in tents in the middle of nowhere so she could find more. I only hunt mushrooms for food casually. Most of my mushroom fascination goes into photography not my kitchen. But I admit I got a bit entranced by her description of candy caps and the fabled matsutake. Some of the chapters went on a bit too long, like truffles and her brush with the “magic mushroom people”, but overall it’s breezy, diverse and interesting.
So what did I learn from this book? That the reason I found so many varieties and specimens in an old growth forest is because of the symbiotic relationship mycorrhizal mushrooms and trees have. Older, established trees have had the time to accumulate a large and intricate network of fungus underground. Through this webbing and their own roots they can better do things like nutrient uptake. If a forest is logged heavily too many trees die and the mycorrhizal network is damaged or destroyed, leaving saplings to struggle and possibly die because of it. I already knew about the importance of fungi in soil from my connection to biodynamic farming and how many farmers are abandoning the traditional soil tillage methods for ones that don’t break up the fungus network. It’s more labor intensive, but the soil is a much better substrate for whatever they plant.
I also learned that mushrooms, the fruiting bodies of fungus, don’t grow so much as expand. The cells of a mushroom are fixed as soon as it forms. From button stage to disintegration, no cells are added to the structure. They merely fill with water and inflate, like balloons filling with air. Crazy huh?
Oh and there’s a type of fungus that invades the head of a certain caterpillar and when it sprouts it shoot straight up and basically hollows out the caterpillar; absorbing its entire insides replacing it with mycelium. In parts of Asia this is a delicacy and mushroom and worm are collected and sold for hundreds and thousands of dollars, proving once again that Asians will eat practically anything.
In America though, mushrooming is a fringe thing, practiced by lunatics. Indeed when I told some people that I’d found some gorgeous chanterelles they looked at me like I grew another head and said that wild mushrooms were scary. True, many are, but once you come to know certain species, it’s very hard to be fooled by impostors and while I probably won’t join local clubs or forays I will continue to pick from the groves of chanterelles I’ve already found and keep my eyes peeled for the glorious hen of the woods.
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LibraryThing member rivkat
Chatty tour through mushrooms with a focus on edible mushrooms and the people who collect them. I would’ve appreciated a bit more science and a bit less about her mushroom collecting fandom/travels, though it was funny to distinguish the scientists from the “belly” fans, that is, those whose
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main interest was eating mushrooms. Show Less
LibraryThing member Tod_Christianson
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is written by a journalist who became infatuated with mushrooms. The book is well paced, well researched and lively. The author does not skimp on technical detail but mixes in lots of human interest and interesting personalities. An excellent survey of Mycology, the
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psychology of the mycophile, the sociology of mycophiles and the economics of fungi. Show Less
LibraryThing member PennyMck
A fascinating, very readable look at mushrooms in all their forms - from edible to medicinal to mycoremediation to evolution.
LibraryThing member PickledOnion42
An interesting exploration of the mycological community, focussing more on the social aspect than the scientific. Contrary to a ludicrously hyperbolic blurb by Gary Lincoff I did not find Mycophilia to be the "most engrossing . . . book about mushrooms and the science of mycology I have ever read",
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but it is by no means bad. In all, Mycophilia offers a rare insight into the American mycological subculture and a general all-round account of the fungal kingdom (from mycotechnology to magic mushrooms and health, etc.) but if it is mycological science you're looking for this is not the book for you. Show Less
LibraryThing member norabelle414
This was a good choice for a book club as it touched slightly on a lot of different aspects of mushrooms. It definitely made me want to learn more about the biology but I got all I needed about food and mushroom foraging culture. The chapter about mushroom foragers was weirdly racist. The chapter
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about using mushrooms to lose weight was very eating-disorder-y. Unexpectedly I got the most out of the chapter about psychedelics, because the author was a skeptic and her experience as described was interesting but not really life-changing. That’s much more interesting to me than people who are very enthusiastic. I wish there were more diagrams of mushrooms, instead of just blurry black-and-white photographs. I did learn some fun facts and I will definitely be seeking out more books about mushrooms, but not more books about this author (who I'm sure is a very good food writer). Show Less