There's always room for mushrooms.

October has arrived and the hot weather is waning. The falling leaves are tinted in warm hues of yellow, orange, and red. I know it won't be long until the excitement of the new cookbook season grabs a hold of me. It is very entertaining to see what new books will be hitting the shelves in time for the busy holiday season. To start off the fun I chose the new book from the guys over at 10 Speed Press. I already own a number of their publications, and I have always been happy with each book's layout and the in-depth content, so you pretty much cannot go wrong with their books. The title of this latest entry is Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast.

Almost 600 pages dedicated to the wonderful albeit complicated taxonomy of Coastal Northern California and Oregon wild mushrooms. Over 750 species are described, from the common varieties to more rarer finds. The book is filled with clear and colorful photographs of each mushroom, the book is an instant must-have for anyone looking to brave the elements for wild mushrooms. Each fungi has information about color, smell, texture for identification purposes, as well as edibility notes. If you plan to eat mushrooms you have found in the wild, it is paramount to make sure that the mushroom is indeed safe to consume. For this reason alone, this book is indispensable. It does not read like a typical cookbook, and in fact contains no recipes. It is more of a concentrated focus on location and identification in the most thorough manner.

I have always fantasized about visiting a forest that had endured a wildfire in the previous year, as they say this is when you will find an abundance of wild morel mushrooms. I have yet to pull the trigger on such an excursion, because I did not have an accurate guidebook. Now, with this text in hand, I feel much more confident that I could identify edible varieties and steer clear of the poisonous types. It includes tips on locating mushrooms with descriptions of specific habitats, and presents the material in a user-friendly guide. Sure, this book will not exactly have mass-appeal, however if you are looking to forage in the forest this is the book for you.