Project Mushroom is a well written, graphically attractive monograph on the culture of fungi by Jodie Bryan and Lorraine Caley, under the auspices of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Released 7th May 2024 by Quarto on their Frances Lincoln imprint, it's 192 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

The authors are experts at growing mushrooms on locally sourced substrate. They provide mushroom spawn in kits and dowels to home growers along with FAQ and support to help their customers succeed with growing projects. The book does a good job of showing interested newcomers how to go from wanting to grow mushrooms to actually succeeding and harvesting fungi to use.

The book starts with an introduction and scientifically accurate (but not overwhelming) history of humans and mushroom life cycles. The second, most substantial part of the book contains tutorial projects for indoor and outdoor cultivation and a dizzying array of beautiful mushrooms. The culture tutorials are surprisingly nicely aesthetic, especially the indoor ones, and look more like pampered houseplants than strictly utilitarian culinary items.

Four and a half stars. This is definitely a niche gardening sideline, but would make an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home library, self-sufficiency and smallholding folks, and for gift giving.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

Perfect for any mushroom enthusiast. My daughter loved it. Everything to need to know and more. Tips and tricks, and things to do . Perfect.

This book is surprisingly full of really helpful information, tips, and gorgeous pictures in under 100 pages! It is great for someone new to the world of mushrooms but also has information for more experienced folks! I love the project ideas - so many!

A beautiful and informative book on mushrooms! As someone who became obsessed with mushroom hunting and foraging over the past few years, I devoured all the facts, information and ideas. I am so excited to try out some of these projects such as growing a mushroom book, cultivating seed pods and drying mushrooms. Creating my own mushroom seasoning is number one on my list of things to try from this book. Who am I kidding? I want to try everything in this book! The step by step instructions and photos are easy to follow and do not look complicated at all.

I am grateful to the publisher and authors for providing an advanced copy to read and review. I will 100% be buying this for my library when it is released.

Tohank you to NetGalley and the publishe for an advanced copy of Project Mushroom by Lorraine Caley and Jodie Bryan. All opinions are my own.

This book explores how to grow, identify, and cook your own mushrooms. I learned a lot that I otherwise wouldn't have known about. Very interesting!