Diane Borsato, Kelsey Oseid | Mushrooming

Diane Borsato, Kelsey Oseid

Mushrooming: The Joy of the Quiet Hunt – An Illustrated Guide to the Fascinating, the Delicious, the Deadly and the Strange

New York City, USA: The Experiment, 2022

240 pp., 6.75 x 8.75", hardcover

Edition size unknown

One of the first friends to visit after we moved to New Brunswick was Diane Borsato, who was flown in to give a talk to students at Mount Alison University. Afterwards, we walked together into town with her while she conveying her shock that we were comfortable living somewhere so small. She asked about access to groceries and we said that we had two stores in town and several larger options in Nova Scotia, ten minutes away. 

She asked if there were any foods we just couldn't find. Roula answered that we missed oyster mushrooms. Diane said "You mean like those?" and pointed to a tree by the side of the road - not ten feet away - that was covered in them. She crouched down and collected some, wrapping them in a napkin and storing them in her purse. Later she advised that we try a small amount to ensure that they were safe. 

Mushrooming: The Joy of the Quiet Hunt is the result of many years of  intensive (often hands-on) research by Borsato. The book is filled with insights, anecdotes and details about more than 120 fungi from across the northern hemisphere, in forests, parks and grocery stores. 

Borsato examines Mushrooms as food, hallucinogenic, aphrodisiac and event and her charming stories are accompanied by illustrations by Kelsey Oseid.

"Fungi are an order so mysterious they push our wonder and horror buttons simultaneously. In Mushrooming, Diane Borsato uses her radical curiosity to consider what they have to teach us about interconnection, the diversity of life, and the wildly creative possibilities of risk and attention."

– Shary Boyle