Books: Foraging & Mushrooms

Discovering the Mosses and Other Bryophytes of Quebec is the very first introductory guide to the mosses of Quebec. An essential book for all nature lovers, curious to discover a world of unsuspected beauty!

These small plants can be found everywhere: under our feet, on rocks, on decaying wood, on tree bark and even in urban areas, between the gaps in sidewalks or on the roof of a shed! Intended for beginners, this guide describes 64 species that are relatively easy to identify in the field.

This book provides information on;

• The anatomy and life cycle of bryophytes
• The differences between bryophytes and other plants
• The different habitats of bryophytes
• Their roles and uses
• The way to observe them

A guide filled with accessible text and anecdotes, accompanied by numerous photos and a watercolor illustration for each species covered. It also includes a photographic index organized by bryophyte type and habitat.

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Author: Quebec Bryology Society *
Publisher: Naturat Editions
Dimensions: 16.5 x 22 cm (6.5 x 9 in)
Page: 250, color
Publication date: October 2022
ISBN: 9782981804983

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The Quebec Bryology Society is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote scientific activities related to bryology. The writing and illustration team is composed of six bryologists:

• Nils Ambec
• Marion Barbé
• Carole Beauchesne
• Marc Favreau
• Robert Gauthier
• Martine Lapointe

Edible and medicinal plants of the boreal forest and the benefits of chaga brings together the most up-to-date knowledge on 64 plants of the boreal forest as well as on chaga, a parasitic fungus of birch.

Edible and medicinal plants of the boreal forest and the benefits of chaga is the most complete work to date on the subject; it allows you to return to the source and to enjoy autonomously, summer and winter, the virtues of plants and chaga.

In this work, the author pays homage to the indigenous people, our European ancestors and our grandmothers, who used these plants before us, when the nature that surrounded them was both their pantry and their pharmacy.

You will discover;

• Updated knowledge about medicinal plants,
• Recipes using medicinal plants, tested and proven by a herbalist.
• Several original ways to cook edible plants and prepare chaga,
• Suggestions for harvesting, preserving and using plants and chaga.

Case sheet

Author: Roger Larivière
Publisher: Naturat (Quebec, Canada)
Publication date: April 2020
Pages: 258
ISBN: 978-2-9818049-2-1
Language: French

Following the immense success of the book "Forêt" which sold over 50,000 copies, here is its companion which will accompany the reader on their walks in nature!

Picking the Forest is a practical and compact identification guide to slip into your backpack.

It contains more than 100 detailed fact sheets and more than 300 photographs of wild plants at different stages of their growth, allowing you to identify, pick and eat the hidden treasures of Quebec's forest terroir. 

Author(s):

Journalist and presenter Ariane Paré-Le Gal left the city with her family to start a new life in the forest. With her father, Gérald Le Gal, a woodsman for over 50 years and founder of the company Gourmet Sauvage, she leads foraging and cooking workshops to introduce the public to the abundance of edible plants found in the area.

Gérald Le Gal has held a wide variety of jobs in Quebec, across Canada, and abroad. In 1993, he founded Gourmet Sauvage, a pioneering wild product harvesting and processing company. Still active within the company, Gérald is also involved in numerous committees working for sustainable forest development, gives many lectures, continues to train professional harvesters and the public, and makes a significant contribution to the growth of the NTFP (non-timber forest products) industry by sharing the expertise he has acquired.

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Authors: Ariane Paré-Le Gal, Gérald Le Gal
Edition: Cardinal
Publication date: April 25, 2022
Pages: 480
ISBN: 978-2-9250-7844-9
Language: French
Cover: Soft
Size: 14.6 cm x 22.3 cm

Since fungi are indispensable allies in this interconnected nature, this guide should bring about changes in agricultural and forestry practices.

This field guide to the birds and plants of the boreal forest is designed for hikers exploring this vast vegetation zone. Compact and water-resistant, it is the ideal companion for those who wish to quickly identify the plants and birds frequently encountered in forest or wetland environments, particularly the species of Abitibi in Quebec.

It presents the following information;

• 136 high-quality photographs
• 64 species of birds and 72 species of plants
• Common, scientific and family names
• Habitats
• Bird size

Fact sheet

Author: Roger Larivière and the Ornithological Leisure Society of
Abitibi (SLOA).
Publisher: L'ABC de l'édition (Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada)
Publication date: May 2015
Size: 36cm × 8.13cm
ISBN: 978-2-922952-59-9
Language: French and English

In this practical guide, horticulturist and epicurean Hélène Baril describes in detail the characteristics of several herbs and edible flowers adapted to the Quebec climate. You will learn how to make the right choice according to your needs or the available space (flowerbed, pot, vegetable garden, balcony, etc.). You will also find information on ecological cultivation methods, companion planting, and urban gardening.

In this practical guide, horticulturist and epicurean Hélène Baril describes in detail the characteristics of several herbs and edible flowers adapted to the Quebec climate. You will learn how to make the right choice according to your needs or the available space (flowerbed, pot, vegetable garden, balcony, etc.). You will also find information on ecological cultivation methods, companion planting, and urban gardening.

In the kitchen, the author shares her tips for harvesting and preserving herbs and flowers, and offers a few simple and delicious recipes. " Fines herbes et fleurs comestibles du Québec" (Quebec's Edible Herbs and Flowers) invites you to enjoy the pleasures of growing and savoring edible herbs and flowers year-round.

Hélène Baril is a graduate of the Montreal Botanical Garden's School of Horticulture. A trainer and lecturer, notably for the Quebec Federation of Horticultural and Ecological Societies, she is also a columnist and landscape design consultant. She coordinated the writing of the Sélection Passions Jardins guide and authored *Plantes décoratifs pour patio et balcon * and *Fines herbes et fleurs comestibles pour les jardiniers gourmands* (Bertrand Dumont publisher).

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Author: Hélène Baril
Edition: Broquet
Publication date: 2023-01-03
Size: 15.5 cm x 23.0 cm
Pages: 192
Binding: Softcover
ISBN: 9782896547562
Language: French

The best flower and food pairings are also offered through surprising recipes. Floral meals bring summer to your plate all year round!

Flowers aren't just decorative; they also possess culinary qualities and unparalleled health benefits. How about spring rolls with a thousand petals? Daylily bundles filled with shrimp mousse? Or perhaps you'd prefer roasted salmon with thyme blossoms, and to finish your meal, geranium flower cupcakes?

This guide is a treasure trove of tips to help you grow your own edible flowers for a healthy, pesticide-free harvest. It allows you to identify the edible parts of over 250 flowers that can be cultivated or harvested in our fields and forests.

The best flower and food pairings are also offered through surprising recipes. Floral meals bring summer to your plate all year round!

You can read an excerpt by clicking here: Excerpt from the book Flowers on Your Plate

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Author: Nathalie Beaudoin
Publisher: MultiMondes Publishing
Dimensions: x cm (x in)
Page: 274, color
Publication date: 2018-04
ISBN: 9782897730871
Language: French

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WILD EDIBLE AND MEDICINAL PLANTS OF QUEBEC is a guide to harvesting and preserving more than
100 plants commonly used in Quebec!

Target clientele:

• Whether you're a beginner or an experienced forager
• Herbalists
• Liquor producers and microbrewery owners
• All those curious and eager to discover the riches of our forests, our lawns, our saltwater and freshwater environments. Particular emphasis is placed on the sharing of knowledge between First Nations and early settlers in the 15th century.

Fact sheet

Author: Roger Larivière
Publisher: Naturat (Quebec, Canada)
Publication date: October 2021
Pages: 96
ISBN: 978-2-9818049-7-6
Language: French

FOREST is a reinvented identification guide that offers, in a single volume, all the keys to rediscovering the forgotten treasures of our wild landscape, a veritable larder. Practical and poetic, this bible of Quebec's edible plants contains over 100 beautifully illustrated entries and just as many inspiring recipes for preparing forest delicacies.

While local food is a hot topic and the "farm-to-table" concept is all the rage in the restaurant industry, the riches hidden within our boreal forest remain largely unknown. Two years ago, journalist Ariane Paré-Le Gal left the city with her family to start a new life in the heart of nature and join Gourmet Sauvage, a company founded by her father, Gérald Le Gal. Together, they transform forest products, offer foraging and cooking workshops, and contribute to education and the sharing of their knowledge through the media. Both practical and poetic, this comprehensive guide to wild edible plants contains over 150 illustrated entries, photos that invite you to immerse yourself in the forest, a foraging calendar, and insightful reflections on our relationship with food and nature.

Author: Ariane Paré-Le Gal
Publication date: May 2019
Publisher: Cardinal
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9782924646458

If you don't aspire to become a mushroom expert but simply want to learn how to recognize the best-tasting and easiest-to-identify species, this book is for you. This little guide will introduce you to a fascinating world of shapes, colors, and, even more interestingly, flavors.

Interest in wild mushrooms is growing. However, it's not always easy to distinguish between dangerous and edible species. If you don't want to become a mushroom expert, but simply want to learn how to recognize the best-tasting and easiest-to-identify varieties, this book is for you. As for its name, after tasting the same mushroom several times, you'll eventually remember it. This book was designed to simplify the search for and identification of wild mushrooms. With the help of 220 highly accurate color photos, Mr. Leclerc explains how to easily navigate these pages and identify about fifty different wild mushrooms. Learn where, when, and how to pick them. Furthermore, the author explains how to prepare, dehydrate, dry, freeze, and enjoy mushrooms.

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Author: Yvon Leclerc
Edition: Broquet
Publication date: 2021-10-19
Size: 12.5 cm x 20.5 cm
Pages: 140
Binding: Softcover
ISBN: 9782896546947
Language: French

CHAGA IN REAL LIFE, abundantly illustrated, gives the right time on this parasite of the birch and presents current scientific knowledge on the fungus, thus showing that NATURAL and CHEMICAL are allies.

CHAGA EN VRAI aims to reassure consumers, who are increasingly numerous, to inform pickers and to nuance the discourse of sellers.

Its adapted content is accessible to three types of readers:

• those looking for a book
  popularized;
• those who possess knowledge
  in biology and chemistry;
• those who know about it well
  in biochemistry.

CHAGA EN VRAI provides precise answers to several questions:

1. How and when to harvest chaga?
2. How to prepare and store it?
3. What are the potential effects of its
   Therapeutic molecules?
4. Is chaga also good for
   Dogs?

Fact sheet

Author: Roger Larivière
Publisher: L'ABC de l'édition (Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada)
Publication date: May 2017
Pages: 180
ISBN: 978-2-924691-07-6
Language: French

From spring to winter, picking wild plants means learning about them, getting closer to nature and enriching your daily life with healthy, local and tasty products.

Often considered "weeds," they are actually precious, interesting… and useful! One by one, Isabelle tells us about them, presenting the characteristics that allow us to identify them, their history, and their benefits. She explains how to harvest them respectfully and gives, for each one, different suggestions for use, with one or more recipes.

From spring to winter, picking wild plants means learning about them, getting closer to nature and enriching your daily life with healthy, local and tasty products.

Originally from the Lower St. Lawrence region, Isabelle Simard inherited ancestral traditions and developed a passion for the plants around her from a young age. Discovering that not everyone was as fortunate as she was, she shares her knowledge and expertise with disarming simplicity. This book, inspired by her outings throughout the seasons, brings together some sixty plants that grow wild across Quebec.

Often considered "weeds," they are actually precious, interesting… and useful! One by one, Isabelle tells us about them, presenting the characteristics that allow us to identify them, their history, and their benefits. She explains how to harvest them respectfully and gives, for each one, different suggestions for use, with one or more recipes.

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Author: Isabelle Simard
Publisher: Flammarion Québec
Publication date: 2023-09-07
Size: 16.5 cm x 21.0 cm
Pages: 256
Binding: Softcover
ISBN: 9782898111198
Language: French

Aimed at both novice and experienced foragers, this book has all the qualities of the perfect guide: easy to consult, it offers an overview of each edible plant through detailed descriptions and color photographs.

Furthermore, the author suggests ideas for cooking the collected specimens and identifies poisonous plants to avoid. This is an essential tool to keep in your backpack!

Laurence Burton

Laurence Burton is passionate about edible wild plants. Trained in foraging at several renowned schools in Quebec, the United States, and France, this professional forager founded and now runs the company Un goût de forêt (A Taste of the Forest) , whose mission is to introduce people to the edible, medicinal, and survival-related wild plants of Quebec. Here, she presents a comprehensive field guide on the identification, ethical harvesting, and conservation of 70 of these plants found in our forests and along our coastlines.

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Author: Laurence Burton
Publisher: Les Éditions de l'Homme
Dimensions: 16.5 x 20.5 cm (6.5 x 8 in)
Page: 304, color
Publication date: April 27, 2022
ISBN: 9782761957854

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From marsh to peat bog, from pond to seashore, a diverse and often unsuspected flora supports an essential biodiversity.

Set off to discover a rich and precious environment

From marsh to peat bog, from pond to seashore, a diverse and often unsuspected flora supports an essential biodiversity.

• The ideal guide for both nature lovers and specialists seeking an inventory
• More than 300 well-documented species identification sheets (size, habit, leaves, flowers, fruits, habitat, distribution, notes)
• High-quality color photos and illustrations
• A clear description of the different wetland environments and their ecology
• An explanatory section on plant morphology
• A comparative gallery of flowers by color

Martine Lapointe has worked in university research and forestry teaching for over 20 years. An active member of FloraQuebeca for many years, she was an early contributor to the Flora of Bryophytes of Quebec-Labrador. Her talent as a nature photographer enriches a variety of publications.

The book also benefits from the valuable collaboration of Michel Leboeuf, science popularizer and recipient of the Hubert-Reeves prize, and Arold Lavoie, biologist and expert consultant in botany.

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Author: Martine Lapointe
Publication date: April 2014
Publisher: Quintin Michel
ISBN: 9782894356029

The new edition of Phillips' Mushroom Guide contains the completely updated nomenclature. Indeed, since the last edition of this guide, several French and Latin names have changed.

Since fungi are indispensable allies in this interconnected nature, this guide should bring about changes in agricultural and forestry practices.

This book owes its success to:

• • its practical and compact format
  • its ecological approach
  • several photos of the same species, taken at different ages and in the wild
  • simplified texts that greatly facilitate the identification of 50 edible mushrooms with the naked eye.

New features of this 2nd edition ;

• changes in a number of species
• section on look-alikes, those fungi that can fool beginners
• tried and tested recipes that are easy to make

The 50 mushrooms are also found in the deciduous forest dominated by sugar maple.

You can read the argument sheet by clicking here: Argument Sheet

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Author: Roger Larivière
Publisher: Naturat (Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada)
Publication date: October 2020
Pages: 256 in color
ISBN: 978-2-9818049-5-2
Language: French

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The Secret Life of Fungi is not an identification guide, but rather a passport to understanding a hidden dimension of the world. It also reveals the true nature of these living entities, which sometimes take on unusual, even strange, forms.

Fungi are one of the three higher life forms on the planet, along with plants and animals. They didn't just appear out of nowhere: they began spreading throughout all ecosystems, from forests to our own bodies, 450 billion years ago. Fungi are essential ecological partners. Nearly 90% of plants live in symbiosis with them. And this cohabitation takes us back to the very first moments of botanical and animal life on Earth. A fossil recently unearthed in Saudi Arabia has shown that the ancestors of fungi could then surpass the height of trees, reaching six meters with trunks a meter in circumference. Biologists are now convinced that plants were able to colonize the Earth's continents solely thanks to fungi. The Secret Life of Fungi is not an identification guide, but rather a passport to understanding a hidden dimension of the world. It also reveals the true nature of these living entities, which sometimes take on unusual, even strange, forms.

The Great Book of Mushrooms of Quebec and Eastern Canada is a true bible that will satisfy both the beginner looking for easy-to-recognize edible species and the experienced mycologist.

Over the years, The Great Book of Mushrooms of Quebec and Eastern Canada has become the definitive reference work, a veritable bible that will satisfy both the beginner looking for easily identifiable edible species and the experienced mycologist wanting to delve deeper into their research. This updated edition presents over 1,200 mushroom species with numerous new photographs, and most importantly, a new classification system that makes it easy to consult. This division of species into 22 groups based on common characteristics visible to the naked eye has already been successfully adopted by many mycological societies both locally and internationally.

The book opens with a practical visual guide to the main types of mushrooms covered, then delves into their history, classification, identification, harvesting, and consumption. Each mushroom is then presented in a comprehensive entry describing its macroscopic (cap, gills, stem, flesh color and flavor) and microscopic characteristics, habitat, season, abundance, and edibility.

A tireless researcher, Raymond McNeil dedicated his life to raising awareness of the natural world around us, influencing the work of generations of biologists and managers in North America. Author of nearly 150 publications in specialized journals, he served as director of the Montreal Centre for Ecological Research (CREM) and later as director of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Montreal for several years. Now retired with the title of professor emeritus, he has devoted himself to a lifelong passion: mycology. This book is the culmination of over forty years of observation and involvement, including his time on the board of directors of the Montreal Mycological Society, where he served as president. It undoubtedly represents an invaluable legacy for future generations.

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Author: Raumond McNeil
Publication date: March 2019
Publisher: Quintin Michel
ISBN: 9782897623012

This is the perfect field guide for any wild mushroom enthusiast.

With over 500 species illustrated and described in detail, this guide to the mushrooms of Quebec is the most comprehensive ever published. The illustrations show, for each mushroom, a cross-section of a specimen as well as several views from different angles and at different stages of the mushroom's development, greatly facilitating identification.

With over 500 species illustrated and described in detail, this guide to the mushrooms of Quebec is the most comprehensive ever published. For each mushroom, the illustrations show a cross-section of a specimen as well as several views from different angles and at various stages of development, greatly facilitating identification. Mushrooms form a large and highly diverse group of organisms, and although this book focuses on the larger varieties, it still offers an incredible selection. After browsing these pages, you will have a general idea of ​​the diversity of the illustrated species, and novices can learn to identify them using the accompanying photographs and identification keys. Even for an expert, correctly identifying a collection of mushrooms is a very delicate task. Consequently, when you decide to consume any of the specimens you pick, you must be absolutely certain of their identification. You can use this book to compare your mushroom with the illustration of the specimen you believe you have found.

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Author: Roger Phillips
Edition: Broquet
Publication date: 2002-06-26
Format:
Pages: 336
Binding: Softcover
ISBN: 9782890005556
Language: French

In an improved edition, this is the perfect book for all nature lovers and gourmets who wish to safely experience the gastronomy of wild mushrooms without having to become specialists.

In an improved edition, this is the perfect book for all nature lovers and gourmets who wish to safely experience the gastronomy of wild mushrooms without having to become specialists.

• Clear information to differentiate between species to eat and those to avoid.
• Detailed fact sheets presenting an abundant selection of edible mushrooms: description, distinguishing characteristics, best places and times for picking, preparation...
• Fascinating photos, many of which are previously unpublished.
• Tempting recipes.
• A practical visual identification key.

Author or co-author of several books and educational materials on mushrooms, Jean Després is an emeritus member of the Montreal Mycological Society. He is also recognized for his talents as a photographer and lecturer.

Author: Jean Desprès
Publication date: May 2017
Publisher: Quintin Michel
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9782897620950 (2897620951)