The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
by Samuel Thayer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Samuel ThayerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-05-15
ISBN: 0976626608
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Forager's Harvest Press
Book Reviews of The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
Book Review: Hopefully, this will be a Trend-setter
Summary: 5 Stars
A field guide is a book written to include as many different species as possible from a specific or broad region, with the most basic information on identification as possible, and a uselessly broad idea of what to do with the plants when you find them.
This book is not a field guide, at least not in that sense. If that's what you're looking for, Peterson's field guide on Edible Wild Plants is a popular option - just be certain its for the region you're looking for. That comes in two flavors for the US - Eastern /Central US, and Western US. The same hold true of Peterson's guides to Medicinal Wild Plants.
Thayer addresses these books in his introduction, and my experience bears out his claims as honest: those and other field guides are compiled by people who have not even seen all of the plants listed in their books, nor do they adequately communicate the experience of the sources they cite with actually eating the food. Lists such as this are wonderful for Birdwatching, but we might need to be more careful with what we put into our bodies.
If you want a more narrative book, this is still not the book for you. Several books from Euell Gibbons, such as the popular "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" are a memoirs about that author's experiences with wild food and cultural research surrounding them. This will deal with the fewest types of plants, but for an enthusiast, it is well worth the read.
Down the middle, we find Thayer's "The Forager's Harvest" and the follow up, "Nature's Garden". Most plants covered in each span literally from coast to coast. No, special areas like Deserts are not covered, but most states in the US and even Southern Canada will find plenty to work with. Thayer thoroughly covers each plant from his own experiences. This includes information on fern fiddleheads that I haven't seen anywhere else but that was incredibly useful this past spring, from "A Forager's Harvest".
In this book, Thayer starts with some guidelines on how to process and store the wild foods discussed later in his book. Some of this includes drying and canning equipment, and even grain milling... everything you need if you wish to live off of wild foods year round, or simply save a few natural luxuries for later.
Thayer includes full color photographs for ease of identification, not sketches. These pictures include the parts of the plant he instructs the reader to harvest, and the time of year to harvest what part of the plant. On plants where he ran into trouble with misidentifications, he shows comparisons, and shows how to distinguish the edible plant from the otherwise indistinguishable, inedible plants. His information on safety is indispensable - where he says that cooking the otherwise poisonous Stinging Nettle makes it edible, I've found it trustworthy. All of this is in the entry for the plant. Thayer also includes a useful chart to discern what plants in his book are in season during what parts of the year.
Doing all of this with an entire field guide's worth of plants would require an encyclopedia dedicated to the subject.
For *anyone* looking to expand their Wildcrafting library, I would personally recommend this book as the first of at least three books to purchase. The second would be "Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate" by Dr. John Kallas, and the third would be Thayer's own "Nature's Garden". Especially for beginners or those who are looking for plants they've overlooked, Nature's Garden comes first - his stated goal was to go against the trend in Wild Food books that look for quick and easy snacks, and instead focus on food that requires some effort, but that can contribute toward filling meals. A nutritionist, Dr. Kallas wrote his text as another relatively complete guide to a host of practical, healthy plants - mainly greens. In "Nature's Garden", Thayer returns to discuss a mix of greens, nuts and berries with the same measure of care as he did in "A Forager's Harvest".
I cannot recommend these *three* books any less. For further reading, try to find a text that is specifically for your locale - your region in the US, your State, and your locale. The more specific it is, the more rare, but useful. Also, refer to Thayer's lists in his books, and on his website: [...]
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Summary of The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
A practical guide to all aspects of edible wild plants: finding and identifying them, their seasons of harvest, and their methods of collection and preparation. Each plant is discussed in great detail and accompanied by excellent color photographs. Includes an index, illustrated glossary, bibliography, and harvest calendar. The perfect guide for all experience levels.Home & Garden Books
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