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The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants :: 0976626608
Description
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| 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. Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
Reviews
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Author: Guest
I am a botanist and I'm in love with this book. Admittedly, it treats only a few dozen plants, but each is described in detail, with methods of distinguishing it in the field from similar species, harvesting, and preparing it. Numerous color photos are very useful. There are good general discussions of plant identification, harvesting, and preservation. The author complains about previous edible plant references, which exhaustively list hundreds of plants but give inadequate information on each, and frequently recycle information from previous literature, allowing misinformation to creep in (an undeniable problem). Thayer proposes that writers on edible plants should provide only information from their own experience or else specifically referenced information, a praiseworthy code of conduct and one that really makes this book shine. When he gives you detailed instructions for when and how to gather and prepare a plant, you know that he's actually done it himself and it worked. I like his standards for the plants as well: Food should taste good! If it doesn't taste good, he says, don't eat it! So, while other books provide long lists of "survival foods" that would gag a goat, Thayer discusses only the plants that he actually enjoys eating. He tells you what sort of quality to expect in the final products, and whether they will be worth the work you put into them. The only volume I can recall seeing of remotely similar quality was Steve Brill's book, which dealt with a different set of plants (emphasizing the common "weedy" species that Thayer is not particularly interested in), so if you already have Brill, you can buy this too. Otherwise, if you want to start learning to use edible wild plants, start with this volume.
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Author: Guest
This book is very well written and is very good for the novice as well as the experienced forager. It offers detailed description of how to identify and harvest a select number of plants. It doesn't overwhelm a neophyte with too many plants while it provides enough to capture their interest. The photos of the actual plants and the parts that are edible add to its attractiveness to wild food enthusiasts. In addition to all this it offers methods of preparation explaining how to avoid mistakes that may leave some of these foods inpalatable. Another helpful part of the book is that it tells the reader the season in which to forage and where to find them. My husband and I are both wild food enthusiasts and began our life together foraging wild foods as graduate students with Euell Gibbons' book, "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" since it was the only one available that we could afford at the time. We have continued to add to our collection of wild food books and we think that Sam Thayer is today's new version of Euell Gibbons and that his book is a must for all wild foods enthusiasts.
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Author: Guest
I have 3 books on wild food foraging, including Angier's Wild Edibles and Gibbons Stalking the Wild Asparagus. Both those books are very good for plant details except they rely on hand drawn depictions for the plants, which it makes them close to useless for accurate identification. Forager's Harvest is the BEST book of the three for getting a beginner started. Lots and lots of nice color photographs of the plants. When choosing a book in getting started in foraging, you must have color photographs, there is no substitute.
Forager's Harvest, unlike Gibbons and Angier books, does not overwhelm the reader with large numbers of edible plants, choosing to focus on a lower but still fairly good number of readily found and easily identitified plants for foraging. This increases the reader confidence and starts them off gradually.
If you are starting out in foraging, this is the book you should get. If you are botanist and have no problems identifying plants them Gibbons or Angier books might suit you better. As I am a beginner, I can say that of the three books, Forager's Harvest if the book that I will be using in my plant foraging expeditions. I wish I had gotten this book first.
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Author: Guest
Not since Euell Gibbons has an author approached the topic of wild foods with this degree of authority, precision, and personality.
Forager's Harvest is appropriate for experienced and novice foragers alike. The layout is very accessible; the book begins with a couple introductory chapters on foraging and tips for identification, safety, and harvesting, processing, and storing wild edibles. Thayer then offers detailed accounts of more than 30 plants, including technical and personal information in clear, understandable, and personal language. In a very user-friendly manner, Thayer explains much of botanical jargon--sometimes essential for accurate plant identification--that might confuse beginners (there is an excellent glossary with several illustrations). The pictures (many included for each plant) are exceptional in quality and purpose. Above all, the book is a good read; the information is excellent and often entertaining as Thayer is not afraid to reveal a little of his wit and personality through The Forager's Harvest.
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