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Gathered: On Foraging, Feasting, and the Seasonal Life
From “The Internet’s Mushroom Auntie,” a stunning memoir and illustrated field guide with recipes that shows us how to find ourselves through the edible wild world all around us.
Foraging is becoming increasingly popular, from TikTok to tasting menus at the most exclusive restaurants around the world. People are discovering that delicious wild edibles are waiting for us in our own backyards, led by champions such as Gabrielle Cerberville. Known as “The Chaotic Forager” online, Cerberville argues that foraging is the past, present, and future of food, and the key to unlocking a reciprocal relationship with the land that feeds us. Through learning to engage with the world of wild food, she contends, we can also build a kinder, more respectful relationship with ourselves.
Gathered is an adventure in foraging that awakens us to the beauty of the seasons and the world we live in, heightening our senses to the crunch of snow underfoot and the sharp prick of a thorny bramble. Season by season, Cerberville takes us along through winning harvests and missteps, introducing us to the beautiful complications of foraged edibles and the various ways to eat and prepare them in delicious recipes such as Chanterelle Peach Pie with Basil, Wild Blueberry Ginger Gimlets, and Pulled Hen of the Woods with Juneberry BBQ Sauce. Cerberville also chronicles indigenous practices of honoring the earth, and their own long road to self-discovery and acceptance.
With this book as a guide, readers will learn to find, identify, harvest, and process wild food to use in their own kitchens and develop a greater kinship with the natural world. A memoir with recipes, color photos, and illustrations throughout, Gathered is an invitation to move beyond our comfort zones, open our eyes, and dig into the earth.
Gathered contains 20 black-and-white photos and 30-40 full-color photos in a 32-page insert.
Foraging is becoming increasingly popular, from TikTok to tasting menus at the most exclusive restaurants around the world. People are discovering that delicious wild edibles are waiting for us in our own backyards, led by champions such as Gabrielle Cerberville. Known as “The Chaotic Forager” online, Cerberville argues that foraging is the past, present, and future of food, and the key to unlocking a reciprocal relationship with the land that feeds us. Through learning to engage with the world of wild food, she contends, we can also build a kinder, more respectful relationship with ourselves.
Gathered is an adventure in foraging that awakens us to the beauty of the seasons and the world we live in, heightening our senses to the crunch of snow underfoot and the sharp prick of a thorny bramble. Season by season, Cerberville takes us along through winning harvests and missteps, introducing us to the beautiful complications of foraged edibles and the various ways to eat and prepare them in delicious recipes such as Chanterelle Peach Pie with Basil, Wild Blueberry Ginger Gimlets, and Pulled Hen of the Woods with Juneberry BBQ Sauce. Cerberville also chronicles indigenous practices of honoring the earth, and their own long road to self-discovery and acceptance.
With this book as a guide, readers will learn to find, identify, harvest, and process wild food to use in their own kitchens and develop a greater kinship with the natural world. A memoir with recipes, color photos, and illustrations throughout, Gathered is an invitation to move beyond our comfort zones, open our eyes, and dig into the earth.
Gathered contains 20 black-and-white photos and 30-40 full-color photos in a 32-page insert.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published October 21, 2025
32 people are currently reading
4857 people want to read
About the author
Gabrielle Cerberville
1 book29 followersGabrielle Cerberville s a celebrated foraging educator, community mycologist, and climate advocate whose high-energy, humor-laced videos have attracted almost two million followers. Known online as the “Chaotic Forager” and affectionately dubbed the “Internet’s Mushroom Auntie,” she lectures, holds workshops, and guides forays across the United States, championing accessible, ethical relationships with wild food and fungi. Gabrielle is also a PhD student at the University of Virginia Department of Music, where her research in the Composition and Computer Technologies program explores how sound can deepen our dialogue with the natural world. Her debut book invites readers to reimagine taste, place, and responsibility.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 25, 2025
Gabrielle Cerberville has been foraging since she was a child, although she didn't know it was foraging then. She grew up in a homeschool family and was always outside exploring and that often meant picking wild berries. As an adult, she stumbles across some mushrooms and in trying to find out about them discovers they are edible, and that opens the door for her to foraging.
I'm in the minority here in that I didn't really like this book. I didn't know who she was before finding this book and I don't follow her on Instagram. Maybe if I was familiar with her, I would have anticipated her writing style more. Her foraging tips seem solid, but the overall book seemed all over the place to me. The book is organized seasonally with both foraging tips and recipes, but it's mostly stories of her personal foraging experiences. Her personal stories were written like the reader knows more backstory than we're given. They often seem to pick up in the middle of a situation or story that we don't know about so a lot of them felt kind of random or like you don't have enough information. There were also a couple chapters where one story was broken up throughout the chapter with other stories from different time periods mixed in which was confusing. Some of her foraging stories I enjoyed, some I did not. Many felt like she was trying a little too hard to be a hippie/Earth goddess type persona. Overall, I didn't love the book, but I do like that she is trying to bring more attention to foraging all year long.
I'm in the minority here in that I didn't really like this book. I didn't know who she was before finding this book and I don't follow her on Instagram. Maybe if I was familiar with her, I would have anticipated her writing style more. Her foraging tips seem solid, but the overall book seemed all over the place to me. The book is organized seasonally with both foraging tips and recipes, but it's mostly stories of her personal foraging experiences. Her personal stories were written like the reader knows more backstory than we're given. They often seem to pick up in the middle of a situation or story that we don't know about so a lot of them felt kind of random or like you don't have enough information. There were also a couple chapters where one story was broken up throughout the chapter with other stories from different time periods mixed in which was confusing. Some of her foraging stories I enjoyed, some I did not. Many felt like she was trying a little too hard to be a hippie/Earth goddess type persona. Overall, I didn't love the book, but I do like that she is trying to bring more attention to foraging all year long.
November 5, 2025
I first heard of Gabrielle Cerberville by randomly searching “mushroom foraging” while looking for a podcast on Spotify. I thought I’d learn some fun facts from the podcast, but I didn’t expect to get exactly the tip I needed to determine edibility and learn how to process the giant puffballs I had just found for the first time earlier that day. I immediately followed her on Instagram, saw that she had a book, and had to order it immediately.
I eagerly awaited her book’s arrival to my local bookstore, expecting that I would learn some additional tips for foraging, etc. And I did find that (exceeding all of my expectations), along with helpful hints for identification, a helpful glossary of foraging related terms, beautiful botanical drawings, and absolutely delicious sounding and inspired recipes using the plants and fungi she discusses. She provides tips for identifying plants and fungi that would be useful for a beginner as well as strategies that would be helpful for more seasoned foragers.
What I didn’t expect was how beautifully written the book would be! As a Reading teacher, I wouldn’t have expected a foraging book to possess the most beautiful writing I’ve read in a long time, and, yet… it does! This is a foraging guide and recipe book, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a stunning memoir with vignettes that chronicle a lifetime of her memories with different plants and fungi from various locations she has lived in her life, while also telling the story of her life through that lens. And it’s exceptionally done.
While reading, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own foraging firsts - finding wineberries and blackberries in my parents’ backyard and baking pies with them despite my mother’s warnings to leave them alone, finding a low lying plant with three leaves and red berries and discovering that it’s the same plant that is used to make teaberry gum, finding oyster mushrooms on my first mushroom foray just to be too shy to ask what they are (and watch as they got swept up by someone else), finding chicken of the woods at a nine acre dog park of all places, picking wild blueberries in Maine, using gardening gloves to pick stinging nettles for soup, snagging spicebush branches in a recycled Giant paper bag for tea, finding my first American persimmon, and so on and so forth. And I loved the opportunity to reflect on my own growth, even as a beginner, in a way that made me proud of my growing “banana confidence.”
Lastly, this book provides a thoughtful analysis of how to be good neighbors to our fellow plants and fungi, to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship with them, ensuring both of our continued survival. This is incredibly important and should be heeded!
Warning: the ending may make you cry! It did to me (in the best way, the kind that makes you want to tell everyone about the book just so you can talk about it), but reading this was an absolute joy. Highly recommend!
I eagerly awaited her book’s arrival to my local bookstore, expecting that I would learn some additional tips for foraging, etc. And I did find that (exceeding all of my expectations), along with helpful hints for identification, a helpful glossary of foraging related terms, beautiful botanical drawings, and absolutely delicious sounding and inspired recipes using the plants and fungi she discusses. She provides tips for identifying plants and fungi that would be useful for a beginner as well as strategies that would be helpful for more seasoned foragers.
What I didn’t expect was how beautifully written the book would be! As a Reading teacher, I wouldn’t have expected a foraging book to possess the most beautiful writing I’ve read in a long time, and, yet… it does! This is a foraging guide and recipe book, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a stunning memoir with vignettes that chronicle a lifetime of her memories with different plants and fungi from various locations she has lived in her life, while also telling the story of her life through that lens. And it’s exceptionally done.
While reading, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own foraging firsts - finding wineberries and blackberries in my parents’ backyard and baking pies with them despite my mother’s warnings to leave them alone, finding a low lying plant with three leaves and red berries and discovering that it’s the same plant that is used to make teaberry gum, finding oyster mushrooms on my first mushroom foray just to be too shy to ask what they are (and watch as they got swept up by someone else), finding chicken of the woods at a nine acre dog park of all places, picking wild blueberries in Maine, using gardening gloves to pick stinging nettles for soup, snagging spicebush branches in a recycled Giant paper bag for tea, finding my first American persimmon, and so on and so forth. And I loved the opportunity to reflect on my own growth, even as a beginner, in a way that made me proud of my growing “banana confidence.”
Lastly, this book provides a thoughtful analysis of how to be good neighbors to our fellow plants and fungi, to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship with them, ensuring both of our continued survival. This is incredibly important and should be heeded!
Warning: the ending may make you cry! It did to me (in the best way, the kind that makes you want to tell everyone about the book just so you can talk about it), but reading this was an absolute joy. Highly recommend!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 16, 2025
This hit exactly the right tone; it felt like a peaceful yet energetic walk in the woods with someone really passionate about sharing what they know about what they see around them. Part memoir, part field guide, part cookbook, part meditation. I’ve been dipping my toes into foraging over the past couple years, and it really inspired me to dive in deeper. While I found myself skimming the recipe sections a bit since much of what the author can find in her area isn’t present in mine, it still had the effect of making me want to learn more about what I can find in my local fields and forests, and how I can use and honor it.
November 3, 2025
Gathered is a love letter to the wilderness found within and without. Cerberville's enthusiasm is infectious, and foragers both new and seasoned will find a kindred spirit between these pages. Truly a delight.
October 31, 2025
Gabrielle is a wonderful storyteller and so eloquent in sharing her foraging adventures and expertise! She shares delicious recipes, provides gentle guidance to foraging for beginners, and beautifully recalls stories from her life. I highly recommend Gathered for anyone, whether you are an avid forager, someone who loves to venture outside, or a person who wants to learn more about connecting with nature in meaningful ways.
December 30, 2025
Thank you @harperbooks #partner for the free book 💖.
Foraging is the practice of finding wild foods—mushrooms, berries, nuts, edible plants—instead of buying or growing them. It’s about knowing what’s safe, gathering responsibly, and enjoying what nature offers. It’s trending from high-end restaurants to social media. I find it fascinating and a little adventurous, especially since I’ve always loved learning about food—how cooking evolved, how we figured out what’s edible… So this book grabbed me right away. I love learning about food and what people create… even though I hate cooking and just want to eat! 😂
Gabrielle believes that finding and cooking wild foods isn’t just about the meal, it’s about rebuilding a respectful, reciprocal relationship with the land and with ourselves. Her mindset actually reminded me of Marie Kondo’s approach to respecting the things and spaces around us (from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up).
Gabrielle offers a guide in memoir form, sharing her experiences with wild food and how foraging helped her reconnect with herself and the world around her-while showing us how to do the same. She takes us through a year of her life, including foraging wins and mishaps, personal stories, Indigenous wisdom, and plenty of recipes.
The concept might seem a bit out there for some people-maybe even a little risky—but I don't think there's anything wrong with going back to nature. Am I personally equipped for it? Not really. But as more people learn and master these practices, others will follow. Returning to seasonal eating, the way people lived before the Industrial Revolution and heavy food processing, feels like a step in the right direction.
The book is full of information,illustrations, recipes and tips, and it teaches readers how to identify, harvest, and cook wild edibles. It invites us to step outside, pay attention, and explore nature. Quite interesting!
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read if you like:
🍄Books as about food
🍄How to guides
🍄Going back to basics
🍄Trying new recipes
Foraging is the practice of finding wild foods—mushrooms, berries, nuts, edible plants—instead of buying or growing them. It’s about knowing what’s safe, gathering responsibly, and enjoying what nature offers. It’s trending from high-end restaurants to social media. I find it fascinating and a little adventurous, especially since I’ve always loved learning about food—how cooking evolved, how we figured out what’s edible… So this book grabbed me right away. I love learning about food and what people create… even though I hate cooking and just want to eat! 😂
Gabrielle believes that finding and cooking wild foods isn’t just about the meal, it’s about rebuilding a respectful, reciprocal relationship with the land and with ourselves. Her mindset actually reminded me of Marie Kondo’s approach to respecting the things and spaces around us (from The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up).
Gabrielle offers a guide in memoir form, sharing her experiences with wild food and how foraging helped her reconnect with herself and the world around her-while showing us how to do the same. She takes us through a year of her life, including foraging wins and mishaps, personal stories, Indigenous wisdom, and plenty of recipes.
The concept might seem a bit out there for some people-maybe even a little risky—but I don't think there's anything wrong with going back to nature. Am I personally equipped for it? Not really. But as more people learn and master these practices, others will follow. Returning to seasonal eating, the way people lived before the Industrial Revolution and heavy food processing, feels like a step in the right direction.
The book is full of information,illustrations, recipes and tips, and it teaches readers how to identify, harvest, and cook wild edibles. It invites us to step outside, pay attention, and explore nature. Quite interesting!
4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Read if you like:
🍄Books as about food
🍄How to guides
🍄Going back to basics
🍄Trying new recipes
December 12, 2025
This is the wildest book - what genre is it even? Is it a memoir? Is it a how-to? Is it an informative treatise on the natural world? Is it a recipe book? It's all four! And more! This genre-bending book is one of my favorites, and I haven't even read it all yet. I like so much about this book. One thing I'm really enjoying is the memoir aspect of it. Gabrielle puts me right in scenes from her life, and describes the events so expressively that I feel each emotion along with her, from the building dread at being lost in the cold to the glee at a serendipitous opportunity to introduce a stranger to foraging; and I'm pretty sure I would recognize some of her favorite places if someone dropped me there, that's how vividly she describes each setting. Another thing I like about this book is the recipes. I'm never gonna make any of them, I know this about myself. I don't enjoy cooking, and I've given up trying. And yet - I'm really digging these recipes. Each one is a little recipe story, with information on why you're doing certain things, and how to do it, and what to look for. Even though I'll never make them, reading them has helped me to understand cooking better, and to appreciate food and the people who cook it even more. The third thing I like about this book is that it is NOT inspiring me to forage, or prepare foraged food. That's important to me, because, for me, something inspirational becomes a thing I feel obligated to do. There's something special about how Gabrielle presents her information that makes me feel - not as if I need to change how I interact with the natural world, but as if, just by reading, absorbing, and considering her words, I have already improved myself, and become a better resident of my environment. Yes, I'm probably going to do the short exercises she has sprinkled throughout the book, but I don't feel compelled to do so in order to benefit from what she says. I've already benefitted, and I'm only halfway through.
December 11, 2025
This has been an absolute delight to read. I had been looking forward to this book all year and I picked it up during a time in my life where I needed it the most. Love the indigenous stories, anecdotes from her own experiences foraging, the recipes, and the concepts explored of the honorable harvest (reciprocity being the most important to me). Legit ugly cried when this book was over. It’s been such a pleasure getting to following along this amazing persons journey for so long now!
December 10, 2025
Beautiful book with wonderful illustrations and infectious storytelling!
It has heart and teaches kindness and accountability and how we, as humans, can be better caretakers of this wonderful planet we inhabit.
Reading this made me a better human being. ♥
It has heart and teaches kindness and accountability and how we, as humans, can be better caretakers of this wonderful planet we inhabit.
Reading this made me a better human being. ♥
December 11, 2025
I can’t remember how long it’s been since I’ve loved a book this much. I’m so grateful to be cozied up as winter settles in, reading these inspiring recipes and wonderful stories. It’s so relatable and keeps my spirit warm with mushroom and plant wisdom ❤️
November 10, 2025
It wasn’t quite what I expected but it was exactly what I needed.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews