Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants

by Tom Brown Jr., Heather Bolyn (Illustrator), Trip Becker (Illustrator)

For untold thousands of years, human beings have thrived on the nutritional and medicinal wealth of the plant life in the natural world. In these fascinating, wide-ranging, wonderfully informative stories, Tom Brown—director of the world-famous Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School—tells all about the uncommon benefits of the common trees, shrubs, flowers, and other plants we find all around us. This indispensible guide includes information on:

• How to use every part of the plant—leaves, flowers, bark, bulbs, and roots
• Where to find useful plants, and the best time of the year and stages of growth to harvest them
• How to prepare delicious food dishes, soups, breads and teas from the riches of the great outdoors
• An incredible range of experience-proven medicinal uses to treat headaches, burns, digestive disorders, skin problems, and a host of other maladies

TOM BROWN'S FIELD GUIDES: America's most popular nature reference books, Tom Brown's bestselling field guides are specially designed for both beginners and experienced explorers. Fully illustrated and comprehensive, each volume includes practical information, time-tested nature skills, and exciting new ways to rediscover the earth around us.

Genres: Nonfiction, Survival, Nature, Plants, Outdoors, Field Guides, Medicine

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Tom Brown Jr. was an American naturalist, tracker, survivalist, and author from New Jersey, where he ran the Tom Brown Jr. Tracker School.
In his books, Brown wrote that, from the age of seven, he and his childhood friend Rick were trained in tracking and wilderness survival by Rick's grandfather, "Stalking Wolf" (whom Brown stated was Lipan Apache). Brown wrote that Stalking Wolf died when Brown was 17, and that Rick was killed in an accident in Europe shortly thereafter.
Brown spent the next ten years working odd jobs to support his wilderness adventures. He then set out to find other people in New Jersey who were interested in his experiences. Initially Brown met with little success, but was eventually called on to help locate a crime suspect. Though the case won him national attention, he and authorities in the Ramsey, N.J. area were subsequently sued for 5 million dollars for charging the wrong person. Despite this controversy, he was able to build on this exposure to develop a profession as a full-time tracker, advertising his services for locating lost persons, dangerous animals, and fugitives from the law. According to People magazine, "He stalks men and animals, mostly in New Jersey."

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Grandson, when you can feel the same pain and suffering for a blade of grass ripped from the Earth as you do for that deer, you will truly be one with all things." Tom Brown Jr. writes this guide less for information some of which is available in other Field Guides like Peterson's, but to make a doorway to the experience of oneness. Thus his entries are divided into Description, Personality, Food and Medicine, and the Personality portions seem to be almost the most important. He tells tales the way he learned from Stalking Wolf his Grandfather. He encourages us to use our inner selves and our emotions to know plants.

After reading this, I couldn't keep my eyes off the grass the next day, amazed at how many species were represented in that green lawn and wanting to taste, now.

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

As it turns out, I had read this years ago. I gave away my original copy, since it hadn't been what I was looking for at the time. Looking at the book with more mature eyes, that was a mistake. While this book isn't an identification guide, it's a wonderful supplement to one. The writing style is friendly and approachable, like a storyteller at a campfire. The field guide to identification would have given me information, easily absorbed and then forgotten. This book is full of knowledge and, in places, perhaps even wisdom. You'll have to find your own copy; I'm not giving it away this time.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the story of thirty plants and how they intersected the life of the outdoorsman Tom Brown Jr.

THe stories are touching and full of mysticism.

[A.d. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, good stroytelling. Provides some information about a few plants. Provides a lot of information about developing an intuitive connection to nature.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

“This book is not a filed guide to the identification of wild edible or medicinal plants. Nor is it a book of prescriptions using wild plants” (pg. 44).

This book contains many anecdotes about when the author first encountered various wild edibles and his experiences and intuition regarding them. He discusses the “personality” of each plant and his spiritual beliefs permeate every page...I didn’t read enough to differentiate whether he is a pantheist or a panetheist, but his beliefs seems to be somewhere on that vicinity. This is a very strange book. There may be some nuggets here, but I was expecting something more straightforward and less convoluted like those works by Samuel Thayer.

[Df3photo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful companion book to a survival guide. Learn the basics of wild and medical edibles.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went slowly through this one, savoring the appreciation for each one of the 'plant brothers' that are described by Brown in the book. Basically, with few exceptions, you can make a tea of just about any plant part and many of them will cure poison ivy itches. lol. Seriously, some of the descriptions are positively spiritual, others feel a bit more forced. All in all, thought it's a lot of fun to imagine being a survivalist - using all of these plants to eat/heal/grow. It gives one pause about modern diets and remedies.

[Dawn Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information, but a bit too much waxing on about how he first encountered this amazing . . . (blah, blah, blah). Also, Tom Brown cannot cook. I don't care what he calls "tasty." It ain't tasty, but absolutely great to know if you need to find food.

[Don Gubler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Brown Jr. is a treasure store of immense proportions. He provides a fundamentally different view of the world, one that needs to be heeded before we lose something of value beyond calculating. My bucket list includes a course at his school.

[Christopher Packard · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst book ever written on the subject.

[J. Densmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would highly recommend all of Tom Brown, Jr's books.

[Jared Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

unique perspective