Forage: Wild plants to gather and eat

by Liz Knight, Rachel Pedder-Smith (Illustrations)

Forage is a beautifully illustrated celebration of edible plants that can be found throughout the world.

Anybody can enjoy the increasingly popular back-to-nature activity of foraging. In some countries these plants are now forgotten as food, but in others they are still celebrated for their value as nutritious, delicious ingredients and cooking with wild plants is increasingly being adopted by mainstream restaurants.

Journeying through 50 globally populated edible plants, Forage explores the culture and history of our wild food. Stunning botanical illustrations by artist Rachel Pedder-Smith accompany each plant, alongside recipes inspired by the regions of the world where they are most celebrated.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Cooking, Science, Cookbooks, Plants, Food and Drink

224 pages, Hardcover

Published March 23, 2021

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going to try some edible weeds! 😉🌿🍃

This is a gorgeous book with plant backgrounds, recipes, and illustrations. It's divided into four sections- trees, shrubs, perennials, and biennials. I went through it pretty fast as I'm only searching for weeds in my yard that are unfortunately plentiful, the garlic mustard! I don't have enough dandelion or red clover around.

Spring is here and soon they'll start to come up. To be honest, I'm a bit afraid to give it a try. Maybe it's easier if doing this with a friend or someone who knows what they're doing. But every online site I checked so far said it's edible so let's just give it a whirl. I also use a plant identification app (extremely helpful) when I'm uncertain. It's very easy to use just take a close-up photo and the app will give you the common name, genus, botanical names, along with other users' photos to compare.

A shout out to Dee's wonderful review!

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this is your thing then it gives lots of info that is easy to follow and try for yourself.
Beautifully illustrated and a pleasure to read.
I have used natural remedys for a little while back and forth and would recommend anyone to incorporate into their diet.
Fresh picked dandelions for tea or wild garlic pasta is one of my favourites but it really opens up an amazing amount of opportunity for trying something as old as time.
Its great fun while out walking to take home something you have picked and found while out exploring new or well walked areas

[Brookelyn Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book for beginners. The pictures are detailed, colored, and have helpful hints next to them. For each plant there are a couple of recipes on what to do. I think there could be more information included, but it is great for beginners.

One note, I am in Colorado and a lot of these plants don't grow here. This is quite normal so I don't hold it against the book, just warning my fellow Coloradans.

[Trisha Roberson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations with 4 pages per plant, includes some recipes for use, harvest season, parts to harvest

[maisie florence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for beginners, and I loved the way that this book is illustrated and set out - very aesthetically pleasing! However, for such huge pages, there isn’t much detail on each plant, and there is so much more that I would have added! As well, some of the illustrations I don’t think are large or detailed enough (in drawing, or labelling). This is a great book for inspiration on what plants to do more research on, before actually picking them. The recipes were a lovely range inspired by many different dishes, however, for beginner foragers, I think it would have been nice to have more simple ones too!

I would give this 3.5 ⭐️’s if goodreads allowed me.