The Forager's Treasury: The essential guide to finding and using wild plants in Aotearoa

by Johanna Knox

In the urban and rural wildernesses, there is an abundance of food just waiting to be discovered, if only you know what to look for. Foraged food is healthy, economical and sustainable, but the best part is the fun you will have finding it.This book is guaranteed to make you look at the plants around you in a different light. The Forager's Treasury features profiles of many edible plants commonly found in New Zealand; advice on where to find them, how to harvest them and how best to use them; and over 60 delicious food recipes as well as more than 30 recipes for medicine, natural dyes, perfumes and skin care.This fully revised and updated edition of a classic bestseller is an exhaustive treasure trove of information about our wild plants.

Genres: Gardening

501 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 4, 2021

About the author

Johanna Knox is the author of The Fly Papers, a new mystery-adventure series about mutant carnivorous plants. She was inspired to write these books while wondering what the carnivorous plants in her own collection would be like if they developed minds of their own.

Plants loom large in Johanna's working life. She has had a regular spot on National Radio's This Way Up chatting about foraging for wild weeds, and keeps a popular blog about the same subject. She also frequently writes for magazines such as Taste and Good about plants, food, and sustainable ways of living.

She's always happy to talk about writing, the wonders of carnivorous plants, or both.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is "the essential guide to finding and using wild plants in Aotearoa." It's really brilliant. It shows you how to carefully forage, use and preserve and eat from the wild or from your own backyard. It's divided into, The Treasures, Preserving, Recipes, Natural Healing, Perfumes, and Colours. I was particularly interested in how to preserve, especially using oils and infused spirits. It's very well set out and easy to follow. A very good read.

[Delia Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have loved more pictures of the plants in their environment - there were lots of photos of them close up which was great, but getting a sense of where to look for them would be helpful too.
The book really hits its stride once you get to the recipes in the second half. An excellent resource.

[IE · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m here to learn about plants, I’m surprised to read opinions on how the British willfully mis-interpreted the treaty. That’s not the beginning of foraging in New Zealand but a part the author has chosen to focus on. There are so many problems with this book, the formatting is not easy to follow, info spaced out over multiple pages, headings not obvious, hidden half way down the page, not ideal for referencing. There are also not many or often ANY photos of the plants which makes identifying these wild plants difficult if not impossible. If I have to google what something looks like then what’s the use in having the physical book?!

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johanna pours love and passion into this guide. She teaches through a bi-cultural lense which is refreshing and more of that needed in the space of flora in Aotearoa.
Her suggested resources for further research and help are extensive.
Loved it 💖 Highly recommend as a first step into a foraging obsession!