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Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
Reviews |
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| Availability:
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| Authors:
Samuel Th |
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Consumer Ratings and
Reviews for Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants |
Rating:
| | Review: Real Deal
| This book is a joy for everyone from the beginner forager to the old style wild foods zealots like myself. The practical nuts and bolts information is presented with lovely expressive writing. The Ox-eye daisy and the black nightshade chapters alone are worth buying the book for. He has a gift for teaching and firmly passing on the fine detail powers of his keen powers of observation. This is a most worthy successor to his first excellent book.
Connie Green |
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| Rating:
| | Review: The Very Best Wild Edible Foods Guide
| I have been interested in wild edible foods for around 12 years, and have many books on the subject. I could probably write as good a guide as most -- or better.
But Samuel Thayer's book is so far above the norm that there is no comparing it to the others. It contains more knowledge on the subject than I could probably learn in a lifetime. As soon as I received this book, I ordered his first one because I didn't want to miss out on anything he authored.
The writing sparkles. His accounts of harvesting wild rice, wapato and "mud bananas" are written so vividly that I "see" them in my mind... probably more vividly than if I had watched a video. Just reading his books is pure pleasure.
If you have the slightest interest in wild edible plants, you must get this book. It will set the standard for books on the subject for decades to come. |
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Rating:
| | Review: Loved the herbs from this book.
| | I loved to learn from this book. I wished it had more info. I am looking forward to see next edition. |
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| Rating:
| | Review: Outstanding, accessible and comprehensive
| No matter how well you know your wild edibles, American forager Samuel Thayer can teach you something. His brand new how-to book, called "Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Edible Wild Plants," is by far the best work on the subject, well worth the $25 cover price.
What sets "Nature's Garden" apart from other guide books is its incredible depth. Thayer is true to his subtitle as he tackles the intricacies of 42 common plants found across North America -- including dock, elderberry, oak, wild lettuce, amaranth, chickory and huckleberry -- over 512 glossy pages. Packed with outstanding full-color photos and helpful charts (for instance, on the characteristics of red vs. white acorns), the book is highly useful for beginning and advanced foragers alike. It is written in an accessible yet scholarly style that avoids jargon whenever possible.
Thayer's propensity for going the extra mile on the details makes this a total win for readers who really want to try this in the field. Lots of books might tell you, for instance, that young dock leaves taste better than older ones. But Thayer offers helpful tips like, "They do not have to be tiny, just young," and "As long as the sides are even slightly rolled up, the leaf will be tender. Often...you will find them very slimy. Don't worry: the slime is a sign that you are getting leaves at the right stage, and it will rinse off."
Though it's by and large a how-to, there is a narrative element as the author opens each chapter with a reflective personal anecdote about his experiences. These can be serious in tone, so I appreciated the occasional levity in the captions: Passifloracea, he writes, is "arguably the coolest-looking flower in the world." And the first 75 pages are an entertaining read as Thayer reveals his personal views on what really killed Christopher McCandless of "Into the Wild."
Thayer's first book, "The Forager's Harvest," was published in 2006 and has become a respected standard, covering 32 wild foods, from cattail to stinging nettle (the newest work does repeat a few, but not many). One of my favorite features is a handy calendar outlining the harvest times for various plant parts from March through November. Fortunately, the latest work does too.
Review originally appeared on FirstWays[dot]com |
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| Rating:
| | Review: Great guide to wild edibles
| | I like that he has first hand knowledge and has (it sounds like) dedicated his life to this topic. It is nice that he goes into depth on each plant and shows poisonous look-alike plants. I find this book to be well written; interesting to read; and useful for this topic. It is nice that he spends time discussing the myths about harvesting wild edibles. It helps to allay some of the fear and societal pressure against it. |
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