The Quick Guide to Wild Edible Plants

May 6, 2013
This short but informative guide introduces readers to a small but intriguing variety of forageable edibles, beginning, wisely, with detailed descriptions and pictures of poisonous plants to avoid. Musselman, a botany professor, and Wiggins, an environmental scientist with the Army Corps of Engineers, have chosen plants that “are easy to identify and do not have any toxic look-alikes.” These include widely known tasties such as blueberries; flora that may be familiar in landscaping or as weeds but perhaps not as food, such as daylily, oak, red spruce, dock, and kudzu; less-known edibles like glasswort and nutsedge; and fungi. Descriptions include historical, botanical, collecting, and preparation information, as well as possible health benefits. The authors have put considerable work into discovering plants with enough edible content to make them worthwhile to collect and eat. As they admit, however, “Concocting these recipes drew upon our passion for plants more than our culinary expertise.” Although Boy Scout– and Girl Scout–types may enjoy the bare-bones recipes, slow- and wild-food aficionados may need to follow the authors’ advice to “use your own imagination in crafting recipes.” 116 color illus.

June 15, 2013

While ancient humans foraged to survive, today we often forage for less urgent reasons: fun, curiosity, or cost savings. Musselman (biological sciences, Old Dominion Univ.) and environmental scientist Wiggins (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) have written a concise, useful guide to help modern-day foragers identify, gather, and prepare edible plants. The book features 31 native and introduced wild plants commonly found in the U.S. Middle Atlantic and Northeast regions. Included are plants with edible greens, roots, grains, flowers, and more. Mushrooms, although not plants, are also included. All plants and fungi presented are common, easy to identify, and have no toxic look-alikes. Safety tips are nonetheless provided for avoiding poisonous species. Each brief entry includes common and botanical names, a description of the plant (or mushroom) and its habitat, photographs to aid identification, and instructions for collecting. The book also has a few very basic recipes. VERDICT Readers who live or travel in the regions covered and have adventurous palates will want to have this book with them in their daypacks. Those in other regions should consider one of the many other books on foraging, including Ellen Zachos's Backyard Foraging, reviewed below.--Janet Crum, City of Hope Lib., Duarte, CA

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