Leda Meredith

I was able to peruse this book at the library... more of a quick skim than a perusal, actually, but ten minutes with it was enough to impress me with its value. This is not a field guide, but once you get your harvest back to the kitchen it will help you nail the identification and then do interesting stuff with it. The recipes look delicious and Amazon reviews rave about the taste. Once I get the book off my wishlist and onto my shelf I'll be able to confirm this. Update: on shelf! next... wait for the end of winter to find and prepare food!… (mere)

The Skillful Forager by Leda Meredith
Essential Techniques for Responsible Foraging and Making the Most of Your Wild Edibles

Having gone out to collect wild edibles a few times from the surrounding countryside with women from the village I was interested to see if any of the same wild things grow locally as the author highlighted in this book AND yes, many are found in both locations. We have sumac trees, amaranth, lambs ears, chicory, dandelion greens, wild garlic and many more out there for the picking...though it is much more fun to go with someone that knows what they are doing.

This book provides useful information from where to collect, safety, laws, feral vs wild, sustainability, tools, parts to eat (and avoid), preparation, use, storage and more while being filled with gorgeous illustrations to assist the novice. There are seasonal lists of plants to look for and where to find them. Chapters are divided up into: tree leaves; roots, tubers, rhozomes & bulbs; shoots & stalks; flower; fruit; seeds, nuts & pods; bark & twigs; sap; mushrooms; seaaweed; and ends with making the most of what you collect including universal recipes, flour. Pickling, making soda and wine. I would love to have this book in my library.

Thank you to NetGalley and Roost Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (mere)

A great book promoting sustainable foraging and eating locally and in-season. I liked that sustainable practices were highlighted and information was given on how to harvest each plant sustainably so no habitat is destroyed, which can be an issue with foraging.

A list of plants in the very beginning of the book is arranged by season and habitat so a certain part of the plant that is available at that time is highlighted as edible. After that are plant profiles for over 100 edible plants in the Northeastern United States. I would definitely make sure you bulk up on identification of any plant you are going to eat before using this book as your definitive guide. There are identification sections describing each plant, however you would have to know some botany terms to use effectively. Pictures are included, but every plant may not look like that. The sections that are a lot more useful are how to harvest the edible part of the plant, when to harvest, and how to eat and preserve. I was also impressed with the variety of plants in this book that I don't often see elsewhere such as basswood, black nightshade, cattail, garlic mustard, juneberry, mugwart, mulberries (my favorite) and pineappleweed.

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.… (mere)