Foraging:
I have quite a stack of foraging books. One caveat I don’t forage a great deal. I have a limited tolerance for new, bitter, or unusual foods for me the Omnivore’s Dilemma as explained by Michael Pollan is extreme. I do forage some and I’ll tell you what I can about the best resources I have found. I greatly appreciate Euell Gibbons books for reading quality. He is inordinately tolerant and fond of bitter foods though- something which led many incipient foragers ultimately away from the practice. However, most of the books available aren’t that great. They tend to either be older and have limited information or be newer and have limited information in a brief article with small photographs that doesn’t give you quite enough information to overcome the omnivore’s dilemma, or to be confident in your identifications. The best course of action for a forager would be to have a real in person mentor. Short of that; here are the books that come closest and might allow you to make the leap to an unfamiliar food.
Favorite Foraging Books:
Robert Handerson’s The Neighborhood Forager is the oldest of my modern foraging books that I think really start to explain foraging well.
The Neighborhood Forager: A Guide for the Wild Food Gourmet: Handerson, Robert K.: 9781890132354: Amazon.com: Books
Samual Thayer’s three now almost four books.
Amazon.com: Samuel Thayer: books, biography, latest update
Kris Reed and Thomas Elpel’s book Foraging the Mountain West
Foraging the Mountain West: Gourmet Edible Plants, Mushrooms, and Meat: Thomas J. Elpel, Kris Reed: 9781892784360: Amazon.com: Books
Also Tom’s book on Participating in Nature has great directions on butchering a roadkill deer Participating in Nature: Wilderness Survival and Primitive Living Skills: Thomas J. Elpel: 0884928771071: Amazon.com: Books
John Kallas’s book- soon two books.
Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt To Plate (The Wild Food Adventure Series, Book 1): Kallas PhD, John: 8601400390917: Amazon.com: Books
Edible Wild Plants, Volume 2: Wild Foods from Foraging to Feasting: Kallas PhD, John: 9781423641346: Amazon.com: Books
In John’s first book there is an interesting section where he advocates looking for populations of edible plants with better flavor, or other favorable traits and taking those home and propagating them in a sort of wild agriculture. That idea has some negatives when it comes to propagating non-native invasive species as biological invasions ultimately reduce plant diversity globally. It, however, has some positives especially when the food plants involved are native or wild crop relatives which are very useful for plant breeding. Basically, if it is widespread, not a legal noxious weed, and you aren’t spreading it by taking it home, go for it and feel confident you are behaving ethically. If you would have a serious concern about spreading a recent invader or a plant with legal noxious status- maybe enjoy that plant where it already is abundant.
