Foraging Cookbook: 75 Recipes to Make the Most of Your Foraged Finds

First off, please realize that this is not a plant identification book. I wish the book description had made this as clear as the actual book does. There are good summaries of where a select number of plants grow, but there aren't even pictures of most of them. Also, I wish the author had focused on general cooking tips rather than specific recipes. I'm vegan, so the actual recipes were totally useless for me. More helpful were the tips in some the recipes, such as substituting spinach if you don't have a specific foraged weed. Now that is useful information: which weeds will sub well for which greens in conventional recipes? Mulberry season is wrapping up for us, and I have made about a dozen recipes with them, but none of the recipes in this book were of any use to me; all I needed to know was that mulberries sub well for blackberries and blueberries in cobblers, muffins, etc. All that said, I don't want to just criticize this book because it was helpful in informing me of several plants to explore more in better resources, and it's a good place to start if you're an omnivore who needs a recipe for everything and you can't find anything else for cooking foraged foods. I received a free digital review copy from the publisher.

The book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The book doesn't identify plants for you and assumes that most readers already know their foraged foods. While that's fine, because the authors intent isn't to teach you what plants look like or how to find the right ones safely, there aren't any photos of the plants in use in the recipes. I thought perhaps this was to prevent misidentifying the plants from a recipe photo.It is an interesting book in that it tries to go into details a little about each plant and where it can be founds, as well as more traditional uses for the plant. I enjoyed the blurbs in each new segment about tolerances of new foods, considerations to take, and what kind of flavors to expect but the book follows recipes that are just unproven for anyone who wouldn't know better - there are many resources for safe practices out there and why they include what they include. This book does touch on a few blurbs such as acidity and vinegar, but doesn't explain the percentages, or anything in enough detail so that a novice would know it could be unsafe if they modify it in anyway.I am not always a stickler for the rules when you're cooking in your home kitchen, but this book has jelly and jam recipes that do not give any information on proper PH of the food or go into any details about canning safety. It shows recipes for foraged foods that no organization in North America or Europe have tested or deemed safe or had any PH testing on. It also gives recipes for pickling that do no include proper vinegar acidity percentages or details on making sure the pickling acid is acidic enough. They do warn that you need proper acidity and that will make their recipes safe, but there's no tested method for this. To their credit, recipes say to place in the fridge, which again, may or may not be tested out as safe and varies drastically by recipe - the time it can stay in the fridge varies wildly and without proper acidity of the vinegar, or using incorrect vinegar it could be a mess.There are so many things with safe canning recipes including salt, acidity, moisture content, temperature, and germination of spores that it's wild to me that these book continue to be allowed on the market to include such recipes without the necessary testing or a reference back to a safe source.The stove top and baked/cooked recipes are interesting, and I appreciate the info on serving sizes and cook times etc but there is zero info about nutritional value or calorie information in the recipes. Basically, minimal info on safety, no photos of the plants, no nutritional information, no calorie info, and no photos of any of the recipes once they are prepared. It has a great premise, but it needs some additional info and more emphasis on safety.I don't intend to use the pickling or jelly recipes without a trusted source such as Ball, Bernardin, Fresh Preserving, or the Nation Center for Home Preservation. I did try out a few of the ideas on other preparation, but with a cautious mind. The ingredient swap segments and helpful hints about differences in taste and smell were a nice touch, though.It's a three star book for me just because the author does make sure to explain how important it is to get the right plant and they do go into minimal details about foods being canned and needing acidity etc. Lots of info on using multiple books to find the right plants, avoiding pesticide sprayed plants, where to forage and where not to forage, and just general safety to food sensitivity and allergies in that regard but the ones that involve fridge canning and water bath canning need some work.

Disclosure: I received a free digital review copy of this book from the Publisher.I've known Karen as a writer for many years and her writing and knowledge of edible plants is exemplary. However, I don't think that this book allowed her to showcase her full knowledge and potential. Although I thought that this book was a good starter book, I wouldn't recommend it for complete newbies. Why? One of the most important elements for foraging was missing - photos of the actual plants for identification! This is a huge and important part of foraging in learning to correctly identify the plant you intend to eat. Some plants look very similar and an error in identification could result in poisoning or even death. I also would have liked to have seen more photos of the recipes listed, as a visual invitation to try a recipe (but maybe that's just how I choose recipes :) ). That being said, this book is packed with lots of good information and if you have some experience of foraging, you probably will be able to make good use of it. I especially liked the region profiles, "ingredient swap," and "change it up" sections in the recipe pages. From experience, I know that a lot of work has been put into writing and compiling the number of recipes in this book, so if you are looking for tasty ways to use foraged foods, this might be one you want to add to your library! I would have liked to have seen an actual hard copy of the book to fully appreciate its value. Overall, a big congratulations to the writer for the hard work in putting together all of the information involved in this kind of project - and thank you for sharing it, especially in the times we now find ourselves in. I think it will be invaluable to many! Perhaps a follow up book on plant identification would make an excellent companion book to this one, making a beautiful and valuable package of Karen's excellent work!

I have several books on identifying and foraging for plants, but this one was what I was missing. What do you actually do with these plants? There are so many great recipes in here that even appeal to reluctant family members who regard the free wild food with great suspicion. ("What is on this pizza? It's sooo good!!").Also included are foraging tips and lists of plants to look for in specific geographical regions. It is well written and has loads of gorgeous photos.I am so glad that I bought this book, and highly recommend it.

Love it.. so much so, I’ve wrapped a few up for the holidays!!