Basic foraging book.

[ebt.]

So, I searched and whilst Im sure it must've been asked before, I couldnt find the answer (some bank holiday scrumpy may have played a part).....

Does anyone have any recommendations for a beginners foraging book, with the following traits;

1. Portable (I dont want some coffee table glossy_
2. Clear guidance on identifying stuff
3. preferably laid out in such a way that you can look at your 'thingy' and then goto the book easily to work out what it is.
4. Reasonably priced.

Over to you, oh gurus of practicality..

 

[Harvestman]

No such thing exists, sadly.

If a book concentrates only on the edible stuff, then it is no good as an identification guide.

So you need two books. One of wild edibles, such as Food for Free. One of plant identification. For the latter I recommend Collins Wild Flowers of Northen Europe.
Then if you want to include fungi you need yet another book...

The fact is, this isn't something that you can just pick up. Knowing that, for example, pignut, is edible, and knowing how to prepare it and what to serv e it with, is nothing like the same skill as knowing that what you have found is definitely pignut.

Make haste slowly, would be my advice.

 

[crosslandkelly]

The Collins gem "Food for free" by Richard Mabey.

 

[swright81076]

I have that on the book shelf.

sent from my Jelly Bean'd galaxy nexus.

 

[Hugo]

Well you could get yourself off the the Sussex downs now as blackberries, cherry plums, crab apples, and elderberries are out at the moment, got myself 1.75 kilos of blackberries yesterday, was going to make blackberry jam but was far too tired when I got home so put them in the freezer them for later.

 

[crosslandkelly]

I have that on the book shelf.

It's a good book to start with I think. I've had mine for years. Cheers.

 

[shaggystu]

as harvestman said, one book's not really going to work for anything other than the simplest of wild edibles (elderberry for instance), for anything else you need at least a couple of field guides.

SWMBO and i tend to use these to work out what the plants are;

collins nature guides - herbs and healing plants of britain & europe ISBN 978-0-26-167405-9 (good photo's, gemma likes this one best)
kingfisher field guides - wild flowers of britain and northern europe ISBN 1-85697-155-4 (good text, i like this one best)

and these to work out what to do with them;

colling natural history - food for free ISBN 0-00-219865-7
river cottage handbook - hedgerow ISBN 987-1-4088-0185-7

but those four books are only a fraction of the whole. we've probably got 40 or 50 field guides between us covering trees, plants, and funghi, (including 3 different editions of culpeppers complete herbal, all of which will make you ill at the very least)

lots of books is the key IMO

HTH

stuart

 

[ebt.]

Thanks guys...

...as for the downs, I've already been plundering the plums/berries. Its a tasty time of year

 

[MartiniDave]

+1 for both "Food for Free" and the River Cottage offering.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Well you could get yourself off the the Sussex downs now as blackberries, cherry plums, crab apples, and elderberries are out at the moment...

And bullaces. Loads of bullaces. At least I think that's what they are...

I've never seen a bigger, juicier crop of blackberries than this year's. Obviously they like the rain.

 

[Geoff Dann]

The fact is, this isn't something that you can just pick up. Knowing that, for example, pignut, is edible, and knowing how to prepare it and what to serv e it with, is nothing like the same skill as knowing that what you have found is definitely pignut.

Make haste slowly, would be my advice.

Very good advice. And in the example you chose, one also needs to know that you aren't allowed to dig up pignuts, and that if you follow the stalk directly down into the ground then you won't find the actual pignut anyway, because it is off a right-angles.

Take it slowly, and always look out for things you don't recognise. It doesn't matter if you can't identify them, just make sure you spend a few seconds looking carefully at whatever it is, then maybe next time you come across it in a book, you'll recognise it. Or you'll recognise it next time you see it in the field, and maybe it'll have flowers on and be easier to identify.