Nature’s Garden by Samuel Thayer. Forager’s Harvest Press 2010.
Sam Thayer is my favorite foraging author, and so far, this is my favorite of his books. That is no insult to his other book, The Forager’s Harvest. This one just happens to have plants that are more common and widespread. I recommend Nature’s Garden for beginners because it lays down such a great foundation of knowledge, is accessibly written, and also covers each plant in so much detail. I also recommend it for advanced and intermediate foragers, because it corrects a lot of myths that have been repeated in many other foraging books, and because it helped me to move beyond just foraging, to wanting to learn about how people, plants, and other organisms all interact.
Nature’s Garden has a great line up of plants, but it would be worth the price of the book for the 50 page chapter on acorns alone.
The book starts out with introductory chapters that encourage best practices in plant ID, and put foraging in context. After that, each of the chapters features a different plant. They begin with a quick story from Sam’s life, then proceed to cover all aspects needed to confidently learn how to interact with the plant.
A true gem, the only complaint I have heard are that is doesn’t cover as many plants as some books, but this is a situation where quality is more important than quantity.
Thanks for reading,
Nate
Nathan Carlos Rupley 
My daughter gave me this book for my birthday last year. I agree, really helpful and in-depth information.
When I 1st got it I was working in the copy center of a big box store, and on my breaks I would read it over and over.