Book Review: Edible Wild Plants,wild foods from dirt to plate.

Edible Wild Plants, wild foods from dirt to plate by John Kallas.
Gibbs Smith 2010

This is an excellent book. While I slightly prefer Sam Thayer’s approach if you are looking to learn weedy greens of back yards and disturbed areas, this is your book.

Before I get into the contents of the book, I just want to get my one major complaint out of the way. The title. I recommend this book to a lot of people, but the title makes that a little harder. There are a lot of books called “Edible Wild Plants” and most of them I would not recommend. Ok, but it does have the subheading “Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate”. Sure, that does distinguish it from the others, but it is a mouthful, and I wish it clarified that this book focuses specifically on weeds.

Oh well, with that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff. Why do I recommend this book so much? Because of the detail and the quality. The photos, plant descriptions, stages of plant growth, harvesting techniques, cooking instructions, and nutritional information all have as much if not more detail than any other foraging book I have read.

The photos deserve special mention. They are large, clear, and Kallas includes each major stage of the plant’s growth. This is not something that is covered in most foraging books, but I believe it is extremely important.

Anyway, whether a beginner, intermediate, or advanced forager, if you are looking to deepen your relationship with the wild plants of human areas, than you cannot do better than this. I eagerly await Kallas’ next book!

Thanks for reading,

Nate