5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Treat it as a recipe book, February 17, 2010
This review is from: Basic Essentials Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs, 3rd (Basic Essentials Series) (Paperback)
Be warned, this book is not for novices or beginners. I bought this book with no prior knowledge of wild plants or herbs or their properties. I wanted to discover - at a glance - what was edible, what was poisonous, and what was medicinal. However I was disappointed starting on page 1.
Page one shows you a tiny 2"x2" (approx) color photo of edible green-colored Cattail shoots on a plate. It also warns you to avoid a poisonous look-alike, Blue Flag Iris, and refers the reader to Appendix 2 for more information. There, Blue Iris is shown in an even tinier 1"x1" (approx) photo. The plant shown is a blue flower against a green background. Look-alike? Not exactly, at least not represented as so. As a novice, I would have found it much more beneficial to have the edible vs poisonous photos side-by-side, in similar frame, I could know and understand the difference.
All of the poisonous plants in Appendix 2, I noted, are tiny 1x1 photographs. Frustrating. I would think their deadly nature and therefore relative importance would warrant larger, more clear photographs.
Instead, the photographs of plants throughout this book usually consist of approximately 2x2 or smaller pictures taking up less than 1/6 of the page. The rest of each page usually contains useful location, creative cooking, and important medicinal tips, which is certainly useful but feels a little sparse and only like an introduction for each plant.
At the end of the day, this book will be retained as a useful recipe book as I doubt I will find so many creative cooking tips in other plant identification books. This book would no doubt be a useful addition to the experienced backpacker or survivalist. However, my search for a proper edible plant and herb reference continues.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical Guide for Beginner or Expert, January 5, 2009
This review is from: Basic Essentials Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs, 3rd (Basic Essentials Series) (Paperback)
A fantastic basic guide to wild edibles. A great place for the beginner to start and plenty here for the more advanced, also. Jim has selected some of the most useful plants found in North America. The identification helps are excellent (including color photos). But what I like most is Jim's practical suggestions for harvesting and preparing these while still remaining brief (even includes some recipes). It's hard to find a guide like this. (I honestly can't think of one right now).
I also own most of his videos and highly recommend them as well. I've gone foraging with Jim a couple of times and consider him a friend. He's a lot of fun and you'll find his videos are a lot of fun, also.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good book on how to eat the wild edibles you identified using a different book., December 22, 2010
This review is from: Basic Essentials Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs, 3rd (Basic Essentials Series) (Paperback)
Overall rating: 3 stars
Plant identification: 2 stars
Plant uses: 4 stars
Picture type(s): color photographs
Who will find it useful: novice foragers and those who want recipes for cooking wild edibles.
Notes: The main selling point of this book is its appendix of recipes. It is also one of the few books that covers seaweeds. It's pictures are small and not very good, though. You need to either already know your wild edibles or have another book on hand for edible plant identification.
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