Discover the edible riches in your backyard, local parks, woods, and even roadside! In The Joy of Foraging, Gary Lincoff shows you how to find fiddlehead ferns, rose hips, beach plums, bee balm, and more, whether you are foraging in the urban jungle or the wild, wild woods. You will also learn about fellow foragers—experts, folk healers, hobbyists, or novices like you—who collect wild things and are learning new things to do with them every day. Along with a world of edible wild plants—wherever you live, any season, any climate—you’ll find essential tips on where to look for native plants, and how to know without a doubt the difference between edibles and toxic look-alikes. There are even ideas and recipes for preparing and preserving the wild harvest year-round—all with full-color photography. Let Gary take you on the ultimate tour of our edible wild kingdom!
The Joy of Foraging
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“Gary Lincoff shows readers how to find fiddlehead ferns, rose hips, beach plums, bee balm and more, whether foraging in the urban jungle or in the woods. Readers will also learn about fellow foragers—experts, folk healers, hobbyists, and novices—who collect wild things and are learning new things to do with them every day. The book includes essential tips on where to look for native plants, and how to really know the difference between edibles and toxic look-alikes.”
- “Read This!” National Culinary Review
- “Read This!” National Culinary Review
About the Author
Gary Lincoff is the author of The Complete Mushroom Hunter (Quarry Books, 2010), and the author, co-author, or editor of several books and articles on mushrooms, including The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms. He teaches courses on mushroom and plant identification and use at the New York Botanical Garden and has led wild mushroom and edible wild plant study trips and forays to 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and South, Central, and North America. Lincoff chaired the Telluride Mushroom Festival for 25 years (1980–2004), and still participates as its principal speaker. He is also a featured “myco visionary” in the award-winning documentary, Know Your Mushrooms, by Ron Mann. Lincoff also founded and led the New York City Edible Wild Plant Workshop, which featured a once-a-week wild edibles dinner plus a weekend hunt for edible wild plants and mushrooms in city parks. Patricia Wells published his edible wild plant recipes in an article in the New York Times, and he has been profiled in the Village Voice and New York magazine. He lives in New York City. http://www.garylincoff.com
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Sam Thayer
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I purchased the book the day it became available on Amazon and have now read through it. I find it to be an above-average book on edible wild plants, and I've enjoyed reading it--even if he doesn't think wild strawberries are worth the time to collect.
Here's what I like: The information is accurate, well-reasoned, and appears to be derived from the author's own experience. It's hard to overstate the importance of this, when so many wild food books seem to be hastily produced by publishers trying to capitalize on a trend, and authors who want to be considered experts but haven't put in the time to learn the craft and botany very thoroughly. (This was especially true from the 60's through 80's). Gary seems to have a wealth of experience based on years of foraging, and I appreciate that. The narrative sections interspersed in the text are pleasant, memorable, and often share good lessons. For the most part the photos are quite good. The selection of plants covered is also very good, I think--more so for the eastern US.
The primary shortcoming of the book, in my opinion, is the brevity of its text. The description of plants, as well as how to harvest and prepare them, doesn't seem quite thorough enough to fully convey what I think most readers are searching for. I don't mean it should be pages long, but 2-5 more sentences per plant could really make a huge difference. The book is fairly thin and could have easily been made 16 or 32 pages longer and each account could have been greatly enriched. I'm guessing that Gary had plenty of info to fill out the book, and the brief descriptions was more of the publisher's decision.
Overall, this is a good book that I'd recommend adding to a foraging library.
Here's what I like: The information is accurate, well-reasoned, and appears to be derived from the author's own experience. It's hard to overstate the importance of this, when so many wild food books seem to be hastily produced by publishers trying to capitalize on a trend, and authors who want to be considered experts but haven't put in the time to learn the craft and botany very thoroughly. (This was especially true from the 60's through 80's). Gary seems to have a wealth of experience based on years of foraging, and I appreciate that. The narrative sections interspersed in the text are pleasant, memorable, and often share good lessons. For the most part the photos are quite good. The selection of plants covered is also very good, I think--more so for the eastern US.
The primary shortcoming of the book, in my opinion, is the brevity of its text. The description of plants, as well as how to harvest and prepare them, doesn't seem quite thorough enough to fully convey what I think most readers are searching for. I don't mean it should be pages long, but 2-5 more sentences per plant could really make a huge difference. The book is fairly thin and could have easily been made 16 or 32 pages longer and each account could have been greatly enriched. I'm guessing that Gary had plenty of info to fill out the book, and the brief descriptions was more of the publisher's decision.
Overall, this is a good book that I'd recommend adding to a foraging library.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By mlp
Format:Paperback
There are a lot of foraging books out there today and when deciding what to purchase, I'd put this one as okay, but not a "got to have." The plant descriptions are very basic and only include a couple of photos per plant. The author also seems to perpetuate some of the usual wild edible plant myths such as white oaks being better than red oaks, wild carrots being too dangerous to include, and persimmons needing a good frost prior to them being good for eating. Also, he has labeled what looks like an american hazel to me, as a beaked hazelnut.
That being said, it is an attractive book and does have some interesting short stories in it. As an avid forager, I appreciated his stories of people being irrational about collecting wild food. The recipes also look good and will likely be delightful to try. I also enjoyed his inclusion of some more unusual plants such as edible dogwoods.
That being said, it is an attractive book and does have some interesting short stories in it. As an avid forager, I appreciated his stories of people being irrational about collecting wild food. The recipes also look good and will likely be delightful to try. I also enjoyed his inclusion of some more unusual plants such as edible dogwoods.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By KristieS
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book contains some good info on foraging, in general, and I like it because it contains some plants I haven't really seen in other books. However, the section on the plants themselves was very sparse. The author has chosen to discuss a large variety of plants, but each one has very little information on identification and the descriptions are short and vague. There aren't many photos of each plant, and I prefer visuals to assist when making an ID. This book may give you ideas on things to watch for, but you'll need another book to help you ID.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
This book has great pictures which makes the plants easy to identify
This book has plants that I found in my orchard and had never even noticed before. I found them to be Delightful!
Published 1 month ago by Amy Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great gift
It was a christmas present for my husband. He can't wait until vacation so that he can put it to use.
Published 4 months ago by CINDY
4.0 out of 5 stars
Book was Helpful
The book is larger than most (10 x 8.5), is printed on quality paper, and has a semi-hard cover. What I liked most was the quality photos which aid in plant identification. Read more
Published 8 months ago by elpaso5
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