Weed 'Em and Reap: A Weed Eater Reader [Paperback]

Roger Welsch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2006

Join best-selling humorist Roger Welsch as he gathers and prepares wild fare, and soon you, too, will be able to amaze everyone around the campfire by serving up a salad, stew, vegetable, drink, or dessert made from ingredients found within yelling distance of the tents. This fun-to-read yet practical guide teaches more about morels, cattails, and smut (the fungus kind) than you ever thought possible. There's also information on making wines, jams, and jellies, and even gathering and enjoying acorns the Native American way.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

HERE IT IS, JUST IN TIME TO SERVE AS AN EXCUSE FOR AVOIDING SPRING LAWN CARE! No more herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizer... just put some oil and vinegar dressing on that pesky lawn and open it to the neighbors as an all-you-can-eat salad bar! WEED 'EM AND REAP is a light-hearted but informative introduction to the free bounty of wild foods in lawns and woods, prairies and pastures. Even if you have no intentions of brewing up a crock of dandelion wine or tossing a salad of sour dock and purslane, you will enjoy reading Roger Welsch's adventures in the wild world of weedery. We're betting it won't be long before you will be watching roadsides and byways for your own secret trove of morel mushrooms, wild asparagus, or elderberries!

From the Back Cover

Join best-selling humorist Roger Welsch as he gathers and prepares wild fare, and soon you, too, will be able to amaze everyone around the campfire by serving up a salad, stew, vegetable, drink, or dessert made from ingredients found within yelling distance of the tents. This fun-to-read yet practical guide teaches more about morels, cattails, and smut (the fungus kind) than you ever thought possible. There's also information on making wines, jams, and jellies, and even gathering and enjoying acorns the Native American way.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Falcon; 1st edition (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076273907X
• ISBN-13: 978-0762739073
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,002,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just in time for the first spring rain ..., March 5, 2006

By 

raptorrunner (Great Plains, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weed 'Em and Reap: A Weed Eater Reader (Paperback)

I have had the best time reading this book! I used it as a treat to bribe myself into doing other work.

I am personally prone to finding those plants considered to be weeds and providing a new home for them in my yard. I'm also prone to planting native herbs in my yard, since they are the most likely to survive the local summers and winters without my care -- Beautiful and tough as nails, who can resist that?

Roger, however, takes this a good bit further, into his personal experiences with using wild plants for food in anecdotes, stories and experiences.

My husband is next in line to read it. Upon hearing me snort and giggle with my nose in the book, he would ask what it was I was laughing about, and I'd read a portion aloud. It was great fun and I always recommend great fun. Well, I recommend it to my friends, anyway ...

And it now has a spot in my personal weed library! Definitely, definitely.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What A Disappointment, July 1, 2009

By 

ladyfingers (Northern Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Weed 'Em and Reap: A Weed Eater Reader (Paperback)

Maybe this review doesn't qualify because I didn't bother finishing the book. Being a fellow weed-eater, I had high hopes. It started out refreshingly quirky as Roger Welsch describes personal problems he encounters by keeping a weedy yard. All too quickly you realize this is a recurring and boring theme (legal battles, neighborly arguments), and he is not afraid to label the weed-ignorant as half-wits and idiots. This book is more about Roger and less about weeds--and most relayed weed information can be compared to advice found in some do-it-yourself books. Not enough to actually convey anything or get you started. Roger is the first to admit this is not a field guide, but I found his anecdotes mean-spirited, unfunny and mostly useless. The final straw for putting the book down came in chapter six when a good friend of Roger's shares the secret for spotting morel mushrooms. Roger states, "The day he decided to share his secret with me was like an act of brotherhood...I couldn't believe he was doing it. That secret is so simple, it's like fishing with dynamite. Will I share that secret with you? No." Keep that passage in mind when you shell out $14.95 to purchase this book.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun and informative, February 4, 2008

By 

MO "mm" (Eastern Seaboard) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Weed 'Em and Reap: A Weed Eater Reader (Paperback)

There are all kinds of tidbits on edible plants, and this book is also full of funny stories, and even some recipes that have my mouth watering just to read them. I like this book so much I am sending it to a friend who runs a wilderness skills school. Would that some of my textbooks in school had been both as informative and entertaining as this book. Very well done.