Customer Reviews

Weed 'Em and Reap: A Weed Eater Reader

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I bought this book in hopes of learning which weeds are edible. The biggest part is knowing what they look like. This book does not have photos of the plants. Very disappointing.

This is the worst book I have ever read. I finally got through this book and that's a lot hours of my life I'll never get back. Roger Welsch's hick style of writing is horrible. It makes no sense and these cutesy tales he tries to tell are really boring. Save your money. Roger should give up writing, but I suspect he can't do anything else either.

Some books are just plain fun to read, and Welsch's takes a high place on that list. As an avid picker of wild greens, it's quite amazing how many plants take their place at his table. The wide-ranging narrative offers many vignettes, from the neighbor trying to take over his river frontage to his campaign for county weed control officer (with a unique, pro-weed platform).

If you're looking for hints about what to pick, don't get your hopes up. He very deliberatly doesn't list edible plants or preparations, since regional selections differ so widely. Instead of the plants themselves, this looks more at the man who loves them and at his hunter-gatherer experiences. If that's what you want, great, but I hoped for more how-to.

-- wiredweird

Excellent story telling! Such a wealth of information about free food right by most of our doorsteps.No photos of the plants themselves, so I read the book alongside google and bookmarked! Love it!

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (10/06)

Every now and then one happens upon a book that turns out to be very different from what one expected, yet wonderful and charming beyond belief. This was the case with "Weed 'Em and Reap," written by Roger Welsch. Immediately after reading the introduction, I realized that this was not going to be a cookbook for foods from the wild or a book to help me identify them - which was what I expected. It is all of that - to a point - but much more than that. Welsch truly opens one's eyes in respect to the bounty all around us. His descriptions of "weeds" are poetic and very romantic at times. Who would have thought that somebody basically foraging for food would be amazed by the brilliant blue flowers of chicory plant? Welsch's approach to weeds and eating them is respectful and safe. He never fails to caution the reader - but also never scares him or her off. He teaches respect for nature and often suggests using common sense. There is nothing preachy or condescending in his writing. He sounds like somebody I'd love to have as a friend.

Some of my favorite chapters in the book involve digging up poke and buffalo gourd roots - and why you should not attempt that, educating the local weed inspector about the merits of different plants in the yard and making home-made wine from all kinds of fruit. Each of them will teach you a bunch of things that I am sure you did not know about before.

In spite of saying upfront in his introduction that his book is not a cookbook, Welsch provides a few wonderful recipes. Each of them is really simple, but if they taste anything like the greens I prepared following one of his recipes, they should taste spectacular.

Oftentimes funny, sometimes downright silly, Welsch's writings can be enjoyed by everybody. Even if you never decide to eat a "weed," I bet you will never look at the nature around you the same way. Just remember the quote from the very beginning of "Weed 'Em and Reap," written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, "A weed is but an unloved flower."

Book Received FREE of Charge.