Incredible Wild Edibles

Purchased 3 of Samuel Thayer’s books after glancing thru his first book!! He is so informative and his set is a must for any forager!! Detailed pics and descriptions of all plants. Love walking our property identifying all our plants with his books on hand.

In my opinion, Samual is the primary modern author of edible wild foods for folks who actually want to use and process wild foods with success. His books are where everyone should start and his books have greatly expanded my love of wild foods. More importantly, his books have given me the knowledge to actually use wild foods in a substantial way in my diet. No other modern book does this with each plant to the extent he does. His style, following Gibbons lead, of laying out each plant with personal use, story, and harvesting/processing technique, allows the reader to actually use the information presented. I really appreciate that. The book is set up essentially the same as all his other books, which is perfect. I live in Maine, and I have been using his other two books for years and years now. More recently, I looked past this book at stores, because I didn't recognize the book as Sams! I thought it was a cheesy armchair foraging book because of the title (sorry Sam!). That my own bias, but damn... the power of branding. Glad I figured it out and purchased! Only thing to note: Call me a snowflake, but as a queer dude, I didn't appreciate making fun of a dude because he wears a dress. The chicken feather guy point was perfect... without that addition. Gender is fluid and constructed, as seen in many many cultures (see two-spirit etc.) many of whom are the reason we have the majority of the historical-use knowledge that is in these books. Personally, I like to not have transphobia in my wild foods books. Sam will probably think I'm some chicken feathers wing nut for bringing it up. I want to believe he is not transphobic or homophobic (probably because I love his books and they have meant a lot to me - my bias ) and that this was just him not being aware of his impact. Queer and trans folks will notice the underlying shaming implied in this line of the book instantly though! Any-who, the information contained is worth it in my opinion and the book is overall really great, like all his others!

Made by a real person who actually knows what they're taking about instead of copy paste AI slop.

This incredible book is changing my relationship with food. It is impossible to read this without becoming enthused about these plants. In the introduction and conclusion he writes a little about his philosophy of foraging and eco-culture. You won't want to miss these well-written, concise, precious essays that may open your eyes, as they did mine, to the errors in thinking that have caused people to rely almost solely on domesticated sources of food. I found this book difficult to put down, though I'm not usually a non-fiction reader, and looked forward each day to reading about 2 or 3 of the plants presented. This is not merely a dry rehash of species identification, nor is it just a book of recipes, but a scholarly, yet highly-personalized accounting of Thayer's experience with each food. If you're interested in foraging, this is a must-purchase. After finishing this book, I immediately purchased the other 2 in the series. There is no overlap, by the way, between the plants covered in the books.

Love the book! But it did have some rip/defects on one of the pages so now I'm not sure if it'll rip more or be ruined.. but the book is great with info and actually has quite a few plants not in my area so it's not ALL Midwest. But before buying foraging books you should realize if itsnt a REGIONAL specified book you should still check the author out to see where they are from or write about most often. Hopefully soon I can travel and explore the foods outside my area 😁

It was fun finding an author so close to home. This book is so much more detailed than other foraging guides. He strives to only include plants that he enjoys foraging himself, shows pictures of what they look like in season, and talks about the prime time to harvest. I read the book from cover to cover, and then bought his other books for myself and my father! They were great gifts for Christmas. I really can’t wait to go foraging with my father!

This is one of those books you are actually going to want to read. the way that this is organized, each plant discussed has it's own chapter. That would lend itself to reading about a plant that you care about and then setting it down, but the deal is that Samuel Thayer is funny and passionate. This book tends to apply better to the northern sections of the US than the rest of the country, but his series does cover plants that are all over the US. If you are expecting straight up scientific info, you might be a tad disappointed, but not because there isn't science in there. This is something like the dry and boring yet factually relevant descriptions an audobon book might give you, (all the stuff you need so you don't end up doing something totally stupid) but with funny anecdotes and walks down memory lane thrown in to keep you interested. My girlfriend and I have been eating as many of these plants as we have been able to find and it has been a fantastic experience... Study the series, do a little extra reading on the side to reinforce it and you will be disappearing into the woods in no time. Really, eating lawn clippings is so much more gratifying than you might guess...

Each of the Samuel Thayer books feature different edibles, have great pictures, and are easy to use. Great books to have!

The book was descriptive, easy to understand, and had coloured pictures. Out of all the foraging books I have, Samuel’s books are some of the best. Would recommend 100%.

Un'ottima guida per la raccolta e il consumo di erbe selvatiche, anche se orientata sul territorio Usa; apprezzabile soprattutto per la qualità delle informazioni, la maggior parte delle quali utili anche nella vecchia Europa, e per la puntigliosità dell'apparato fotografico. Non una guida asettica, dunque, ma un bel racconto condivisibile.

Extremely excellent

Frankly a bit disappointed, especially the photos, you definitely need another book for identification - not many edible plants covered, had hoped for more