There's food growing everywhere! You'll be amazed by how many of the plants you see each day are actually nutritious edibles. Ideal for first-time foragers, this book features 70 edible weeds, flowers, mushrooms, and ornamental plants typically found in urban and suburban neighborhoods. Full-color photographs make identification easy, while tips on common plant locations, pesticides, pollution, and dangerous flora make foraging as safe and simple as stepping into your own backyard.
"Forget farm to table. Here's weed to bowl. ... Extremely appealing."
"[An] impressively comprehensive guide by horticulturist Zachos, who stresses the "ease and elegance" of foraging familiar plants--greens, fruits, nuts, seeds, tubers, and fungi--in yards and nearby environs. ... Eye-catching sidebars on legality, quick plant identification, food-preparation tips, and more accompany the main text, which is abundantly illustrated with full-color photos throughout."
-- John Kallas, director of Wild Food Adventures
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1 Getting Started: Identifying Habitats in the 'Hood
Ensuring Safety * Ethical Harvesting
2 Harvest with Care: You Don't Have to Sacrifice Your Scenery
Picking Shoots and Young Foliage * Foraging Flowers, Fruits, and Nuts * Digging Roots and Tubers * Timing for Taste
3 Grazing Greens: Tasty Leaves and Stems
4 The Fruits of Nature's Labor: Edible Flowers and Fruits
5 Nature's Granola: Nuts and Seeds
6 Hidden Treasure: Roots, Tubers, and Rhizomes
7 Superstars: Plants with Many Edible Parts
8 Friendly Fungi: Five Easy Mushrooms
9 You Wouldn't Do This If It Didn't Taste Good: Preserving Advice and Basic Recipes
Freezing * Dehydration * Syrups, Jams, and Jellies * Booze * Baked Goods and Savory Dishes * Fruity Miscellany * Resources and Recommended Reading * Books about Wild Edible Plants * Foraging Books and Blogs * Mushrooms * Vendors of Mushroom-Growing Supplies * Food Preparation
Interior Photography Credits
Index
|
"There is a food frontier nine steps from your backdoor, and Ellen Zachos is giving a tour. In this beautiful and accessible guidebook, she introduces us to the culinary use of a wealth of free, exotic, and gourmet produce that almost nobody knew existed." "This is the book I had when I first got interested in eating 'wild'." "A worthy and eye-opening addition to anyone's personal wild food library." "Suddenly, a walk through the garden becomes a treasure hunt." "I think of myself as a backyard know-it-all, but this book schooled me! I found myself exclaiming "no way!"at page after page."" |
Ellen Zachos teaches foraged mixology workshops to bartenders in partnership with Rémy Cointreau USA, and is a regular contributor to several Edible magazines. A longtime instructor at the New York Botanic Garden, Zachos is the author of six books, including The Wildcrafted Cocktail and Backyard Foraging. She shares wild, seasonal recipes at backyardforager.com.
Storey Publishing
Pub Date: March 12, 2013
0.6" H x 8.9" L x 6.9" W
240 pages
paperback