Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places

Great book, lots of amazing and useful information.

This is my first book by Steve Brill and I'm really enjoying the work he has dedicated to these plants.

Steve Brill has written a masterpiece here. I love his descriptions of plants, his enthusiasm he brings to the subject, and his knowledge base. Much of the information you find in these pages you can also find in his app on wild edibles (available on both android and i phone), and the app is also well worth the money. The Pros of the Book: Good descriptions. Very informative and useful information to the: forager, survivalist, and for those who wish to expand their diets and improve their health. Steve is the real deal. Not some guy who parrots (you know the people who read about the plant somewhere and parrot another author without having any experience themselves) other people. Steve speaks from experience and research. This is the kind of person you want to learn from, because there are a lot of wild food books that are inaccurate. Steve is very careful and accurate in what he tells you. The Cons: Steve designed the book by season. I can't get used to it, and don't really like that format. My preference. Steve also uses line drawings (which are good) but I find color photos are far superior. Both Samuel Thayer and John Kallas have fantastic color photos in their books, and I find both Thayers and Kallas books to be superior to the beginning and intermediate forager for that reason. Mr. Brill's app that he has for android and i phone has really good color photographs. If you have any form of smart phone I would highly suggest supplementing this book with that app. I know there are some out there that prefer line drawings to photos. I'm not one of them. Conclusion: This book is worthy of 5 stars. There are a few books out there on foraging that I like better, but not many. If your going to have a wild food library this book should be on your must own list. I would put it right behind books by John Kallas, and Samuel Thayer. It is hard for me to put it above Euell Gibbons but to the beginning forager this book is probably a better place to start than Gibbons. For that reason my personal first purchases would be by authors: John Kallas, Samuel Thayer, Steve Brill, and then Euell Gibbons. In that order.

I found this book to be very useful and am very glad I bought it. There's a lot of useful information here that i didn't expect. Every plant seems to have a story and I enjoyed everyone of them so far. There's a list of minerals and vitamins for some plants which surprised me. I had no clue dandelion leaves contained b12 and also burdock roots. I thought i could only get that from animals. There's also a list of the medicinal benefits of some plants. I haven't tried the recipes yet but I'm sure there good. Before getting into the plants there's a good intro to preparing, how to categorize identifying characteristics, medical terms, and even an outlook to keep in mind while foraging.Being a beginner forager I thought this was a great book for me. The drawback is there's no colored pictures, but I easily just look it up on the internet. So far I've found a picture for every plant that I was looking for and there darn good pictures too. With all the plants listed this book would have probably cost a fortune to buy if it had colored photos. I don't think someone can buy this book and go out into the wild and just start foraging on the book alone. He makes it easy to know what to look for by categorizing the plants and listing them by seasons and geography. So studying and getting familiar with the plants someone wants to find first before going I believe is the best way to use the book. I've identified about 20 plants so far and am excited to identify more.thankyou wild man

Order came in a day early, everything as is should be. Book is in great condition, no issues at all! Thank you!

This is the best book on edible plants I have yet encountered, and I own 7. The information is really carefully researched, both by library work and extensive personal experience; lots of books propagate the errors of other references, or ignore documented risks. I'm personally a bit reserved about medicinal uses of plants (not because plant medicines are ineffective, but because they can be quite powerful) but Brill has me at least more intrigued than I have been for a while. The writing is engaging and often humorous, without obscuring a thorough coverage of each plant - where and when it is found, what parts to use and how to collect them, and finally how to prepare for eating. While I'm at it, I'll cast my vote in favor of the excellent drawings instead of photos; colors are a lot less helpful for plant identification than many people realize.In addition to all of these merits the book teaches what I think is the ideal attitude for foraging, both directly by exposition and indirectly through organization. The attitude may be summarized as thoughtful involvement, with both the plants and the places they grow. I've seen reviews of plant foraging books that are written as though the reviewer wishes to wander outside, grab a plant, look it up to see if it is edible, eat it or not, and then go on to something else. This is a recipe for a couple kinds of trouble. First, it is risky to collect plants without taking the time to learn about them; you can't just dive in and start eating stuff without learning both the plants you want to eat and something about the plants you don't want to eat. Spend some time with a plant guide or two just learning your way around plant in general. Second, careless harvesting can damage the plant populations and the plant habitats. Slow down a bit, let the caffeine wear off, and think about what you're doing. It makes a nice change. This book is a great guide.

lots information for a beginner in learning on different kinds of mushrooms.interesting book with nice pictures..

Brilliant, book easy to use full of good information

This book is great for assisting in identifying edible and medicinal plants in the wild. Gives a brief discription of what each plants are helful for as well. I find it's very helpful if you're into natural remedies.

Very good book lots of information on what plants are good... very easy to understand..my 9 year old reads it an understands it.. every prepper should have least one copy of it

Good