Title: Wild Harvest - Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest Bottom Line: 2 stars
Wild Harvest is a pretty slim volume with predominantly common, pretty well known plants (blackberries, miner’s lettuce etc.), as well as a few that many people might not be as familiar with . The book is organized by season, which is kind of a nice feature. It’s light weight so possibly a good choice for multi-day trips if you wanted to carry it while hiking. Also, it has pretty glossy pages so a bit more resilience to water damage. It also includes some pretty nice photographs. Initially this made me think it would be a good option for beginners, but after reading through it a little more closely I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think this book is that good for anybody, here’s why:
Domico uses fairly technical language (bear lobbed, palmately veined leaves etc.) which would be fine if he also provided appendices that illustrated what that means, but there’s not. S/He gives some suggestions as to how to prepare these items, but doesn't touch on medicinal qualities at all. For instance stinging nettle is good to eat but also can be used to treat arthritis. For people who are more familiar with the terminology the content of the book itself is probably already familiar. Holy Crap Balls! Blackberries are edible?! Said no one, ever. In addition I think the drawings are a little mediocre, and the objects drawn next to them for scale (sharpened pencils, scissors, forks etc.) can be a little subjective. I would say if, on the off chance, you’re a beginner with a decent familiarity with botany this might be a good book for you. Otherwise, pretty mediocre, I'd go with something else. I'll get to what later.
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