Author: Doug Benoiliel
Illustrator: Mark Orsen
Bottom Line: 4.5/5 stars
It’s sort of like all my complaints about Wild Harvest were addressed when this book was written. It’s pretty much awesome. One of my favorite things about this book is that Benoliel is really sort of goofy-nerd self aware, he makes some endearing deprecating comments about his sense of humor here and there and just in general is a very likable writer.
The book itself is fairly light probably only 0.5-1lb, which would make it pretty easy to carry on an overnight unless you were going ultra light. The pages are matte, so you would definitely want to transport in a waterproof bag.
As far as contents, there is a lot about this book that I really like. There’s a nice overview by season, that is further classified by type of plant and/or preparation (berries, seeds, raw greens, greens for cooking etc.), I will say I think this could be improved by having the corresponding page numbers but the book is alphabetical so this is not a huge problem at all.
There’s some interesting nutritional data for wild plants comparing them with grocery store fruits and veggies, based on USDA data, which is pretty cool. One of my biggest issues with Wild Harvest was the technical terms without appendices to illustrate what they meant, this book has that and goes a step further by giving some examples of plants that illustrate the terms. The illustrations themselves, both in the appendices and throughout the book, are really nice looking.
There is a really nice variety of plants and he groups similar items (mostly plants within the same genus) so there aren’t separate entries for different types of blueberry, but he does explain the differences within the entry. He touches on some of the medicinal properties of some plants. Also including historical and Native American usages, which is pretty nifty.There are very clear warnings for plants with inedible or poisonous look-a-likes, which was probably the biggest problem I had with wild harvest.
The only thing that I really missed in this book was photographs of the plants. While the illustration were quite good, I think that photographs are really important especially since the illustrations are black and white. A lot of how I initially locate plants, especially when I’m out walking is by colors, after that I use shape and size to confirm it’s the plant I want but color is how I find it. Even though the descriptions are accurate telling me the flower of a plant is pink is only so helpful.
However so far this is one of the best edible plant books I’ve seen. I have one more book here at home on edible plants (not including mushrooms to review), which is a bit heavier than this book, so unless that book is better, this may well end up being what I purchase for myself.
Bottom Line: 4.5/5 stars
It’s sort of like all my complaints about Wild Harvest were addressed when this book was written. It’s pretty much awesome. One of my favorite things about this book is that Benoliel is really sort of goofy-nerd self aware, he makes some endearing deprecating comments about his sense of humor here and there and just in general is a very likable writer.
The book itself is fairly light probably only 0.5-1lb, which would make it pretty easy to carry on an overnight unless you were going ultra light. The pages are matte, so you would definitely want to transport in a waterproof bag.
As far as contents, there is a lot about this book that I really like. There’s a nice overview by season, that is further classified by type of plant and/or preparation (berries, seeds, raw greens, greens for cooking etc.), I will say I think this could be improved by having the corresponding page numbers but the book is alphabetical so this is not a huge problem at all.
There’s some interesting nutritional data for wild plants comparing them with grocery store fruits and veggies, based on USDA data, which is pretty cool. One of my biggest issues with Wild Harvest was the technical terms without appendices to illustrate what they meant, this book has that and goes a step further by giving some examples of plants that illustrate the terms. The illustrations themselves, both in the appendices and throughout the book, are really nice looking.
There is a really nice variety of plants and he groups similar items (mostly plants within the same genus) so there aren’t separate entries for different types of blueberry, but he does explain the differences within the entry. He touches on some of the medicinal properties of some plants. Also including historical and Native American usages, which is pretty nifty.There are very clear warnings for plants with inedible or poisonous look-a-likes, which was probably the biggest problem I had with wild harvest.
The only thing that I really missed in this book was photographs of the plants. While the illustration were quite good, I think that photographs are really important especially since the illustrations are black and white. A lot of how I initially locate plants, especially when I’m out walking is by colors, after that I use shape and size to confirm it’s the plant I want but color is how I find it. Even though the descriptions are accurate telling me the flower of a plant is pink is only so helpful.
However so far this is one of the best edible plant books I’ve seen. I have one more book here at home on edible plants (not including mushrooms to review), which is a bit heavier than this book, so unless that book is better, this may well end up being what I purchase for myself.
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