Suggested reading from Chicago Review Press
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By Christopher Nyerges, Foreword by Ed Begley, Jr.
NATURE
352 Pages, 5.5 x 8.5
Formats: Trade Paper, EPUB, Mobipocket, PDF
Trade Paper, $24.95 (US $24.95) (CA $29.95)
ISBN 9781613746981
Rights: WOR
Chicago Review Press (Apr 2014)
Overview
An array of abundant wild foods is available to hikers, campers, foragers, or anyone interested in living closer to the earth. Written by a leading expert on wild foods and a well-known teacher of survival skills, Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants is more than a listing of plant types—it teaches how to recognize edible plants and where to find them, their medicinal and nutritional properties, and their growing cycles. This new edition features more than 70 plants found all around the United States along with more than 100 full-color photos plus a handy leaf key to help readers identify the plants. It also includes fascinating folklore about plants, personal anecdotes about trips and meals, and simple and tasty recipes.
Reviews
“If you’re lost in the woods, the book could save your life; if you’re interested in plant life and botany, the book is fascinating reading.” —Booklist
“Unlike so many books on herbs and wild foods that simply repeat information the author read elsewhere, this guide is thoroughly tested and full of firsthand experience. It’s also packed with the kind of information that makes identifying food plants fun.” —Los Angeles Times
“Pick it up and you will be off on a wild currant and gooseberry chase, amazing your friends with the knowledge that gooseberries have thorns while currants do not, that both make good trail snacks and that currant shoots make ideal arrow shafts...There is something supremely life-affirming about reading this book. It makes you want to give the heave-ho to the petty, pointless consumerism that so infects us. Its straightforward prose is an antidote to irony and political cant.” —Pasadena Star News
“Nyerges’ book was originally intended as a survival guide. But it offers more than that. By identifying plants that may have no name, place or purpose in today’s society and revealing a world of history, uses and lore, the book wisely and matter-of-factly encourages a deeper relationship with nature. The message is also empowering.” —Civil Eats
Author Biography
Christopher Nyerges is the codirector of the School of Self-Reliance, where he has taught classes on wild foods and survival skills since 1974. He is the former editor of Wilderness Way magazine and west coast editor of Wild Food Forum. He has published hundreds of articles on wild foods, gardening, self-reliance, and survival skills in American Survival Guide, Herbalist, Mother Earth News, Whole Life Times, and many other magazines. Ed Begley Jr. is an actor and an environmental activist. They both live in Los Angeles.