Edible Wild Plant guides

[CalumC]

Hullo all,

I'm getting frustrated, i've been inspired by David Everitt-Mathias' book and its use of wild food, and i'm now looking a guide to wild food in Britain. As much as i love Amazon, they just don't have a guide to edible wild plants in Britain. Has anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks for any help.

Edited January 10, 2007 by CalumC (log)

[insomniac]

I use an old 1987 edition of Britain's Wildlife, Plants and Flowers (Reader's Digest) that I found in a secondhand book shop near Bath.

It's excellent, as is Essence, which I have been cooking from for a month or so with great results.

[ravelda]

You may find the following links helpful - one of them has the oppotunity to have a coaching session with the now famous Fergus Drennan:

http://www.wildmanwildfood.co.uk/

http://www.foraging.com/

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly...1453404,00.html

http://www.naturali.co.uk/wild-food-foraging.html

http://foragingpictures.com/

Hope this helps!

David

[lapin d'or]

You could try and get a copy of Richard Mabey's 'Food for Free - A Guide to the edible wild plants of Britain'. I have a very old copy but I know it was reprinted.

I also think you can now get reprints of Hugh Fearnley's... Cook on the Wild Side from the River Cottage web site.

Ray Mears is currently looking at British Hunter Gatherers on TV too.

happy foraging

[CalumC]

Excellent, all look very helpful. I'm thinking about going up on the hill around Cheltenham (I live there, part of the reason the interest arose from Essence), see what is up there. Thanks for all the links and books.

[nimzo]

best I ever came across was from Michel Bras, names were in french and latin but easy to translate with a seed catalogue from Chiltern seeds and plenty of them growing in England or could be grown

[seanw]

Wild Food, by Roger Phillips. Beautiful photography, nice research & interesting recipes.

[ljr]

Richard Mabey's Food for Free is best bought in the new large format edition which has exellent pictures. The drawings in the older editions are not much use - especially for mushrooms. for mushrooms you might as well buy the collins pocket guide as it is only a couple of quid and has as many mushrooms in it as most larger more expensive books.

[fatmat]

Edible Wild Plant Guide???

Why on earth would you want to eat a wild plant guide?

Edited January 16, 2007 by fatmat (log)

[CalumC]

^

They're delicious!

I bought 3 books in the end, the Mabey book, the readers digest, which have both come already, and another, edible plants pocket guide, only because it was recommended and i wanted to get an import cd at the same time.

[MobyP]

If you live in Cheltenham, you should ask David E-M to teach you. He regularly goes on foraging trips for mushrooms etc. Why not offer an exchange - some dish washing duty for the chance to accompany him? He knows a huge amount and is a very decent bloke. As you're still under 20, he might look kindly on you.

[CalumC]

Well its funny you mention that, I did email him and he recommended the books and what might be around. I may be able to offer an exchange such as that, would be good to get into a kitchen like that, even if it is just washing up.

Thanks for digging this up, good idea.