Thanks for turning us on to the ‘big book’. It’s not in our collection, but it sounds like it should be.

We love your site — ‘aspiring hunter/gatherer’. Way to go! That’s an aspiration we can definitely get behind.

Hugs,
Kenton and Rebecca

Kallas’ book is as detailed and reliable as Thayer’s. It is the 1st in a series, and only covers greens.

If you ever want the most comprehensive resource, Native American Ethnobotany is massive. It compiles over 40,000 plant uses from over 4,000 plants that were used by Native American’s. It isn’t the same kind of book as the other foraging books mentioned, but if you want a broad understanding of how many ways plants can be used to meet daily needs, this is the book.

Nate

Thanks for the recommendation! We haven’t yet read John Kallas, but he’s on our list!

Ron and I are anxiously awaiting mushroom season, and it’s just around the corner. He’s the spotter, and I’m the identifier!

Learning about the black nightshade berries was an amazement for us, as well. We, too, are waiting in breathless excitement to try them out. Grow, nightshade, grow!

We love the concept of your blog, by the way, and will be posting you on our Awesome Nature Blogs blogroll. May you and Ron continue to have fun adventures!

I, too, really appreciated seeing the record straightened on what really killed Christopher McCandless. And even though I understood that our body needs a certain number of calories per day, I had never put it together what that actually meant in terms of wilderness survival.

The most surprising revelation in the book, to me, was that black nightshade berries are edible. Can’t wait till they ripen around here to try them.

Glad I found your blog!

We hadn’t heard of that one! We’ll have to check it out. We’re becoming fans of books that give less quantity of information and more quality of information. For so long our edible plants guide was a big Peterson’s field guide or something, which gave you the impression that there were tons of things to eat out there, but didn’t make it very easy to identify them or know what parts to eat or how to prepare them.

I’ve read that an indicator of the disconnect in our society is that young people don’t know where their food comes from. I think a book like “Plantworks” helps bridge that chasm.

Absolutely — this guy knows his stuff. The milkweed myth exploded, all sorts of edible parts of plants we were already familiar with, a great education about the nightshade family, and so much more — there is so much to learn! Glad you’re a fan =)