Foraging Wild Edible Plants of North America

That’s the title of another book available at Internet Archive as a free download.  I reviewed two other herbal references posted at that site last week; that post is scheduled for early May.  In all fairness, this one should appear after that, but I don’t necessarily believe in fair play.  (Well, I do, but not when it comes to preparedness.  And if something I believe you should know sooner than later pops up, then it gets moved to the front of the line.)

I took a quick look at this after returning from my stint at the post office this morning.  Would there be anything of value? 

Foraging to me suggests tromping around in forests and meadows, expending more calories gathering weeds than will be found in what is foraged.  Perfect for someone wanting to lose weight, but less than ideal in a survival situation.  I don’t want to leave my property to gather food.  However, if the book addressed weeds I’m already growing, it might prove valuable.

I’m a little curious as to why this book is posted at Internet Archive.  It is only three years old, not decades old like the other two that will post in May.  Maybe the author/publisher consider it a form of free advertising.  Not sure.  I’m also not confident that it will hang around for long.

Here’s the address for it:  https://dn721807.ca.archive.org/0/items/foraging-wild-edible-plants-of-north-america-2nd-ed-by-christopher-nyerges-2023/Foraging%20Wild%20Edible%20Plants%20of%20North%20America%202nd%20Ed%20-by%20Christopher%20Nyerges%20%282023%29.pdf

I am printing this one up because it doesn’t just tell me which weeds are edible; it includes recipes for using weeds as food. Weeds are already a tough sell.  I want tried and true recipes for using them and enticing my family to try them.  I want recipes for the neighbors who might not have stocked their pantry well. 

The book covers about 40 wild edible plants of North America, 15 of which I have profiled on the blog for their medicinal uses. 

• Blackberry
• Cattail
• Chickweed
• Chicory
• Chokecherry/wild cherry
• Dandelion
• Dock
• Lamb’s quarters
• Mallow
• Nasturtium
• Plantain
• Purslane
• Raspberry
• Russian thistle
• Violet (Johnny jump up)

However, I haven’t provided much in the way of using these items as food.  But since we’re already gathering many of these plants for the medicinal qualities, why not gather some more for dinner? 

So I checked out a few of the recipes.  I was quite hopeful to find some other uses for Russian thistle, aka tumbleweed.  No such luck there.  Those were basically recipes I’d already shared. 

Purslane recipes included making deep-fried appetizers and using it on a sandwich and pickling it.

Plantain recipes intrigued me.  Plantain leaves were used instead of grape leaves for stuffing or making a soup.  Of course, for stuffing you’ll need broadleaf plantain leaves.

I was a bit disappointed that there weren’t more recipes focusing on plantain.  Then I decided to check on chickweed.  Lottery won.  Salads, stews, quesadillas, tostadas.  Of course, I can’t test any of these recipes right now.  Even though winter snows have snubbed us this year, it’s still plenty cold outside. Recipe reviews will have to wait.  At least I can print it up for now.

References:

https://dn721807.ca.archive.org/0/items/foraging-wild-edible-plants-of-north-america-2nd-ed-by-christopher-nyerges-2023/Foraging%20Wild%20Edible%20Plants%20of%20North%20America%202nd%20Ed%20-by%20Christopher%20Nyerges%20%282023%29.pdf