The Joy of Foraging

The Joy of Foraging: Gary Lincoff's Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying a World of Wild Food | Gary Lincoff

so-so

Disappointing because:
-Subtitle promises a ā€World of Wild Foodā€¯ but, beyond a short chapter that touches on Asian & Amazonian traditions, the rest are plants that grow in NE USA. (65% of them are in my area.)
-Copy edit errors, ie missing ingredients in recipes & ā€red-belliedā€¯ shrubs.
-Plant ID too brief
-Recipes easily found elsewhere: mint tea; sorrel soup.
The good:
-Recent taxonomy.
-Interesting sidebar anecdotes.

(Photo: my foraging)

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Lindy

The Joy of Foraging: Gary Lincoff's Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying a World of Wild Food | Gary Lincoff

ā€(Children in the Russian Far East spend late summer afternoons picking blueberries.)ā€¯ ā€” In a book focused on wild food of the Northeastern USA, this sentence is a non sequitor within the section on blueberries, even in parentheses. It implies that American children don‘t pick blueberries. I know that some contemporary Canadian children still spend afternoons blueberry picking, with someone on watch for bears.
(Internet photo)

tournevis In Canada, the number of pick-your-own berry farms is high and that's how most kids do their fruit picking. But there are places you do it in the wild. I learned how to pick berries with my grandmother in the flood marshes of the Magdalen Islands. 5y

hilded I pick my berries in the wild every year, and then makes jam that we freeze down to have over the winter. The blueberries tastes lovely:) 5y

Lindy @tournevis The Magdalen Islands! ā¯¤ļø¸I first picked blueberries with my grandmother in the sandy pine forests of northern Alberta. 5y

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Lindy @hilded Yay! 5y

tournevis @Lindy Love picking in the wild! There was a small urban trail near our old house that had raspberries. I go pick some every day, walking the dog. The other walkers thought I was nuts! But I had berries for my hubby and son daily. I'm allergic myself to most berries. That won't stop me from picking. I'm good at finding urban places with berries. 5y

Becker Blueberries for Sal - one of my favourite picture books. š» 5y

Lindy @Becker I was thinking of that book too. š‘Æā€¨ā™€ļø¸ 5y

Lindy @tournevis It‘s too bad you are allergic. Berries are my favourite fruits. To supplement the raspberries and other fruit in my garden, I forage in Edmonton‘s river valley for chokecherries, saskatoons and highbush cranberries. 5y

Dragon As a kid we used to go huckleberry picking ,thank goodness we never encountered any š» , every family had their secret spots. 5y

Lindy @Dragon Yes! Families still have secret spots. When my eldest uncle died, my cousins from other families wondered if his kids would share his blueberry patch location, but we thought it would be crass to ask them at his memorial service. 5y

Dragon Sounds familiar š€š‰ 5y

llwheeler Another Canadian who picked wild berries as a kid, here! Berry picking was one of the highlights of summers at the cottage (Ontario, just east of Algonquin park). Mostly blueberries, but some strawberries and raspberries. 5y

Lindy @llwheeler š¨“šš‘¨ 5y

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Lindy

The Joy of Foraging: Gary Lincoff's Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying a World of Wild Food | Gary Lincoff

ā€A characteristic widely-spaced, five-petal flower in early Aprilā€¦ā€¯ The author‘s description of saskatoons (Amelanchier spp.) is an example of why foragers need to use local guidebooks. Around here, saskatoons bloom in mid-May. Photo above is from my garden.

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Lindy

The Joy of Foraging: Gary Lincoff's Illustrated Guide to Finding, Harvesting, and Enjoying a World of Wild Food | Gary Lincoff

The book‘s photo doesn‘t make wild persimmons look appealing. Have any of you eaten them? The author writes (awkwardly): ā€Japanese persimmons have come into Western markets so people who know only these cannot know either the puckery nature of wild persimmons or their lusciousness when fully ripe.ā€¯

Cathythoughts š¤·š¸»ā€¨ā™€ļø¸interesting fruit ( or veg ) š‘¨š¸» 5y

Soubhiville I don‘t care for them. Too much tannin. The flavor isn‘t bad, it‘s the sensation of the tannin that bothers me. 5y

readordierachel Does "puckery nature" mean sour? 5y

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Lindy @readordierachel In this case, I think puckery refers to the dry mouth effect of tannins in the unripe fruit, as @Soubhiville mentioned. 5y

Lindy @Cathythoughts Interesting, but not appealing. I‘ve only eaten dried Japanese persimmons in the past. They were delicious. 5y

LibrarianRyan They grow wild behind moms house. I don't care for them, but they make great jam. 5y

Lindy @LibrarianRyan Good to know, thanks. š 5y

Soubhiville @Lindy I‘ll have to try them dried. 5y

Lindy @Soubhiville The dried ones I tried weren‘t the wild type; I understand them to have been bred to be sweeter and without so much tannin. 5y

Redwritinghood Ate these all the time as a kid. We would make a pudding with them. It was a fall staple where I grew up (Southern Indiana). We even had a Persimmon Festival every year. 5y

Lindy @Redwritinghood oooh! A persimmon festival! I looked it up and I see that this year will be the 73rd annual festival in Mitchell. That‘s cool. 5y

Redwritinghood @Lindy Yes! My mother is from Mitchell and we lived nearby. 5y

Lindy @Redwritinghood Now I‘ve got R Dean Taylor‘s Indiana Wants Me in my head. šˇµš 5y

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