Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants

This book will be handy to take along on hikes for myself and grandchildren for identifying plants.

Overall, this is a great book. At least, it's a great place to start and learn about the different plants. There's a few things I would have done differently if I was making the book, but we all have our preferences. As stated in the title, this is a field guide, and it's just that, for use in the field. However, when educating yourself on these various plants, use the internet to further your research. Start by learning about one plant you have in your area, and go through the process of processing it for use. This helps you learn better. I selected dandelion roots for making coffee. My second attempt worked excellent. Wasn't bad at all. You must try it. Look for videos on Youtube, or info on websites for further information for these different plants and there uses. If you learn and work with one plant a week, you'll learn 52 plants in a years time. That's valuable information you can take with you for the rest of your life, and pass down to your children, and so on. It's also a great item for your back pack, or bug out bag. Store it in a waterproof zip lock bag.

Dear Seller, love your book it is a real survival benefit for everyone I would recommend it to everyone. It teaches of the plants that I have learned when I was a child such as the berries of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries,strawberries and even the wild grapes that grew abundantly all around us when my family and I grew up. we had apple trees but no one knew how to take care of them as i am now trying to learn how to take care of my few dwarf apple and cherry trees and i am still i the learning process.It teaches you poisonous plants to be ware of like our childhood experiences with Poison Ivy, Oak and Sumac however i never knew that Jewel weed grew near it and that it was the remedy or antidote to cure your ailments.It teaches some mushroom are eatable as others are poisonous. It also shows a lot of common plants that are eatable. There are even some flowers that today are known to be eatable as well as what I have researched thanks to the Scientific study proof . There were many of these that I just took for granted of the beauty that captured my eyes as well as my heart that we used to pick while my brothers and sisters walked along with me those few miles back and forth almost every day out to the Little Country store on the back roads behind our first high way. We would always just admire all the tiger Lilly's that grew along side the road as later in the future I showed that same road to my future husband while we were in the beginning of courting each other that took us off into another road that lead us through the sweet scent of the of the most beautiful wild Lilacs of many different colors which really set the the scenery of our love that only deepened of the paradise that we had found together along with all the memories of my childhood days that brought us to that day near that beautiful lake that we used to swim at where my best friend and I used to go when we met in 1976. It brought me back to the days of when I used to pick Wild Strawberries and Pussy Willows when I used to visit my friend who had a lot of cats and where my brothers would play ball down the ball field as I would stop in and sit on the bleachers and and catch the last inning cheering them on as I walked up the big hill on the opposite road cutting through a short cut while grabbing a few handful of sour Wild Grapes of my neighbors Grapevine that grew along that road that lead to my home of my Mom and dads house that lastly they would catch me snacking on their little Wild Blueberry bush as i would come home with a Pink Rose with in my hand as the sun would set before my curfew began. Then in the morning I would walk down by the old beach that was down fro us and I would just wade in the water as thoughts of my fiance would go through my head of the wonder memories that i shared with him of my childhood life yet my heart would be filled with the new memories that we had shared together with future memories that would be made together. Dreams from my first garden which was carrots to my wild berry picking that lead from the Tiger Lilly's from that little country store and back to that day of where my husband and I found that little Paradise with all the wonder scents of the Lilacs and other flower scents that would carry me through out my life of the many wonderful sites that we have been before we were even together and after where today flowers have even been discovered to be eatable as well as the many different herbs and plants that someone born from yesterday could only be capture by all their beauty.If only the children of today could have lived with in our life time and see and experience what we have experienced and appreciate what they have our children would not only know but feel all the love that has surrounded us for all those years however it is sad because in this modern day world of convenience they may only get to have a glimpse of our world and they can never understand. I am just glad that our son who is now 19 has that chance to at least learn of some of our ways of what he knows to be Organics but what was not know way back then. Thank again medicine Thank you again for this book that brings all those memories back to my husband, my family and me. I should write a book as my sons say that I have that potential because I have much more that could be told only I will save that for another time just get the book and you will see as I edit more to my true story. So I will catch you all later.medicine

"Survival this, Survival that". Ok people, if you are in a true survival situation then chances are you won't really have a set of field guides just laying around. These are designed to be field guides, aka., used on planned trips into nature for the purpose of identification and utilization. They are NOT for emergency situations. If you can't identify it, you don't use it. Now on to the review. The book is fairly decent. Looks like any other guide from this series. Each plant has its common and scientific name, what part of the plant is edible (or whether it is / may be toxic). Images are all line drawings except for the 15 plates which are colored photographs located in the middle of the book. The descriptions are generally brief and include measurements, what types of areas it is found in, and when it flowers or when certain parts are produced (like seeds or leaves). Has a wide variety of plants and types. One thing I was put off by is the lack of Lemon Balm in the mint section. This may be due to the fact it is not native to the United States, but was just surprised since it is such a popular member of the mint family. I have a ton of it growing outside my house and actually just picked a bunch of leaves for tea. Unsure if this is a common theme throughout the book. Again, it may just be that some non-native plants were left out regardless of their popularity and uses. Remember, neither the Peterson series nor any other field guide I know of for that matter is designed for survival. All the reviews bashing them from that aspect are poorly thought out. They exist to help you train your skills in the field. Only an idiot would think he/she could adequately survive solely on books instead of honing the skills that the books teach. And again, no field guide can have every single plant species you will come across. Use the book to actually learn and remember: what they look like, what parts can be used, and how to use them. There is no one book solution so consider having companion books. For example, I have two main books on tree identification and two smaller ones that fit in my pocket. I have no excuse to inaccurately identify a tree. Same goes for edible plants and fungi. Don't be an idiot. NEVER base survival around a book. You're just asking for trouble.

I'm very partial to Peterson field guides - I have 9, including this. All are specifically for carrying in the field to identify plants/animals/birds - whichever your guide focuses on. They all have pictures and drawings to help with identification. The actual entries are concise. More in depth information is required for knowing how to harvest plants and prepare them. So this is not a book on preparing plants - but (again)identifying them. It does tell you you what's edible, poisonous, and what each plants general uses are - ie good for salads, teas, cooked, or used for candy. I use this even in my back yard. The rule of thumb when identifying plants is use three sources. So, don't eat anything without checking out two more sources. Still, I recommend this as the general field guide to throw in your backpack. It's paperback book size and 330 pages. It's heavier than an average paperback, but still reasonable to carry while hiking.

I recently purchased this new updated version to replace my old one which I have used for many years. I have looked through many other edible plant and survival books which talk about edible plants, and this one is the one I wouldn't hesitate to give to anyone. A teacher I had years ago told our class, "Just remember this, if you are going to collect and eat any plant you are betting your life on the fact that you are identifying it correctly." At a later time I learned that a very well known mushroom hunter in my area misidentified a mushroom and ended up dying for his mistake. That made me more cautious than ever and I realized that this book seems to be one of the most thorough and accurate information about edible plants. Peterson Field Guides have always been top of the line, and this book is a glowing example of that.

Great

I bought this book because I wanted to know plants that can be eaten if absolutely. It most cases people dont know all the plant in the wild they can survive on.

An excellent book - full of information

This book is the perfect size to take with on a hike and/or foraging adventure. It is easy to read, has detailed pictures, detailed descriptions as well as many local plants as i had hoped/the title suggested. I also like the blank notes pages at the end so that i can note the plants that i’ve seen around and would like to look for. I am very pleased with this purchase.

There is good reason for the popularity of this book. The author gives good descriptions of a large variety of plants, when they are in season, where to find them, how to use them, and when to avoid them. he also clearly warns of some look-a-likes that could harm you if you got them confused. It is easy to look up a plant based off of the location, the type of leaf, the colour of the flower, etc in this book and it is a great book for those just getting into gathering wild edibles. If I could only have one book on the topic this would likely be the one.

Its filled with plenty of useful information (wish there were more mushrooms) my only criticism is the book being 90% black and white. meaning theres a very small number of pages in the middle that are full color but even the color images are very difficult to tell, the lighting in the pictures are really off for some reason. but the nature of the book being black and white isn't that bad but it does make it quite difficult to tell very obvious characteristics of a plant right away cause you cant rely on the most obvious indicator of color to know if you're even looking at the right plant. So I'm half tempted to take some pencil crayons to the pages myself to fill in the missing color. either way, great field manual, already managed to identify half a dozen wild edibles just walking down my street. amazing how many weeds are edibles.

The book is exactly what I was looking for as a quick field guide reference. I use this book when I am out in the field. The drawings are very helpful for plant ID and easy to follow. The pictures are stunning. I am not new to foraging or botany and this is a go to.