Identifying & Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants (And Not So Wild Places) Kindle Edition

This book is well-written, with some pretty drawings. It is organized by season, which at first I thought was a great idea. The problem is, the drawings of the plants aren't often on the same page as the paragraphs discussing the plant. Obviously, not every book on edible plants is going to be laid out as a guide with the descriptions and pictures on the page in alphabetical order, but honestly, that's what I was looking for. This book is extremely detailed about a very few plants, many of which don't grow in my area. Ther are no photos, but the drawing are very well-done. If you really enjoy reading about edible plants in your spare time, just soaking in the information, then this book is for you: if you are looking for a field guide to help you identify and understand plants while you are out walking around, keep looking.

Okay so the book overall is beautiful. But I wish I had read the reviews. It's black and white botanical drawings. And they're gorgeous.But they're black and white. Drawings. Not the most helpful for novice plant identification.Most of them are also not to scale. They are at 2/3 scale. Which I get is sometimes necessary for books. But still, it adds to the difficulty.

Steve Brill has written a masterpiece here. I love his descriptions of plants, his enthusiasm he brings to the subject, and his knowledge base. Much of the information you find in these pages you can also find in his app on wild edibles (available on both android and i phone), and the app is also well worth the money. The Pros of the Book: Good descriptions. Very informative and useful information to the: forager, survivalist, and for those who wish to expand their diets and improve their health. Steve is the real deal. Not some guy who parrots (you know the people who read about the plant somewhere and parrot another author without having any experience themselves) other people. Steve speaks from experience and research. This is the kind of person you want to learn from, because there are a lot of wild food books that are inaccurate. Steve is very careful and accurate in what he tells you. The Cons: Steve designed the book by season. I can't get used to it, and don't really like that format. My preference. Steve also uses line drawings (which are good) but I find color photos are far superior. Both Samuel Thayer and John Kallas have fantastic color photos in their books, and I find both Thayers and Kallas books to be superior to the beginning and intermediate forager for that reason. Mr. Brill's app that he has for android and i phone has really good color photographs. If you have any form of smart phone I would highly suggest supplementing this book with that app. I know there are some out there that prefer line drawings to photos. I'm not one of them. Conclusion: This book is worthy of 5 stars. There are a few books out there on foraging that I like better, but not many. If your going to have a wild food library this book should be on your must own list. I would put it right behind books by John Kallas, and Samuel Thayer. It is hard for me to put it above Euell Gibbons but to the beginning forager this book is probably a better place to start than Gibbons. For that reason my personal first purchases would be by authors: John Kallas, Samuel Thayer, Steve Brill, and then Euell Gibbons. In that order.

Really happy with this book, just wish the illustrations were in color. Would make identification a lot easier imo.

If you do not know about Steve Brill yet, then do yourself a favor and read his bio.We all seem to forget that we have made it to the 21st century solely because our forefathers were able to forage wild foods and domesticate some of them. Sadly most people forgotten about Foraging and the really great health benefits you get from eating preservative free uncontaminated food. It personally solved a lot of my health problems by avoiding supermarkets and using foraged greens, but I digress.If you are truly interested in foraging, buy Steve's books. They are extremely well written and thorough. there just isn't a better book.Steve "lives" the content of his books which is different from other authors at large.This book by Steve does not contain photographs but detailed technical drawings showing all the parts of the plant in exact focus. Photography cannot achieve this unless you are at hyperfocal distance but then resolution is compromised. Therefore most photographs has parts of plants in focus and others not. Drawings gets rid of this trouble. So before anyone complains about the lack of photographs, remember that you can get any of the plants he lists on the internet as photos.Therefore by combining google with this book you get TWO different descriptions of a plant, both drawing and photo. To me this is ideal and indispensable.In short I cannot think of a better book if you are seriously interested.If you are a Vegan, Steve's Vegan Cookbook ( also available at amazon )is THE Cookbook. It is simply a beautiful book. I am not Vegan, but I use the book as the ultimate reference to create my own recipes to my dieting style. Vegans definately should not miss this one..

The book is huge, about the size of a telephone directory (I was expecting a standard size paperback). On arrival it becomes clear that the book is about U.S plants, not U.K! So not useful at all.

Not in colour so very difficult for positive identification. Not uk but usa

Brilliant, book easy to use full of good information

Good

I got this book for my moter in laws christmas and she loved it. I read all the reviews before I purchased it and they were helpful in me making a decision. The book is a work of art and there are very intricate line drawings in it. The info is very accurate and easy to digest. The author has lots of knowledge crammed in this book and it is well worth getting if you are curious about all the uses plants can be used for.