Adam F. Szczawinski (1913–2006)

A comprehensive survey of edible weeds with clear drawings of all and colour photos of many. The book is beautifully designed and the text well-researched. However, I have a few issues with it. First, the section on plants to avoid has no visuals or identifying characteristics at all. If you want to know which plants are dangerous, you must obtain another field guide. Not all of the edible plants are well-identified either. For example, lambs-quarters, which I know very well as a staple of our family's diet: the plant is not very well-described and the picture is of a plant well past the time when the leaves are edible. It would be hard for a novice harvester to identify the plant at all. Finally, the book comes with a plethora of recipes but no indication that the recipes have been tested or made even once. Many recipes look like they might be good, but with no comments on taste, no acknowledgements of source or kitchen help, and the fact that many of them use quantities of purchased ingredients, I feel uneasy about trying them. An extreme example of a questionable recipe, Knotweed Prairie Pudding, involves 3 cups of knotweed (all vegetable quantities, by the way, are given in volume not weight with no indication of whether loosely or firmly packed, and this alone renders the cookbook less useful), 3 cups of honey(!), 1/3 cup of butter, and 3 cups of soft bread cubes. Combine the ingredients and boil for 30 minutes, season with cinnamon and nutmeg, serves 6 -- each of whom is expected to eat half a cup of honey. Not happening.

If I had no other source of information on edible weeds, I would definitely keep this book on the shelf. However, Euell Gibbons's recipes are much more thoughtful and the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants covers the identification angle very well, with the addition of tips for identifying and avoiding dangerous plants.… (mer)