The Forager's Kitchen

by Fiona Bird

In The Forager's Kitchen, expert forager and cook Fiona Bird shares the knowledge she has gained from years of gathering food from the land. Whether you live in a large city, in open countryside or by the coast, if you open your eyes and follow Fiona's advice, you will find more ingredients growing in the wild than you could imagine. And once you have brought your bounty home, there are more than 100 recipes for you to try. If you love baking, try the carrot and clover cake, wild hazelnut shortbread or sea lettuce madeleines. Make the most of a hedgerow glut by making honeysuckle jelly or quince and wild thyme sorbet. Try a food-for-free main course of chanterelle puffs or wild mussels steamed with dandelions, or a quick snack of garlic mustard, chickweed and tomato bruschetta. Or indulge your tastebuds with wild berry and herb marshmallows or a wild cherry panna cotta. The Forager's Kitchen will change the way you cook - rather than shopping in the aisles of your grocery store, head off to the great outdoors and you will be amazed by the sheer quantity of food that available for free.

Genres: Food, Cookbooks

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2013

Reviews

[Prima Seadiva · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fairly quick read. I have long enjoyed foraging. Much of the information here though interesting is more relevant to her specific location and climate- Scotland and UK. There is some crossover. Dandelions and nettles are pretty much everywhere.I liked the Douglas fir and lovage recipes. As Douglas fir is ubiquitous here, making the syrup was easy and it was tasty.
Some of my favorites such as miner's lettuce and winter cress were not in here. I don't know enough about desert foraging to assess how useful this book would be in such a climate.

I found some of the recipes helpful especially the syrups and vinegars. I know I'm going to make some honeysuckle syrup from the giant plant in my garden. Many recipes can be applied to what you do have.
And though I'll have to "forage" from my local coop bulk section I know I'm going to make the Dulse Pesto.
Whether your climate is similar to hers the general information is helpful to those new to foraging. She is very clear about the need for verification before eating, taking modest amounts and respecting the environment.

[Kacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to some of the forage-able foods in the UK, with detailed descriptions, images and easy, tasty recipes.

My only criticism is the insistence upon using the US English words followed by the UK English 'translation' in brackets every single time such a word is used. Especially for a book about foraging in the UK... Astonishingly, UK readers do know that pants are trousers, that a cake pan is a cake tin, and that gum boots are wellingtons. Most texts will show the translation the first time an alternative term is used, rather than every single time. Unfortunately, it disrupts the flow of the text.