Wild green vegetables of Canada

by Nancy J. Turner

Book by Szczawinski, Adam F

179 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Nancy Turner is an ethnobotanist whose research integrates the fields of botany and ecology with anthropology, geography and linguistics, among others. She is interested in the traditional knowledge systems and traditional land and resource management systems of Indigenous Peoples, particularly in western Canada.

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is quite a dated foraging book with some good information but not a great deal. Most of the plants listed are found on the coast or mountain areas, which isn't helpful for those on the prairie. Many of the foods listed are listed as "survival food" -- not really something we need for foraging books when so many wild plants are honestly delicious. One reason for this is that the book appears to be part of a large series and the authors say that some of the best tasting wild vegetables like lambsquarters already appeared in their "edible garden weeds" book.

Plants covered in this volume are: dulce, laver and other sea vegetables; rock tripe and other edible lichens; ostrich fern; wild onions; common reed grass; common cattail; eelgrass; cow parsnip; "Indian celery;" balsamroot; rock-cresses; sea-rocket; scurvy-grass; prickly pear cacti; seabeach-sandwort; strawberry spinach; glassworts; stonecrops; fireweed; seaside plantain; mountain sorrel; mountain bistorts; thimbleberry and salmonberry; woolly lousewort; common veronica; wild violets

Our family's favorite wild green vegetables are: wild asparagus, ramps, stinging nettles, wood nettles, immature milkweed pods (we bread and fry them for poppers), lambsquarters, cattail hearts, purslane, chickweed, garlic mustard, wild garlic and wood sorrel. Of these, only cattails are included in this book (we do like violets too, though we mostly use the flowers and not the leaves). Some of the "green vegetables" are dubious, too, such as the leaves of bramble bushes like thimbleberries. While I do dry raspberry leaves for tea I would not typically count them as a "wild vegetable" worth foraging.

The authors list the vegetables in their garden weed book and those are ones we forage much more. Many of my favorites seem to be in that book, though not all. Wild asparagus does not seem to be listed in any of their books, which really surprises me as it's found throughout the United States and all of Canada (see this map of its range: https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?...). Other favorite wild veggies are also absent from both books, while plants like "lousewort" are included that may have a dubious following.

Most of the plants include one color photo for ID purposes, but the photos are of poor quality and the colors are dated (they have that 1970's olive green tint). Some are blurry. Each entry also has a line drawing for identification. There are line drawings of poisonous lookalikes too. No photos are provided for the recipes. There are about 2-3 recipes for each plant, which are heavy on the use of meats and dairy.

My copy of the book is spiral bound, which is helpful. The pages are beige, with some brown pages (similar to brown paper bags). No maps are provided for ranges, just general descriptions of where the plant is typically found in Canada. I am in MN and we tend to have similar wild plants, but most of the plants in this book are not in my area (mostly because they are coastal or mountain plants, as mentioned).

I got this book free for postage from a fellow foraging author, and appreciated the chance to read it. I will probably donate it to a community library of some sort. While there is some helpful information, the foraging community is lucky to now have some more modern books that most foragers will probably find more helpful.