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Incredible Wild Edibles: 36 Plants That Can Change Your Life
Incredible Wild Edibles covers 36 of the best edible wild plants in North America: fruits, berries, nuts, shoots, leafy greens, root vegetables, culinary herbs, teas, and syrups that boast exceptional flavor and nutrition. The plants chosen represent every habitat and every region in North America, from the northern forests to the southwest deserts, from the largest cities to the wildest mountains. Rather than cover hundreds of species in brief accounts that leave the reader unsure of how to proceed, Samuel Thayer encourages readers to thoroughly learn one plant at a time. Each of these traditional foods has a rich culinary and cultural history―a wholesome past that is still relevant for our health and happiness today. The text is fully accessible to the novice, but remains botanically accurate and has the in-depth information that seasoned foragers crave.
480 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 13, 2018
As a forager in the Minneapolis area (Facebook: Ironwood Foraging Co.) (Instagram: @mnforager), this book is invaluable for its clear descriptions, excellent photos and photo captions, and accessible language. Sam Thayer truly lives and champions ecoculture and the foraging lifestyle.
October 2, 2017
Christmas came on September 20th this year. That’s the feeling I had when I found Samuel Thayer’s newest book, Incredible Wild Edibles, in my mailbox. Coincidentally, we were packing the car for a wild food foraging adventure of our own – a week of harvesting wild rice and kokanee salmon in northern Idaho. What a great book to read along the way!
Incredible Wild Edibles: 36 plants that can change your life, is Thayer’s third tome on foraging, following The Forager’s Harvest (2006) and Nature’s Garden (2010), setting the standard for the most in-depth foraging books ever published for North America.
Incredible Wild Edibles covers an eclectic mix of wild and feral greens, fruits, nuts, and starchy roots, plus maple syrup production. Some featured plants are found across North America, while several are found only in southeastern states and a few are specific to the West. My bioregion, in the high, arid northern Rockies of Montana, is probably the least-covered region in this or any of Thayer’s books. Nevertheless, 20 or more of the 36 featured plants, shrubs, and trees occur at least sparsely in my region. Moreover, Thayer discusses many additional related species, broadening the scope considerably beyond the mere thirty-six plants advertised in the title.
There is always something new to learn about familiar plants, and I thoroughly digested every entry even remotely related to my bioregion. Miner’s lettuce (Montia perfoliata), for example, is quite familiar, while Siberian miner’s lettuce (M. sibirica) was unknown to me until I read about it in Thayer’s book and then discovered it the same day, growing along the stream we were fishing north of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Even more thrilling than discovering a new plant is to rediscover an old, familiar plant with new eyes. For example, I’d never before heard of eating wild caraway roots, much like wild carrots, nor have I tried cut-leaf coneflower leaves or eating the tender young tips of hops vines. These are new taste sensations hidden in plain sight.
Most of all, I enjoyed Thayer’s philosophizing on ecological issues, showing how foragers are needed as ecological stewards to caretake wild edibles. Eating invasive species is good stewardship, as is weeding out invasives to favor savory natives. Sadly, wholesale application of herbicides, often intended to control invasive species, is decimating many of the last refuges for beleaguered native plants. Thayer advocates for a more hands-on approach to stewardship, nurturing an intimate relationship between plants and people to help restore balance to the natural world. The bottom line is that we need more wild food foragers to eat our way to a better world!
Reviewer Thomas J. Elpel is the author of Foraging the Mountain West, Botany in a Day, Participating in Nature, and numerous other books about nature and sustainable living.
Incredible Wild Edibles: 36 plants that can change your life, is Thayer’s third tome on foraging, following The Forager’s Harvest (2006) and Nature’s Garden (2010), setting the standard for the most in-depth foraging books ever published for North America.
Incredible Wild Edibles covers an eclectic mix of wild and feral greens, fruits, nuts, and starchy roots, plus maple syrup production. Some featured plants are found across North America, while several are found only in southeastern states and a few are specific to the West. My bioregion, in the high, arid northern Rockies of Montana, is probably the least-covered region in this or any of Thayer’s books. Nevertheless, 20 or more of the 36 featured plants, shrubs, and trees occur at least sparsely in my region. Moreover, Thayer discusses many additional related species, broadening the scope considerably beyond the mere thirty-six plants advertised in the title.
There is always something new to learn about familiar plants, and I thoroughly digested every entry even remotely related to my bioregion. Miner’s lettuce (Montia perfoliata), for example, is quite familiar, while Siberian miner’s lettuce (M. sibirica) was unknown to me until I read about it in Thayer’s book and then discovered it the same day, growing along the stream we were fishing north of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Even more thrilling than discovering a new plant is to rediscover an old, familiar plant with new eyes. For example, I’d never before heard of eating wild caraway roots, much like wild carrots, nor have I tried cut-leaf coneflower leaves or eating the tender young tips of hops vines. These are new taste sensations hidden in plain sight.
Most of all, I enjoyed Thayer’s philosophizing on ecological issues, showing how foragers are needed as ecological stewards to caretake wild edibles. Eating invasive species is good stewardship, as is weeding out invasives to favor savory natives. Sadly, wholesale application of herbicides, often intended to control invasive species, is decimating many of the last refuges for beleaguered native plants. Thayer advocates for a more hands-on approach to stewardship, nurturing an intimate relationship between plants and people to help restore balance to the natural world. The bottom line is that we need more wild food foragers to eat our way to a better world!
Reviewer Thomas J. Elpel is the author of Foraging the Mountain West, Botany in a Day, Participating in Nature, and numerous other books about nature and sustainable living.
July 2, 2025
I really liked the descriptions and the pictures. Wish they included where to get psychedelics in the forest though:(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 25, 2018
Sam Thayer's 3rd wild edibles book! Just as great as the others. I got this one in a rush for the section on tapping maples. Note to self: water parsnips similarity to water hemlock is not worth testing. Ah spring, so much to look forward to.
June 4, 2024
Not a terribly exciting read, but I'm rating it highly because it is an EXCELLENT resource for beginning foragers. Not only does it explain each plant in detail, but it also illustrates basic leaf and flower shapes (with botanical terminology). Thayer is very vocal about looking down on others for what he says is misleading information, and even downright stupidity, but if you don't mind his occasional rants then you will get a lot of good information from this book.
March 4, 2018
I heart you Samuel; always delving into the literature, spicing it up with infectious enthusiasm without being a stupid hippy, ten pages of bibliography -- yes, this is how you do it.
April 13, 2018
Another fantastic installment from Samuel Thayer in his wild foraging series.
July 20, 2021
36 wild plants to get to know better. Includes photos and easy to digest botany info. Samuel Thayer is a well known advocate of food foraging.
December 9, 2022
This author looooves foraging. You can hear the excitement in his narration. Some interesting suggestions. Makes me appreciate my Sweet Cecily more.
December 13, 2023
So much good information and pictures packed into this little book!
May 23, 2024
Such a fascinating book about wild edibles. I can't wait to find some of these plants on our nature adventures and give them try! Samuel Thayer has a beautiful connection with the earths gifts.
January 24, 2023
Wonderful and detailed! Excellent, specific, science-supported information and recommendations, written in an engaging style. I picked this up after the guide on a native plant walk recommended it.
December 21, 2024
Read if you’re a nature lover who wants to better appreciate the plants you see all around you
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews