Contents to Sections Below Sub Pages Sites by/about Individuals Books Educational Institutions Associations/Organizations Commercial Sites/Vendors Foraging Theory Plant Databases Mailing Lists/Forums/Archives   Clams & Clamming Books on Native and Primate Foraging Foraging Spades

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Sites by/about Individuals For those in the NYC metro area, “Wildman” Steve Brill organizes foraging outings in the area’s parks. Wild Food! is his site. Eating Central Park gives some background on him. Foraging with “Wildman” Steve Brill recounts one of his Central Park walks. See his book and read reviews: Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (And Not So Wild Places). I have taken pictures on many of Wildman’s tours in NYC. I have them organized in two ways: In plant alphabetical order and in walking tour order. Over 1000 pictures. Arthur Haines teachs edible, medicinal, and useful plants through several different organizations, one being Delta Institute of Natural History. He specializes in plants of New England and leads both plant identification/taxonomy walks as well as foraging classes. The schedule of classes can be found at Courses. In the Boston area Russ Cohen runs foraging outings in his spare time. His site has his schedule, his bio, an Edible Wild Plant Bibliography, and some recipes. He has now written a book: Wild Plants I Have Known...and Eaten. (See page bottom to switch to other pages.) In Western Massachusetts Blanche Derby leads wild weed walks and give talks. She has also written the book My Wild Friends, Free Food From Field and Forest. Her site, with book info, DVDs, and tour schedule, is Edible Wild Plants. Vickie Shufer gives tours around Virginia Beach. Her site is Eco Images. Also see her “The Wild Foods Forum,” a 16-page bimonthly newsletter. Feature articles on wild plants and how to use them for food, medicine & crafts. Also includes recipes, book reviews, trip reports, and networking. Peter Gail has a site on The National Dandelion Cookoff!! on the first weekend in May each year. Held in Dover, Ohio. Link is now to his blog. Wild Food Adventures, run by John Kallas, provides expertise in wild edible plants through workshops, expeditions, presentations, outdoor guiding, and outfitting anywhere in North America. Based in Portland, Oregon. Has newsletter. Don’t miss the biography of Euell Gibbons, The Father of Modern Wild Foods. In June 2010 his book came out, which you can buy at Amazon.com. “Green” Deane Jordan in Northeast Florida has the site Eat The Weeds. He gives classes in the area, has extensive archives where you can search for a plant, and there are many YouTube videos. Of The Field is the website of Linda Runyon in Upstate NY, where she lived off the land for many years. She has a monthly newsletter and sells various products, including some books which are listed below. Becky “Wild Girl” Lerner, a journalist in Portland, OR, has a blog First Ways where she writes about foraging and wildcrafting with how-to information, and resources to learn more (books, schools, etc.). Traditional Herbal & Plant Knowledge, Identifications is a database and link page by the late Paula Giese. Herbs used mostly by Anishinaabeg people. Berries by the Katsi. Minnesota area native plants. The Cedar Mountain Herb School in La Conner, WA has an Herbal Apprenticeship Program on a weekend each month throughout the summer. Also a Botanical Primer that meets on weekday evenings in the winter. Deb Schwartz has This month’s feature where she highlights a different edible plant each month. Prior months are also available. Rose Barlow in Viroqua, Wisconsin has Prodigal Gardens: Medicinal Herbs & Wild Foods. See nice writeups on the plants she collects by month. Norm Kidder is part of Primitive Ways. A group that does stone age reenactments at a park just south of Livermore CA. He knows plants well too. Links to pictures of edible plants of CA are a ways down the page. Subherbs: Foraging for “Wild” Herbs in Your Own Backyard by Robert K. Henderson covers plants typical to a cultivated yard. Daniel Klein, a chef and activist in Minnesota, is putting up weekly videos an his The Perennial Plate site. Relevant to us here is Episode 12: Wild Edibles, where he explores some of the common edibles that you may see around town or in the woods, and how to cook some of the greens. There is also Episode 7: Hunting Morels. Harvesting the Elderberry has various suggestions for removing the tiny stems. Bonnie Farner of Wild Mountain Herbs gives tours in Georgia identifying wild edible, medicinial, useful and posionous plants. Sam Thayer has put up Forager’s Harvest whose mission is to promote foraging by providing knowledge through articles, publications, classes, workshops, presentations, and consulting. He has written the two bestselling foraging books: The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants and Nature’s Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants. Making Wines from Wild Plants also includes information on gathering berries. Tim Smith publishes a web log, the The Moose Dung Gazette, in which there is sometimes information on eating wild plants. Jack Mountain bushcraft also has a Wild Food Weekend. Kat Morgenstern has an Educational Forum and Networking Resource for Ethnobotany and Eco-travel at Sacred Earth. David Spahr has put up Mushroom-Collecting.com, a site about finding, collecting, identifying and preparing the more safe and common edible and medicinal mushroom species of Maine, New England, and Eastern Canada. Dave Fischer’s American Mushrooms is from an author of a couple books. When the Internet was smaller he maintained the Mushroomers Online! directory of mycophiles. The definition of foraging is to gather food that does not try to get away from you. Clams are one type of food that is foraged for and is not a plant. Clams and Clamming is a page of links on this. Herbalist Patricia Kyritsi Howell runs the school BotanoLogos. In Mountain City, GA. Robert “Bobcat” Saunders in Northeast New Jersey has put up Going Wilder In The Kitchen. In addition to cooking tips he has information, pictures, and scans of some plants. He also teaches “Going Wilder in the Kitchen” classes, about cooking and healing with wild plants and mushrooms, for Nature centers and organizations in the NY-NJ-PA area. [now in archive.org] MushroomsNY is a web site by Federico Savini. Pictures of mushrooms he has found in NYC. [now in archive.org]

Books	Go to Top

Clicking on a thumbnail image will get you a larger image. To open a book in a new tab (easier for comparisons) hold down the Ctrl key when you click the link. In order by Amazon rank.

The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer is a practical guide to all aspects of edible wild plants: finding and identifying them, their seasons of harvest, and their methods of collection and preparation. Each plant is discussed in great detail and accompanied by excellent color photographs. Includes an index, illustrated glossary, bibliography, and harvest calendar.

Nature’s Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer. A detailed guide to all aspects of using edible wild plants, from identifying and collecting through preparation. Covers 41 plants in-depth and the text is accompanied by multiple color photos. (Plants not covered in his first book.) The meat of the book is made up of plant accounts. These are in-depth profiles of edible plants, full of photos of how to identify, harvest and use them. The Amazon reviews average to 5 stars. Published April 2010.

A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series) by Lee Allen Peterson and Roger Tory Peterson is one of the classics. More than 370 edible wild plants, plus 37 poisonous look-alikes, are described here, with 400 drawings and 78 color photographs showing precisely how to recognize each species. Also included are habitat descriptions, lists of plants by season, and preparation instructions for 22 different food uses. [Kindle edition available.]

A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series) by James A. Duke. This new edition shows how to identify more than 500 healing plants. Descriptive text includes information on where the plants are found, as well as their known medicinal uses. An index to medical topics, symbols next to plant descriptions, and organization of plants by colors.

Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (And Not So Wild Places) by “Wildman” Steve Brill shows readers how to find and prepare more than five hundred different plants. More than 260 detailed line drawings. No color pictures, which upsets buyers expecting them. This book is both a field guide to nature’s bounty and a source of intriguing information about the plants that surround us.

While Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide by Lawrence Newcomb is not foraging, but it’s another that belongs in a forager’s book collection.

If you forage for mushrooms, Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora is the reference you want to have back home (and it is heavy).

Mushrooming without Fear: The Beginner’s Guide to Collecting Safe and Delicious Mushrooms by Alexander Schwab focuses only on those types that are both safe to eat and delicious. Most important, it presents the eight rules of mushroom gathering in a straightforward fashion–including “Never, never take a mushroom with gills” and “If a mushroom smells rotten, it is rotten.” Among the many mushrooms covered are the cep; the red-cracked, larch, bay, and birch boletes; hen of the woods, chanterelle, trumpet chanterelle, hedgehog fungus, common puffball, horn of plenty, and cauliflower mushroom. Each is identified with several color photographs and identification checklist, and there’s also information on mushroom season, handling, storage, and cooking, complete with recipes. Reviewers point out that many good mushrooms are not included and the book is very much for beginners. [Kindle edition available.]

If you forage for mushrooms, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms (National Audubon Society Field Guides) by Gary H. Lincoff is the one you want to bring with you in the field.

A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs: Northeastern and North-central United States and Southeastern and South-central Canada (The Peterson Field Guide Series) by Roger Tory Peterson, while not a foraging book per se, it is most useful to have along for general identification. There are other editions for those living elsewhere.

The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Department of the Army. It helps you identify plants, other than by memorizing particular varieties through familiarity, by using such factors as leaf shape and margin, leaf arrangements, and root structure. [Kindle edition available.]

The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide by Linda Runyon. The book is profusely illustrated by the author. You will learn how to identify, gather, prepare, store and enjoy wild food. The book is full of data, charts, nutritional breakdowns, and a poisonous look-alike section. There are many clear black & white photos as well as line drawings for identification. Includes recipes. The majority of the plants are found in all 50 states. A few are unique to the East or the West US. All Amazon reviews give the book 5 stars.

Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West by Gregory L. Tilford. Full-color photographs face detailed descriptions of 250 plant species in the western United States and Canada, covering field identification, habitat and range, edibility, medicinal uses, and more. The Amazon reviews average to 4+ stars.

Wild Cards: Edible Wild Foods (All Ages) [Cards] by Linda Runyon. A playing card deck by Linda Runyon, with photos and descriptions of 52 different edible plants. Ideal for hikers, campers, survival experts, and gourmet cooks. Includes key chain for easy portability. These can be used as a secondary, but not primary source of information. The Amazon reviews average to 4+ stars.

Tom Brown’s Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants (Field Guide) by Tom Brown. This book assumes you already know how to find the plant. There is only text. Every plant has a “personality,” which is an account of the author’s personal experience with the plant, childhood memories related to the plant, and teachings he got from an Apache elder. Then how the plant can be used as food and as medicine. He shows how the plant should be harvested, cooked, eaten, stored, prepared and prescribed. He points to possible dangers if a particular plant can be easily confused with a toxic plant, or when a plant could trigger reactions in allergic people.

Stalking The Wild Asparagus [Deluxe Edition] by Euell Gibbons was first published in 1962. It is the classic on foraging from the original forager.

A Field Guide to Mushrooms: North America (Peterson Field Guide) by Kent H. McKnight and Vera B. McKnight. More than 1,000 species of mushrooms described in detail. Over 700 paintings and drawings reveal subtle field marks that cannot be captured into photographs. This is a 20 year old classic. It is good for beginners.

Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rockies by Linda Kershaw. Learn about the edible and medicinal characteristics of 333 of the most common plant species of the Rockies. This book includes accounts of how the plants were used by Native Americans and early European settlers.

Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt To Plate (The Wild Food Adventure Series, Book 1) by John Kallas includes extensive information and recipes on plants from the four categories: foundation greens, tart greens, pungent greens, and bitter greens. Has maps, simple explanations, and multiple sharp close-up photographs of every plant covered at every important stage of growth. You learn that a plant is not only edible but when, why, and how it is. Includes recipes. The only negative review feels the title should make it clear that the book is only about edible greens. The Amazon reviews average to 5 stars. Published June 2010. [Kindle edition available.]

A Field Guide to Venomous Animals and Poisonous Plants: North America North of Mexico (Peterson Field Guide Series) by Roger Caras and Steven Foster. This essential guide to safety in the field features more than 250 poisonous plants and fungi and 90 venomous animals. The 340 line drawings make identification fast and simple; 160 species are also illustrated with color photographs.

100 Edible Mushrooms by Michael Kuo selects the top 100 mushrooms best suited for cooking. The book describes in detail how to identify each species, where and when to find them, and how to cook them in creative and delicious recipes. The Amazon reviews average to 4+ stars.

Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods by Thomas Elias and Peter Dykeman. This updated edition of the must-have field guide now features nearly 400 color photos and detailed information on more than 200 species of edible plants all across North America. Plants are organized by season. Each entry includes images, plus facts on the plant’s habitat, physical properties, harvesting, preparation, and poisonous look-alikes. The introduction contains recipes and a quick-reference seasonal key for each plant.

The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Department of the Army. Written for survival situations. The book describes habitat and distribution, physical characteristics, and edible parts of wild plants -- the key elements of identification. Also, methods of preparation are suggested for taste and variety. Reviews are mixed. [Kindle edition available.]

Foraging New England: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods and Medicinal Plants from Maine to Connecticut by Tom Seymour guides you to the edible wild foods and healthful herbs of the Northeast. Organized by environmental zone, this valuable reference guide will help you identify and appreciate the wild bounty of New England. Inside you’ll find: detailed descriptions of edible plants and animals; tips on finding, preparing, and using foraged foods; a glossary of botanical terms; eighty-seven color photos.

David Spahr now has a book Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada. Info about his classes is in an above section.

Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager by Langdon Cook. Langdon, a neophyte forager, is a smart funny storyteller. He celebrates the bounty of the land and sea through the pleasure of foraging. Recommended. [Kindle edition available.]

Edible and Useful Plants of California (California Natural History Guide) by Charlotte Bringle Clarke is a fun and easy to use guide that covers more than 220 plant species-for food, fibers, medicine, tools, and other purposes. It also tells how to prepare, cook, and otherwise use them. About a hundred species are edible. No color pictures. The Amazon reviews average to 4+ stars.

Common Edible and Useful Plants of the West (Outdoor and Nature) by Muriel Sweet covers how the Indians, pioneers, and early Spanish-Americans used many of the common wild plants for food, building shelters, or making artifacts. Remedies are included. The single Amazon review points out that this small and lightweight book only covers the most important and common edible plants of the West. The plants in this book are categorized according to trees, shrubs, vines, herbs, and water plants. The sketches are only average.

Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide by Kelly Kindscher. Lots of prairie grasses here. The book is organized alphabetically by scientific name. The book provides line drawings, distribution maps, and botanical and habitat descriptions. The ethnobotanical accounts of food use form the major portion of the text, but there is also information on the parts of the plants used, harvesting, propagation (for home gardeners), and the preparation and taste of wild food plants.

Edible Wild Plants of Pennsylvania and Neighboring States by Mary Lee Medve and Richard J. Medve contains information for the identification of more than 100 wild plants. Each plant entry provides characteristics, habitat, distribution, edible parts, food uses, precautions, preparation, recipes, and interesting remarks about the plant’s botanical history. The plants are arranged according to height. Each plant is also cross-referenced by common and scientific names. They also provide a list of toxic look-alikes, a nutrient composition chart, and a glossary of terms.

A Survival Acre: 50 Worldwide Wild Foods & Medicines by Linda Runyon. The book is a primer for living off the land. The book was published back in 1985. Her later books have more science and research. The Amazon reviews average to 4 stars.

Morels by Michael Kuo includes extensive information on the art of hunting morels and on current scientific knowledge regarding these delectable fungi. In addition, Kuo compiles easy-to-understand information on the latest scientific research into morels, from studies into how they grow to DNA-based classification of species. With over two hundred color photographs. The Amazon reviews average to 5 stars.

Stalking The Healthful Herbs by Euell Gibbons is a 1966 classic guide. It is a downhome book that passes on folk wisdom and botany in a delightful way. Some prefer this book to “Asparagus” because it is a bit more useful.

Harvesting Nature’s Bounty 2nd Edition: A Guidebook of Wild Edible, Medicinal and Utilitarian Plants, Survival, and Nature Lore by Kevin F. Duffy. A treasure trove of nature wisdom and lore. It not only covers wild edible and medicinal plants, and survival skills, it also covers subjects as varied as fish stunners, weather predictors, cricket temperature, pine pitch glue, natural bug repellents, and a wide variety of exciting new culinary sources.

The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America: Nature’s Green Feast by Francois Couplan is one of the ones you want on your bookshelf.

Edible Wild Plants: An Introduction to Familiar North American Species (North American Nature Guides) by James Kavanagh and Raymond Leung is a guide to berries, nuts, leaves and plants found in North America. Detailed color illustrations and groupings help identify edible vegetation. Printed on laminate material and folded for easy storage and retrieval.

Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants by David Foster and Bradford Angier. This illustrated guide to North American wild edibles has been a nature classic for over thirty years. In this new edition, David K. Foster revises Bradford Angier’s invaluable foraging handbook, updating the taxonomy and adding more than a dozen species. Scientific information for a general audience and full-color illustrations combine with intriguing accounts of the plants’ uses, making this a practical guide for modern-day foragers. Reviews are mixed. It is in alphabetical order. It is conveniently small, but that limits the illustrations.

Wild Edible Plants of Western North America by Donald R. Kirk. Nearly 2000 species of wild edible plants found in the western United States and in southwestern Canada and northwestern Mexico are covered. Identifying illustrations are not in color.

Native Harvests: American Indian Wild Foods and Recipes by E. Barrie Kavasch. Practical primer on natural foods not only provides recipes for varied Native American dishes but also describes uses of ceremonial, medicinal, and sacred plants. From clambakes to wild strawberry bread, the volume is simultaneously a field guide, cookbook, and useful manual on herbal remedies. Has perfect 5 star rating.

The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Department Army. Written for survival situations. The book describes the physical characteristics, habitat and distribution, and edible parts of wild plants. With color photography throughout, this guide facilitates the identification of these plants. [Kindle edition available.]

The Rocky Mountain Wild Foods Cookbook by Darcy Williamson describes twenty-eight plants common to the region and provides an extensive selection of recipes using these delicacies from nature’s garden. All emphasize health-conscious cooking, using fresh ingredients with low sugar and fat content.

Weed ’Em and Reap: A Weed Eater Reader by Roger Welsch. A humerous book about the weeds in your yard you can eat, but it gets mixed reviews at Amazon. [Kindle edition available.]

Basic Essentials Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs, 3rd (Basic Essentials Series) by Jim Meuninck. An introductory guide to some of the common plants you’d encounter throughout the United States and Canada. The book has glossy color pictures, descriptions, locations, cooking tips, and medicinal uses for each plant. It spotlights warnings for the plants that may be poisonous if not used properly, or if they have toxic look-alikes. Has a list of rules to consider when foraging for wild foods. Includes recipes.

Edible Wild Plants by Perry Medsger Oliver. This is a reprint of an early book.

The following books are not shipped by Amazon:

Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide by Thomas Elias and Peter Dykeman is a season-by-season guide to identification, harvest, and preparation of more than 200 common edible plants to be found in the wild.

The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook by “Wildman” Steve Brill starts by introducing wild and purchased natural foods and basic methods for preparing them. He gets into seasonings, tips on adapting natural ingredients to traditional cooking methods and explains how to harvest wild foods safely.

The Complete Guide to Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits, and Nuts: How to Find, Identify, and Cook Them by Katie Letcher Lyle. An illustrated field guide to the most common edible wild plants, with recipes. Reviews say not so complete and is lacking in warnings.

Edible Wild Plants and Herbs: A Pocket Guide by Alan M. Cvancara. Informative, but photos are not in color. A tutorial on preparing plants to eat and finding fresh water for cooking, as well as lists of common poisonous plants to avoid. [Kindle edition available.]

Anne Gardon’s The Wild Food Gourmet has more than 100 recipes. Scroll down for a review at Galloping Gourmets.

Lifelong forager Robert Henderson has written The Neighborhood Forager: A Guide for the Wild Food Gourmet.

Native Indian Wild Game, Fish, and Wild Foods Cookbook: New revised and expanded edition by Lovesick Lake Native Women’s Assocation. Native America cookbook filled with cultural facts and tidbits. Over 340 recipes for wild edibles, fruits, fish and seafood, venison, small and big game. Gathered from Zuni, Pueblo, Cherokee, Tlingit, Ojibway and other tribes across North America and updated for the modern cook.

The Foraging Gourmet by Katie Letcher Lyle is a field guide and cookbook. For 55 edibles, you learn what to look for, supported by drawings and some color photos, plus history, lore, and a recipe or two for each wild treasure. Written for an American audience, it can also serve foragers in Canada and, to some degree, Europe, as it includes mushrooms, fruits, and greens found in this milieu as well. See a very descriptive Amazon review.

Thistle Greens and Mistletoe: Edible and Poisonous Plants of Northern California by James S. Wiltens. No description or reviews at Amazon.

Wild Edible Plants of New England: A Field Guide, Including Poisonous Plants Often Encountered by Joan Richardson. No description or reviews at Amazon.

Amazon has nice searching capabilities. One good one is a search on wild edible plants.

• Plants has some edibility tests. They are not foolproof! [now in archive.org]
• Ethnobotanical Leaflets has many articles and back issues are on the web.
• Ethnobotany of Wild Plant Foods was Sarah Mason’s page at the University College London. [now in archive.org]
• Incredible Edibles and Traditional Medicinals (scroll down to find entry) is a course given by the Smoky Mountain Field School, an outreach program of the University of Tennessee.
• Prehistoric Plant Use in New England is a bibliography developed by David R. George, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut. [now in archive.org]
• Grazing Your Garden Perennials is a short page on gathering and grazing in your garden.
• Native American Ethnobotany Database is an impressive database of foods, drugs, dyes, and fibers of Native North American Peoples. Provided by Dan Moerman, Professor of Anthropology.
• Primitive Living Skills Links has a section for Edible & Medicinal Plants links.
• SurvivalIQ has a page Edibility of Plants which is based on the U.S. Army Survival Manual, a work published by the U.S. Department of Defense.
• Commercially-Harvested Edible Forest Mushrooms is a research project of mushrooms collected in the Pacific Northwest. Lots of pictures. The species covered are in general distribution.
• Medicine Bow is a wilderness school in the North Georgia mountains. Includes using wild plants for food and medicine.

• Centre For International Ethnomedicinal Education and Research (CIEER) Sells some CD-ROMS and puts on symposiums.
• The Boston Mycological Club is the oldest amateur mycological club in North America. Organizes frequent walks.
• The Mid-Hudson Mycological Association is a group of real foragers.
• A “green” web site has put up Weeds Or Vegetables? That’s the Question! by Peter A. Gail, Ph.D. An introductory article. [now in archive.org]
• downsizer.net has a blog on Wild Food.
• The Western Pennsylvannia Mushroom Club is the largest mushroom club in the Five State Area. They promote the enjoyment, study, and exchange of information about wild mushrooms.
• Mycological Society of San Francisco is North America’s largest local amateur mycological association. Photos are of people collecting, and some are large mushrooms!
• Bush Tucker Plants (Australian Native Food Plants) covers food that the Australian aborigines consumed. [now in archive.org]
• Wisdom Keepers, Inc. has Native Way Cookbook: Cookbook of the Grandmothers all online. Also information on subscribing to a Native Cooking mailing list. Site is part of a Native American web ring. [Web site problem?]

• The Forager Press hosts a bunch of pages/sites related to foraging:
  • The Forager’s Wild Food Basics
  • The Forager’s Virtual Wild Food Field Guide
  • The Virtual Wild Mushroom Field Guide
  • Top Mushroom Field Guide Recommendations
• WildPantry.com is a small company in southeastern Tennessee that supplies wild foods and other natural products. Too many different products to list here.
• You can become a hardcore forager is a getting started guide by Larry Cywin. From Backwoods Home Magazine.
• Edible Landscaping offers a variety of beautiful plants, all of which are absolutely delicious as well. Has a web based forum for questions.
• WildHarvest.Com had recipes and a plug to shop at their Earthy Delights stores in Michigan (offer wild-harvested and hand-crafted foods from small harvesters). Now in archive.org. Focuses on fiddleheads, ramps, and mushrooms.
• Dining on the Wilds, by John Goude, is a site on Learning Nature through Wild Edible Plants and Ethnobotany. It is selling a book and six professional videos with views of over 300 North American wild plants. Tours are given. [Videos (see details here) are temporarily unavailable.]
• The School of Self-Reliance has Wild Food Foraging, pages intended to be an aid to learning about wild edibles. Also see Why Eat Wild Food?, an expanded chapter of Christopher Nyerges’ Guide to Wild Foods. Gives many reasons to avoid commercial food, and to find, identify, and use wild food.
• Natural-list: Home. Richard Nadeau is a forest forager for your natural and wild foods, herbs and crafts.
• Ila Hatter’s Wildcrafting.com sells videos and books on collecting plant materials in their natural habitat for food, medicine, and craft.
• Wild Mountain Herbs sells many things that could be gathered.
• Australian Native Foods gets into Australia’s unique edible plants and animals that could form the basis for a substantial and sustainable industry. See plant profiles along the left.

• Barry Sinervo teaches an animal behavior course at UCSC. One day is on Optimal Foraging Behavior. Here are his class notes. [now in archive.org]
• A search on foraging at Amazon.com gets a few good ones amongst many others and out-of-print ones. Here’s an extracted list of relevant Books on “Foraging” that I did many years ago.

• Over 1000 plant pictures from NYC foraging walks indexed in plant alphabetical order. Grouped by edibility. Split between plants and mushrooms. Pictures within plants ordered by season.
• Plants for a Future, in England, is a resource and information centre for edible, medicinal and other useful plants. Has a 7300 useful plant database. Scroll down to search for a plant or use Search Page. This is the US search site: Plants For A Future - Database Search.
• Henriette Kress, a herbalist and tour guide in Finland, wrote the first herb FAQ for the herb newsgroup. Her Herbal Homepage has a culinary herb FAQ, a plant database, and more.
• Fruits of Warm Climates is an online book by Julia F. Morton. Organized by fruit. Formerly a printed book, but it is now entirely online.
• Alternative Nature Online Herbal has The Wild Medicinal Herb Picture Gallery. Some are on edible wild plants.
• Grapes, Blackberries, Strawberries, Huckleberries & Gooseberries covers many berries found in these families. Good pictures and histories on them. Part of the Wayne’s World site. [now in archive.org]
• FoodplantDB is a SQL database created from Yanovsky, Elias. 1936. Food Plants of the North American Indians. This publication reviewed approximately 80 years of literature, back to around 1850, listing 1,112 species in 444 genera of plants among 120 families, used for food by the North American Indians. Best way to find something is to put an asterisk in and do a search.
• Robert Freedman has compiled Famine Foods, a database of plants that are not normally considered as crops, but are consumed in times of famine. Listed alphabetically by family (Latin name).
• Jack Campin has a Guide to Plant Relationships (for allergy and intolerance identification). 222K page with long list of plant relationships.
• Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases include one for ethnobotanical uses.
• The USDA Plants Database can be searched for edibles.
• Common Weeds of No-Till Cropping Systems describes perennial weeds that become more prevalent in no-tillage fields. Has some that are edible.
• U of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Weed Science has a web site with both edible and non-edible weeds mixed. No edibility info. The Weed Science Society of America has a Photo Gallery. Also see the Intriguing World of Weeds and Take a Weed to Lunch [in archive.org].
• Virginia Tech has a Weed Identification Guide of common weeds and weed seedlings found throughout Virginia and the Southeastern U.S.
• The Cornell Poisonous Plants Page is helpful for knowing what not to forage for.
• Mark Rieger’s Fruit Crops is a site by a Professor of Horticulture where you’ll find information on the taxonomy, history, production, medicinal and nutritional properties, general culture, and post harvest handling of over 30 of the world’s major fruit crops.
• Introduction and Domestication of Rare and Wild Fruit and Nut Trees for Desert Areas covers some unusual ones. Includes pictures.

• The list that is the most foraging oriented is Forage Ahead. Active but most posts are on topic. Formerly this list was Wild Edibles, but the spam drove it to a new name. You could go to old one to see the archives, but you now have to be a list subscriber.
• There is another list on Yahoo called edibleweeds. It has little activity.
• Another Yahoo group is Wild Forager. Very active, but it isn’t clear just how on topic the posts are.
• downsizer.net has web forum on Foraging. The light discussion is mostly on mushrooms.
• W PA Mushroom Club is affliated with the largest mushroom club in the area.

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