Browsing Nature's Aisles: A Year of Foraging for Wild Food in the Suburbs Paperback – October 15, 2013

I picked this book up because it's about people who forage, not how to forage. The writing is a bit clunky, but I enjoyed the stories of what the authors foraged and why they forage

Very well written and educational.

If you have any interest in homesteading, self-sufficiency, local foods, sustainable living, or health and fitness, this book needs to go on your "to read" list!The book is broken down into three main sections: What We Did, Why We Decided to Start Foraging, and Lessons We Learned from Foraging. The authors start off with a Preface putting you out in the woods with them, hunting for chaga mushrooms. They immediately start with the tone that carries you through the whole book: two parts personal story, one part foraging and cooking lesson, and one part education. Those new to foraging or especially to the sustainable living and suburban homesteading movements will gather a lot from the Browns' teaching moments. Many folks are getting that nagging feeling that something isn't quite right these days, but they need some concrete facts and some encouragement from those who are already walking the walk to get them to step off the five-lane highway path and onto a trail through the woods or sidewalk in their community. There is some repetition of certain stories and information between the sections, but nothing that is a huge deal killer.Parents, take note: if you have any concerns about what your kids are eating - the Browns share your fears. In the preface, they share the story of one of their daughters crying, as she worried that something she would eat might harm her. In our efforts to eliminate toxins, get clean water, grow non-GMO food, or whatever else we focus on in our families, we can actually scare the daylights out of the kids. This book helped me, as a mom who has done the same thing, realize how I can turn that around and make it clear that we are not acting out of fear; we are just being proactive. The Browns are very focused on keeping the family involved in their nanofarm homesteading efforts as well as their foraging adventures, and they gladly pass on stories where the foraging went well - and not quite so well.Community is a huge issue these days: those of us who want it can't always find it, and those who want to reach out and make it don't always know how. As they work their quarter acre property, they get the neighbors involved - whether through purposeful invitations to a foraged and local food feast or just out of idle curiosity about what's going on over at their house. There were several times during my reading of this book that I wished I lived near them!There are delightful photos and recipes placed throughout this book, but if you're looking for an identification guide for your own foraging trips, Browsing Nature's Aisles isn't it. Get an in-depth plant and mushroom guides specific to your region for that. Then go sign up for some plant walks and foraging classes with experts in your area. Look to Wendy and Eric Brown for inspiration, insight, and encouragement instead. Even if you don't find yourself out on the trail purposely looking for something to add to your next meal, you will learn a great deal and get to read about the self-sufficiency journey of a really neat family.You don't have to have read Wendy's first book, Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs, to get a great deal of enjoyment and education from this release, but you may well get the urge to do so (and I highly recommend that title as well). Part II of this book, the Browns' "Why" section, addresses food safety and security, as well as food scarcity and the increasing costs of food. That may well fuel your own fire for being more prepared, and foraging is one cog in that entire wheel of personal and family preparedness.Educators would do well to take a look at Browsing Nature's Aisles, particularly those who homeschool or who are working in smaller schools with a Waldorf, Charlotte Mason or nature school focus. If you're teaching any kind of natural resource management, stewardship or sustainable living course, you could put it out there for your students to glean from.Whether you have concerns about Peak Oil or emergency preparedness; have a goal to eat local as much as possible; or just generally want to learn more about the basic concepts of foraging and how folks go about it, Browsing Nature's Aisles is a great read. At the very least the Browns make sure you'll never look at the commute to work the same way again!DISCLOSURE: I received an advance uncorrected copy of Browsing Nature's Aisles: A Year of Foraging for Wild Food in the Suburbs in exchange for my honest review of the book. All opinions are my own; no monetary compensation was received for this book review.

Well-written, and interesting, this book tells about one family's quest to learn more about foraging and eating wild foods. After many years of research and growing their own foods at home, they spent one year incorporating foraged foods into at least one meal a week. The book is well-researched and explains that if one is going to eat foraged foods, you should check at least three sources to make sure that what you are eating is what you think it is and that it is not poisonous, that you should only take one third of what is edible from an area at any given time, and that it can be good to find a teacher or mentor to show you how to find edible plants in the wild. While the only "foraging" I have done is eating wild blackberries that we found growing when I was a child, I do appreciate the wisdom in this book. Compared to the concept of the doomsday preppers who stockpile massive amounts of canned goods, it seems more useful to know how to identify and eat foods that one can find commonly in the wild and in your suburban neighborhood. I don't think I will be going out foraging any time soon, considering the fact that last week I saw and smelled paint pouring out of a drain into the creek near our house, which would be the closest area for any wild foraging. I did call the city and they sent someone out and when I went back, there was no longer anything coming out of that drain. We are near the start of that creek, and it eventually dumps into a local lake where there is recreation and fishing. I am sure that the paint I saw being dumped from a construction site into the creek is not the only icky stuff that is in the creeks and in our local environment. I did learn that the weed that we cut down, but keeps coming back that we found covered with pretty black and yellow caterpillars one day is most likely milkweed and is edible and the caterpillars will be monarch butterflies, so we will stop chopping it down and leave it for the caterpillars. I think this is an excellent book and I highly recommend it. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

When I first requested this book to read through netgalley, I thought it was going to be more of a how-to guide. Getting into gardening more and more - and canning, and freezing my garden goodies, and preserving, and probably dehydrating as well next spring, I was thrilled at the idea of reading about foraging. I did a little of that this year, digging up and using lots of wild garlic that's been growing on my parents property for as long as I can remember, and hearing stories of my family eating dandalion greens as kids.This isn't a how to book. It's still good, it's just not what i was expecting.The book is chatty, like sharing stories with a friend over a cup of coffee, yet interesting and informative and makes you want to get up and see what you can find in the jungles of your own neighborhood, yet it reads like a memoir.

I bought this on impulse at a local store. While it's well written and interesting, there is not a lot to be learned from it. It was more a social commentary on the value of foraged foods from both a health and a food scarcity perspective. It's a pretty good book for someone who has never done any foraging, but definitely not a "how to" book.

As expected.