The Deerholme Foraging Book

The mushrooms, onions, and berries that we buy for a fortune at the farmer’s market can be had for nothing out in the woods, if you know where to look. Thanks to the Deerholme Foraging Book, you can learn how to recognize edible plants and wild fruits, and reap the bounties of nature as our ancestors did centuries ago.

For starters, chantrelle mushrooms, white and globby looking, grow wild. You also have lobster mushrooms, named for their orange color, and black morels, which are cone shaped. If you want free seafood, you can harvest manila clams, geoduck, and crabs. The geoduck are harder to find now that they’re a delicacy, and they take years to mature, but smaller clams and mussels are available. This book comes with cooking instructions for the crabs, so you’ll get the most out of your harvest.

Recipes are included, such as seaweed pesto, which is absolutely wonderful. Jams made of wild berries can be preserved if they are jarred using the hot-water process, only problem is that they require a lot of sugar. However, it’s better to make them yourself, because they store-bought preserves will be full of dyes and preservatives. Wild rose seedpods can be eaten, but they have “hairs” that need to be strained out, or they irritate the digestive system.

This book is full of excellent photos for identifying edible mushrooms and herbs, and has great recipes. Unfortunately, most of the plants identified in this book grow in the Pacific Northwest, not on the East Coast, but it’s still a great asset for anyone interested in forest foraging. I would definitely buy it if I were going to live in Washington State.