Browsing Nature's Aisles: A Year of Foraging for Wild Food in the Suburbs
Evelyn Rysdykauthor,Spirit Walking: A Course in Shamanic Power and Modern Shamanic Living: New Explorations of an Ancient PathJuly 2013ReadingBrowsing Nature’s Aisles: A Year of Foraging for Wild Food in the Suburbsis like walking along side Wendy and Eric Brown as they and their family relearn our ancestors’ way of harvesting the wild foods that nature provides. Even in Maine’s harsher northern climate, wild food abounds if you know how to find it. The adventure of discovery that the Brown’s embarked upon provides for great reading and joyful inspiration for those wanting to develop a truly tasty, localvore lifestyle that is in deep harmony with nature.Foraging necessitates learning how to observe the rhythms of the natural world and remembering how to effectively live in harmony with the plants, trees, animals and birds.  By slowing down to really pay attention to the world around us, we can learn how to find food in every season and in that process, remember the bounty of beauty and peace that the Earth provides.Jennifer Lavoie, Good Reads, July 13, 2013This book has encouraged me not just to forage for myself to try new things, but to actually look around when I'm in nature. It's amazing how just three miles from my apartment in the middle of a city I was able to find such a great bounty where it seems very few people visit (the trail, while visible, was seriously overgrown).I highly recommend this book to anyone who is wondering what foraging is like and wants a few starter tips for themselves. This book does include a few recipes as well, though it is mainly one family documenting their story.Brittany Fleer, Sun Flower Stories blog, July 7, 2013Though it is not a how-to guide, there is still plenty of useful advice and tidbits of information to be gleaned. For example, my mother taught me to recognize Queen Anne's Lace as a very small child; I (and probably my mother) had no idea it is actually wild carrot! The conversational tone of the book, along with the inclusion of common knowledge tips like Queen Anne's Lace, made foraging seem less like a practically dead art of pioneers and crazy survivalists and more like something that was actually possible in my own life, even a skill I could become comfortable with. As such, the book serves as a comfortable stepping stone between sitting on my couch and actually heading out for a first foraging trip. I'll be picking up a few more detailed guides to foraging on my next trip to the local library, and who knows what's possible from there? Maybe the Browns will help me put a dinner or two on my own table.