One intrepid cook's exploration of her urban terrain In this groundbreaking collection of nearly 500 wild food recipes, celebrated New York City forager, cook, kitchen gardener, and writer Marie Viljoen incorporates wild ingredients into everyday and special occasion fare. Motivated by a hunger for new flavors and working with thirty-six versatile wild plants--some increasingly found in farmers markets--she offers deliciously compelling recipes for everything from cocktails and snacks to appetizers, entr es, and desserts, as well as bakes, breads, preserves, sauces, syrups, ferments, spices, and salts. From underexplored native flavors like bayberry and spicebush to accessible ecological threats like Japanese knotweed and mugwort, Viljoen presents hundreds of recipes unprecedented in scope. They range from simple quickweed griddle cakes with American burnweed butter to sophisticated dishes like a souffl ed tomato roulade stuffed with garlic mustard, or scallops seared with sweet white clover, cattail pollen, and sweetfern butter. Viljoen makes unfamiliar ingredients familiar by treating each to a thorough culinary examination, allowing readers to grasp every plant's character and inflection. Forage, Harvest, Feast--featuring hundreds of color photographs as well as cultivation tips for plants easily grown at home--is destined to become a standard reference for any cook wanting to transform wildcrafted ingredients into exceptional dishes, spices, and drinks. Eating wild food, Viljoen reminds us, is a radical act of remembering and honoring our shared heritage. Led by a quest for exceptional flavor and ecologically sound harvesting, she tames the feral kitchen, making it recognizable and welcoming to regular cooks.

Collaboration and leadership strategies for long-term success Fueled by the popularity of permaculture and agroecology, community food forests are capturing the imaginations of people in neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the United States. Along with community gardens and farmers markets, community food forests are an avenue toward creating access to nutritious food and promoting environmental sustainability where we live. Interest in installing them in public spaces is on the rise. People are the most vital component of community food forests, but while we know more than ever about how to design food forests, the ways in which to best organize and lead groups of people involved with these projects has received relatively little attention. In The Community Food Forest Handbook, Catherine Bukowski and John Munsell dive into the civic aspects of community food forests, drawing on observations, group meetings, and interviews at over 20 projects across the country and their own experience creating and managing a food forest. They combine the stories and strategies gathered during their research with concepts of community development and project management to outline steps for creating lasting public food forests that positively impact communities. Rather than rehash food forest design, which classic books such as Forest Gardening and Edible Forest Gardens address in great detail, The Community Food Forest Handbook uses systems thinking and draws on social change theory to focus on how to work with diverse groups of people when conceiving of, designing, and implementing a community food forest. To find practical ground, the authors use management phases to highlight the ebb and flow of community capitals from a project’s inception to its completion. They also explore examples of positive feedbacks that are often unexpected but offer avenues for enhancing the success of a community food forest. The Community Food Forest Handbook provides readers with helpful ideas for building and sustaining momentum, working with diverse public and private stakeholders, integrating assorted civic interests and visions within one project, creating safe and attractive sites, navigating community policies, positively affecting public perception, and managing site evolution and adaptation. Its concepts and examples showcase the complexities of community food forests, highlighting the human resilience of those who learn and experience what is possible when they collaborate on a shared vision for their community.

Smith's first encounter with okra was of the worst kind: slimy and fried at a greasy-spoon diner. Despite that introduction, he developed a fascination with okra, leading him to discover a range of delicious ways to cook and eat this vagabond vegetable. Here Smith provides a roving and rich collection of okra history, lore, recipes, craft projects, growing advice, and so much more. -- adapted from back cover

"[This book] is a how-to guide with nearly 100 recipes devoted to the ... bounty just outside our front doors and ripe for the taking, from familiar apples and oranges to lesser-known pawpaws and mayhaws"--Amazon.com.

What is the perfect bite? When I cook or eat, I look for a balance of flavor in a dish, or in a combination of foods. It might combine all of the aspects together—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, and sometimes pungent or aromatic. “The perfect bite” is how I describe profound flavor—a balance of tastes on the palate—many of these are traditional dishes or family comfort foods. These might include herbs or spices, which add flavor. I am passionate about this approach to cooking and eating. I grow many of my own vegetables, herbs and greens, buy locally, eat seasonally and organically—this is the way that I like to eat. Anyone who likes to eat good food will appreciate this book with over 200 recipes that feature flavor at its best. The stories surrounding them create a kind of comfort food/flavortherapy story. “Flavortherapy” is a term I coined to describe how each recipe satisfies me in a different way; some make me feel happy, while others stimulate me, or make me want to take a nap. Just as aroma works in aromatherapy, flavor works in flavortherapy. There are specific foods that we desire because they make us feel good. Each individual can use flavortherapy to make their own perfect bites.

That's not a weed--it's herbal medicine! Learn to use wild plants and herbs for food and DIY remedies in this illustrated guide from two expert herbalists. Millions of people are interested in natural and holistic health, yet many are missing out on the key ingredient: Nature itself! Rekindle your connection with the earth as you craft your own herbal medicine with 75 delicious recipes and powerful healing remedies. Herbalists Rosalee de la Forêt and Emily Han expertly guide you through the benefits of two dozen of the most important and commonly found wild plants-many of which you can easily grow in your own garden, if foraging isn't right for you. Detailed illustrations and beautiful photography ensure that you won't make a plant-identification misstep as you learn how to tend and properly harvest the plant medicine growing right in your own neighborhood. After reading Wild Remedies, you'll never look at your backyard, a public park, or any green space in the same way again. Instead of "weeds," you'll see delicious foods like Dandelion Maple Syrup Cake, Nettle Frittata, and Chickweed Pesto. You will revel in nature's pharmacy as you make herbal oils, salves, teas, and many more powerful remedies in your own kitchen.

100 plant-inspired recipes to reconnect you with your body and the natural world. Foraged and Grown is a culinary journey through the seasons with recipes that highlight herbal ingredients and share their use in various historic folk traditions. From Nettle Gnocchi and Hollyhock Wraps to Rose Roll-Out Cookies and Dandelion Root Drinking Chocolate, readers are in the hands of an expert who alchemizes foraged and grown plants into magic. Including a detailed plant guide, seasonal organization, and key ingredient swaps to make all recipes accessible, this is the perfect cookbook for anyone curious about the natural world, cooking with more plants, or eating with the seasons.