Living The Good Life. (Food for Free - Richard Mabey)

Member Name: funzo

Product:	Food for Free - Richard Mabey
Date:	18/11/08 (359 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb comprehensive guide to the wild foods of Great Britain - pocket sized !

Disadvantages: some illustrations are too small . . . thats it !

If Felicity Kendall and Ray Mears had a child I would be it. For years I have been a dedicated nature lover, always wonderfully content being outside in the country or out on the water. Without going all hippy-ish and spiritual on you, I would like to think that I am connected with nature. Not in a druid dance around naked kind of way, making sacrifices to the Harvest Gods, as I do love meat, free range and organic of course, and enjoy fishing but would never kill an animal if wasn't going to eat it. One of the many skills that mankind is losing at a worrying rate is the ability to understand and utilise nature certainly sustainably and I think I was lucky growing up that I had grandparents with a massive vegetable garden and who would take me berry picking and foraging in woodlands for chestnuts to roast and make puree from. I learnt to appreciate and use nature's larder and on my many camping, hiking and sailing trips I try and forage for as much as I can and what has proved to be an essential aid to this has been the Richard Mabey Collins gem book Food For Free.


To those not initiated in the whole food foraging world Richard Mabey is a bit of a guru. He first published Food For Free in 1972 and there have been subsequent republications and updates since. The Collins gem is the pocket sized version, first published in 2004 it provides a guide to over 100 edible plants, berries, mushrooms, seaweed and shellfish all with illustrations or photographs telling you what to pick, how and when to pick and how to eat. At the back of the book is list of easy recipes for you to try yourself.

The start of the book has a few page introduction that explains the necessity and rules of food for free, and also explains what has been omitted and why. It is then chaptered in four sections - Plants and Trees, Fungi, Shellfish, and Seaweed. Each entry starts with its English name in bold and its Latin name underneath. There is an illustration and most times a photo and a section on Harvest/Pick which tells you when and how to harvest and a section on Uses which tells you what it can be used for and how to prepare it. An example of the content of the book is, picked completely at random, a summary of the page for : Beech


Beech (fagus sylvatica)

'Widespread and common throughout the British Isles, especially on chalky soils. A stately deciduous tree, with smooth, grey bark, to 40m (130ft). Leaves: bright green, alternate, oval. Flowers: male drooping, stalked heads; female in pairs. Fruit: four inside a prickly brown husk, Sept-Oct.

When ripe this opens into four lobes, this liberating the brown, three-sided nuts.'

The illustration depicts a leaf, spring twig with unopened buds, an opening husk revealing nut inside and bare nut.
Harvest/Picks - The young leaves of the beech tree can be picked in April when they are almost translucent

The entry then continues with Uses including, Beech Nut, Beech Nut Oil, and Beech Leaf Noyau

The photo at the end of the entry is a good close-up of a twig with a cluster of husks making it easily identifiable

This book is an absolute Godsend. Perfect for putting in backpacks and comprehensive enough for a Collins Gem publication, this book has been a firm favourite and companion of mine for as long as I have owned it. Because of this book and its brilliantly useful calendar of what to pick and when I have tried foods I would never have eaten.. I have made jams from crabapples and gooseberries... teas from elderflowers, and my own personal favourite Sweet Rosehip Syrup.


Disadvantages

Nothing is perfect, and this book is nearly but no exception. Some of the illustrations are too small and do not really aid in identification. Despite the drawings and photographs I am still not confident on mushrooms as knowing my luck the mushrooms I would pick would either kill me or send me tripping to the point where I would want to kill myself....with that in mind, I stay away from fungi. The book also omits information on wildfowl, fish and meat, but the larger non-collins gem publication covers these but they are not in the gem version.


Summary

This really is a pocket sized masterpiece. A fantastic feast of plants and folklore, it is the most comprehensive guide of wild food in the British Isles. This is a great way of introducing children to nature and trying a few wild foods yourself......... all for free! Priced at 4.99, it is on amazon.com at the moment for 2.99.It is without doubt The best three pounds you will ever spend.. Pignut stew anyone?

Thanks for reading

Summary: Food For Free - Richard Mabey's foraging pocket sized masterpiece