California Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Evergreen Huckleberries to Wild Ginger (Regional Foraging Series)

I don't usually write reviews but there were a few negative reviews here that almost stopped me from buying this and so I just wanted to say that, for me, this book is one of the best laid out and most useful books on plants that I've ever seen. Excellent photographs, great descriptions, a wealth of information. It's my first book on foraging so it is possible that there are better ones but for me this is a very valuable start into a subject that I've really wanted to know more about. I've already found and enjoyed plants from this book!

Great introductory book with lots of info uniquely relevant to California. I think the book would be more useful in the field if plants were listed by scientific plant family (which tend to look similar) rather than alphabetical by the author's preferred common name, but still a useful book. One editing error, Stellaria media (Chickweed) is described on page 117 accompanied by a not very clear photo of a plant that is definitely not S. media, but appears to be the thankfully also edible (and later described on page 163) Cardemine hirsuta. Page 118 continues to describe S. media and is accompanied by a photo of the real deal. As always, take the info garnered here with a grain of salt and use other sources to confirm a plant identification before eating any parts of it.

Great read very informative, use when out with grandchildren to educate with fun ideas and naming plants and then preparing them for eating

I like this book, it is great. The only thing I was disappointed by is that it seems to be lacking a few edible fruits, like wild plums! Wild plums are all over the California valley and I was so sad to not have them covered in this book :(

I was prepared to be disappointed in this book. But I wasn't. While it lacks the depth and real-world usefulness of the foraging books by John Kallas and Sam Thayer, this is the best edible wild plants book for California out there. Lots of species - including some Lowry introduced me to - although there are quite a few other species I'd include that Lowry chose not to. Photos are good, too, although I wish there were more of them. As a practitioner, I'd like fewer species and more depth, but that may just be a style decision -- or something to fit in this series. If you forage in California, this is a book worth buying.

Picture quality is so clear

I like the fact that this book tells you which plants are NOT native, so you can go ahead and pick them and help the environment in California.The problem is, it is organized by plant name. If you are looking at some *thing* growing in your yard, most likely you have absolutely no idea what the plant is, so to find it in this book (if it is there) you have to go through every plant section sequentially and try to identify it from one picture. There are few plants in the book with multiple pictures.Gee, it would be great if it came with a ---- KEY ---- to help you identify the plant. Maybe an explanation of types of leaves and their scientific description, so you could understand the meaning of the text descriptions in the book. The book is useless if you have to read it cover to cover 20 times to become familiar with all the plants so that you *might* be able to identify one in your back yard. And even if you do this, the pictures in the book provide insufficient information to identify a plant, especially if you are thinking about trying to eat it.Sorry. Lots of work went into this, and the philosophy is dead on, but the presentation is useless. About the only plant I was able to find is Manzanita, because I just planted a bunch of these in my yard, so I know what they are.

Book is nice with lot of info. Only be prepared that book have very thin paper so the quality is not so great.

Altro libro della collana per raccoglitori della Timber Press, rispetta ampiamente le premesse della serie, con foto chiare e schede esaudienti.Inevitabili le ripetizioni per le specie più comuni (le erbe selvatiche proprio non ce la fanno a riconoscere i confini di stato o quelli nazionali!).