Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager

This is an MFA-graduate's book. What do I mean by that? It's written as if everything the author says is profound. It's also full of superfluous adornment. For example, on page 203: "The true inheritors of the weather's thirst-slaking largesse, the real celebrants, were the mushrooms." He's talking about rain. The mushrooms like the rain. This ridiculously flowery prose is an artifact of that word-factory institution, the MFA Program. But this is the language encouraged by writers born and raised in academia, trained to earn points by using as many 2-dollar words, alliterative conjunctions, and poetic conventions as possible. But it's just not honest writing. It's not his voice.Another problem I have is that the book doesn't know what it wants to be: memoir, journal musings, or handbook. Also, chapters are not written with other chapters in mind; it lacks continuity and flow, as if the writer wrote one chapter one year, then cobbled together material from a few years back, then quickly busted out a few chapters to fill in the gaps, and so on. The scenes of him and his partner are stilted and the dialogue isn't natural, although a little better between him and his friends. The best written chapters are those that serve as more in-depth character studies of some of his quirky friends, but they also amplify the absence of the author's identity. Who really is this guy? Why exactly is he unemployed? When he talks about himself, I expect it to reveal something about his desires, dreams, values, fears. As it stands, he's just blank. Honestly, if "Langdon" didn't bring home so much fresh bounty from the mountains and water, he would be an incredibly dull friend.In the end, I wish he spent more time on the substance of his subject matter. I want to know more about foraging, not about pointless details written apparently with no deeper purpose than to fill pages between the last chapter's recipe and this chapter's description of the what, how, and when of mushrooms, crabs, steelhead, or whatever. And that's the primary issue I have: Regardless of whether you're writing about yourself, others, nature, regardless of whether it's fiction or non-fiction, it's got to sound like it matters. But I found myself repeatedly skipping paragraphs as the inane words flowed down the page, all too easily digested and expelled from my brain. I completed the book, but that's not a complement. It's easy to eat a whole bag of potato chips, not because they're delicious, but because there's really nothing there.

I found this book randomly at the library and read it in 1 day. I bought it for my mother in law as she is very interested in eating off the land.I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in finding food naturally, or just dreams about it.The set up of the book is very interesting with a story about how the author went about swimming in the sound for fish, fished for squid off a dock in Seattle, foraged for mushrooms in Idaho, and various other ways he caught, trapped, or picked the food and presents how it was cooked along with the recipe for how to cook your own. The stories are engaging and the recipes sound delicious.I would recommend this book to anyone interested in food, but not the type that you find in the grocery store or at a restaurant. This is the book of a forager foodie with a very interesting focus on the Pacific Northwest.

Unlike sausage and the law, Lang Cook makes learning how scrumptious edibles are found and prepared a delight for all the senses. The trial-and-error foibles of a sometimes fumbling forager reflect Lang's deep rooted respect for the greatness of the bounty that abounds outdoors and appreciation that, as the Jewish maxims teach, while we might be but specks of dust along for the ride on this blue ball, the world was truly created for us. Lang's poetic prose viscerally conveys the slosh of the waves and the dew of the fields as he gathers clams and plucks berries in the wilds of the North Left Corner of the country in a savvy and most entertaining fashion, egging all of us on to forgo the creature conveniences of contemporary living (Whole-foods schmole-foods...), and to drop off of the grid and venture out to see what goodies lie just off the beaten track in our own environs. Not many can impress we New Orleans foodies, but certainly Lang has.

I found Fat Of The Land in a referral post on the blog "Gild The Voodoolily." I've lived in the northeast all my life and I've never been more persuaded to venture out west than after I read Cook's book. I wish some of the tales in the book were my own!It's a simple book - several short stories about foraging the culinary gems of the US Northwest. The writing is crisp and witty. In each chapter, he details a quirky and unique environment, investigates some of the more practical aspects of foraging for each item, and then provides a personal recipe.Cook toes that fine line between enthusiasm and corniness, and ultimately it reads as exuberance and passion. My favorite chapter was on Dungeness crabs. A great read!

I enjoyed this book, and the ideas that it expressed of gathering a variety of your own food in a sustainable manner. This is tremendously appealing to me, and the essays were somewhat inspiring in that part.That being said, the writing was underwhelming, and the essays were very short. I couldn't get away from feeling that with a little more detail, or a little more information these essays would have been excellend. I was consistently left feeling that the essay was about 90% done, and that the author couldn't be bothered for more. I hope he was fishing.I gave three stars wishing I could gave 3.5. Thinking about it, I wish I had found it in a library and not bought it. This made it a 3 rather than a 4.

A completely fun read that can also be a little informative for those interested in foraging. Chapters make for quick reads.

I read through this book fast (it was very entertaining and I couldn't put it down), and will re-read sections of it again as those times (spring, summer, fall, winter) return each year. Of course, I will always keep it handy for the recipes as well. While I think it is mostly applicable for those that live in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), it would be a delight to read for anyone interested in foraging, as well as an inspiration for them to find out about local foods that can be foraged.

Well told, and lots of great recipes. Interesting read that you learn a lot from.