Customer Reviews
Start beating the credit crunch and digest Food For Free! - By: R Smith, 11 Oct 2008 
I do like a bit of hedgerow & it's great to enjoy the free gifts from Mother Nature, but until I got my hands on a copy of this pocket sized guide, it was a little unclear.
This book is ideal & helps you understand what's under your nosein the gardens! So many common plants can be usedin cooking & yet still we pay mini-fortunes for little bags of this & thatin the shops. This book certainly helped me to identify & try some of the more obscure plants that I had absolutely no idea I could eat.
It's clear descriptions of what they look like alongside nice imagery of the plants themselves help you feel brave enough to give them a pluck & cook & the warnings are there to be heeded, particularly when it comes to mushrooms (personally, I'd only go for a puffball, you can't go wrong there)....
Although it's an academic book, it's writtenin an entertaining style & makes for an enjoyable read too.
I would highly recommend this for anyone who's trying to pullin their belts a bit, not because it will give them 'all' the answers, but it WILL help them to understand that all food doesn't come from the shops & that's a great step forward. As is cooking from fresh which of course this book sings out loud & clear.
There's always a really good reason why a book reprints & there are too many to list for this little fella.
Order it & don't leave it to fester on a shelf somewhere - keep it handyin your bag or coat pocket.
Tracey Smith
Author of 'The Book of Rubbish Ideas'
The Book of Rubbish Ideas: An interactive, room-by-room, guide to reducing household waste.
An excellent little book - By: T. L. Galloway-smith, 18 Jul 2008 This little gem of a book should bein every backpackers back pocket. Concise, focused & descriptive you'll have no trouble identifying the plants & shellfish. There has been some comments about lack of information on animals to eat, this is probably because rabbits, pheasants & such are classed as game & will belong to the landowner. Whilst it's ok to pick a few plants, mushrooms & shellfish it will probably be frowned on if you start blasting away at the countryside or setting traps!
A Handy Pocket Volume - By: J. Chippindale, 13 Aug 2007 Richard Mabey is the author of several books on flora & fauna so he is well qualified to write a book such as this. Over one hundred edible plants are featured together with recipes & other culinary information. There is also information on how to pick & when to pick & the regulations on picking which are very important. As I come from farming stock I have to say that food for free does not mean going into a field & digging up a few potato plants or for that matter cabbages.
There are plenty of hedgerow plants available for free, if you are prepared to look for them & suffer the odd few scratches. There is nothing better than a bowl of freshly picked blackberries or raspberries, if you can get them home before they are all eaten.
Plants that are edible are fully illustrated & described & the recipes are both old & new. Other fascinating information is how the plants have been used through the ages. An ideal book for all those who are nature lovers & like the idea of something for nothing. I think the last part covers 99.9% of the population.
Good Introduction - By: WKD, 02 May 2007 
I bought this book recently through a desire to understand the countryside around me & try some of its natural foodstuffs.
The book is very well presented & includes an excellent foreword by the author. It provides a basic explaination of the various flora, a little of their natural & culinary history & there are nice photographs with identification hints.
I think I would like to have seen more recipies & waysin which they might be implemented. In the section dedicated to Spring I think there are only three recipies with much of the other suggestions directed towards salads. On balance a satisfactory purchase but I think that if my interestin wild foods develops I will certainly have to follow up my purchase with something more wholly dedicated to the culinary.
Excellent pocket sized guide - By: Lifthrasir, 05 Feb 2006 This is a 2004 version & worthy addition to the very popular & pocket-sized Collins Gem series. ISBN 0-00-718303-8. Food For Free - A Fantastic Feast of Plants & Folklore.
The book starts with an introduction by the author Richard Mabey. It then has short sections titled 'Roots', 'Green Vegetables', 'Herbs', 'Spices', 'Flowers', 'Fruits', 'Making Jellies & Jams' & 'Nuts'. They include general advice, observations & uses. The main section of the book is given over to identification, with at least two pages per entry. An interesting section follows titled ’Picking Rules’ which gives advice on how to pick correctly how to stay safe. The last section before the main body of the book is a summary calendar which groups the picking times for entries into a colour-coded calendar - very useful as a quick reference.
Every entry is accompanied with a drawing. Most of the drawings are excellent, but one or two are a little small & thus less detailed. Fortunately, almost every entry also has a photograph. The combination of colour drawings & colour photographs is what makes this little pocket book a true 'gem'. If the drawing is a little weak, the photo will be excellent & vice-versa. Almost fool proof.
Each entry starts with the common English name (Latin isin small type at the top of the page)a colour illustration & description. Taking Beech (at random), it says: 'Widespread & 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; femalein 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 & bare nut. The article continues with headings; Harvest/Pick, Uses, Beech Nut, Beech Nut Oil, Beech Leaf Noyau. The photo at the end of the entry is a good close-up of a twig with a cluster of husks. (I didn’t know, for example, that ‘fresh from the tree Beech leaves are a fine salad vegetable, as sweet as a mild cabbage though much softerin texture’.)
The book,in line with its title, covers Plants & Trees, Fungi, Seaweeds & Shellfish. There is a glossary at the end & a page devoted to further reading. There is a List of Recipes & finally an index of entriesin common English or Latin.
There aren't that many books devoted to 'British' wild foods so to find one which lists over 100 edible plants, berries, mushrooms, seaweed & shellfish is most welcome. Given the true pocket size measurements of the Collins Gem series of books, the price of a fiver (£4-99) & the quality of each entry, this is as good as it gets. Obviously not a benchmark reference work or field-guide, but at least this fitsin the pocket - which is the main purpose of such books, isn't it? Five stars!
