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The Neighborhood Forager: A Guide for The Wild Food Gourmet
By Robert K. Henderson
Chelsea Green Publishing Co.
199 pp $24.95

In San Francisco, where it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a sit-down restaurant that does not serve organic produce, you can find salad made from wild greens and a soup made from spruce nettles, the same ones you are likely to find under a Christmas tree.

However, the seemingly exotic ingredients for these dishes look blasé in comparison to the bounty of unusual produce that Robert K. Henderson describes in his book, The Neighborhood Forager: A Guide For The Wild Food Gourmet. The book identifies and describes almost 60 different species of plants common to suburban areas that can be prepared in different ways.

Henderson is a British Columbia-based journalist whose previous writings focused on rural technology and history. He is also a passionate forager who admits that his neighbors consider him something of an oddball for poking around the neighborhood bushes and filling his knapsack with what look like weeds.

As Henderson points out, "What others call a weed, the forager calls food."

The Neighborhood Forager is based around the understanding that foraging for food need not be limited to hunting around a secluded forest for berries that may or may not kill you. It instead attempts to combine what he calls "rural theory and suburban practice" by focusing on the substantial bounty that can be found in one's own neighborhood. Henderson believes that although often overlooked in favor of more rural destinations when looking for food, "suburban areas actually offer richer pickings than more natural environments."

The Neighborhood Forager begins by going over the basics of foraging and giving a brief history of the practice, as well as identifying the tools of the trade and the philosophy behind this form of food gathering. The next five chapters focus on different plant types, including resinous herbs, which come from needle and cone-bearing trees; common flowers such as violets and marigolds; and greens and roots, such as chicory and nettles. Each entry is complete with a black-and-white picture and sometimes drawings, and there are over 20 beautiful color shots.

Henderson also gives unusual and amusing facts, folklore, and uses for the edibles covered. (In formal Japanese gardens, for example, Japanese maples symbolize the serenity inspired by the sound of falling water and are often planted within earshot of a waterfall.) He ends each chapter with suggestions on how to prepare natural dyes, safety tips, and a half-dozen or so surprisingly accessible and interesting recipes. The book also includes a helpful glossary of terms and a guide to seasonal availability.

Henderson keeps his subject user friendly and relevant by focusing on produce that requires the same processing skills as cultivated crops, and the plants he cites in the book can generally be found in most of North America. He also avoids species that could be easily confused with similar but poisonous look-alike plants, unless there is an easy way to identify the difference between them (For this reason and the sometimes deadly consequences of a mistake, he does not cover wild mushrooms).

Henderson's strength is the passion with which he writes about foraging and the simplicity with which he describes finding and preparing many of the edibles. I have had dandelion greens before, but his claim that "every part of the dandelion except the flower stem is edible -- and when properly prepared, all are excellent," seems credible as he describes sautiing the blossoms or adding the crowns to a salad. His excellent suggestions for how to acquire fresh pine nuts from pinecones before the local squirrel population gets to them makes me wish I had a pine tree nearby so I could start scheming. Most importantly, his suggestions for finding and preparing the produce are easy to put to the test.

Much of book's charm comes from recipes at the end of each chapter. One might suspect that because of the unusual nature of the book's subject, the recipes would sacrifice flavor for the sake of using foraged ingredients or being overly health conscious. However, Henderson reveals himself to have the same skill for preparing food that he does for finding it, as many of his dishes look similar to what one might find at some of the country's more inventive restaurants. Recipes for Mediterranean Turkey with Conifer Tips, Daylily Tuber Hushpuppies and Creamy Knotweed Soup are straightforward and look excellent. And his formulas for making exotic drinks, such as Elderflower Champagne and Sumac Lemonade, are both original and interesting.

My lone complaint about The Neighborhood Forager is the manner in which it glosses over the issue of the cleanliness of the food gathered. Early in the book Henderson points out that chemical contamination is more of an issue when foraging in a suburban setting than in rural environments. But after recommending that foragers avoid high-traffic areas due to the lead content of gasoline, he barely touches on it at all. Furthermore, he does nothing to assuage my concerns about gathering dandelions from the dog park or cranberries from an unknown field.

The Neighborhood Forager is not compelling literature -- one can only read so much about so many kinds of broadleaf trees in a single sitting. That said, however, it can be a fun read. Henderson is a friendly authority on the subject who is eager to convey the virtues of foraging to his audience. And his occasional barbs towards the more cosmopolitan elements of society are quite amusing, such as his suggestion that "The deep, portlike excellence of blackberry wine [proves] that the wealthy have no idea how to live." If you are trying to cut the grocery store out of your life, The Neighborhood Forager provides a path to self-sufficiency by revealing how to gather unusual edibles from the backyard and beyond. But even if you just want to learn a bit more about "the most organic foods of all -- those that have no human intervention," Henderson's book is an excellent starting place. Either way, by taking advantage of the forgotten harvest of wild produce from just around the corner, you're sure to broaden your palate and see your neighborhood in a new light.

-- Eben Gillette is a freelance writer based in New York.

First published October 20, 2000
Last updated January 7, 2008
Copyright © 2000 Consumer Health Interactive

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