Forage, Harvest, Feast: A Wild-Inspired Cuisine

In this groundbreaking collection of more than 470 wild-food recipes, celebrated New York City forager, cook, and food writer Marie Viljoen shows us how to incorporate readily available wild ingredients into both everyday and special-occasion fare. Working with 36 wild plants, most of them ubiquitous worldwide and many increasingly found in farmers markets, she presents truly delicious options for everything from cocktails and appetizers to entrees, desserts, snacks, bakes, breads, preserves, sauces, syrups, ferments, spices, and salts. Featuring bayberry, mugwort, Japanese knotweed, black locust flowers, honeysuckle, wisteria, spruce tips and more, recipes range from simple preservation techniques and cast-iron-skillet specials to more sophisticated dishes of multilayered flavors a shrimp and avocado aspic with spicebush, or a rolled tomato souffle stuffed with garlic mustard. Forage, Harvest, Feast featuring hundreds of colour photographs as well as cultivation tips for plants commonly found in the wild but easily grown at home is destined to become a standard reference for any cook wanting to transform wildcrafted ingredients into exceptional dishes, spices, and drinks. Eating wild food, Viljoen reminds us, is a radical act of remembering and honoring our shared heritage. Eating invasive edible weeds helps curb their spread. And growing indigenous plants at home preserves wild populations and boosts biodiversity.