The Wild Berry Book: Romance, Recipes, & Remedies (Camp and Cottage)

Rating:
Summary: So many berries!
Review: Having been a berry lover and berry picker since a young girl, I found this to be a very lovely and interesting book. Lovely for the beautiful pictures of so many berries. Interesting for the variety of berries pictured and described. There are so many berries I've seen and wondered about, not daring to pick and eat, or being aware they are edible, not knowing how they are to be eaten. Now I have a reference. The book is a feast for the eyes with lots of useful information. A good book for wanderers of the forest who come across these delicate fruits and wonder.

Rating:
Summary: So many berries!
Review: Having been a berry lover and berry picker since a young girl, I found this to be a very lovely and interesting book. Lovely for the beautiful pictures of so many berries. Interesting for the variety of berries pictured and described. There are so many berries I've seen and wondered about, not daring to pick and eat, or being aware they are edible, not knowing how they are to be eaten. Now I have a reference. The book is a feast for the eyes with lots of useful information. A good book for wanderers of the forest who come across these delicate fruits and wonder.

Rating:
Summary: The Wild Berry Book is the book to buy! A+++
Review: If you are looking for a book to buy that has great color and depth in each picture and you really want to know what berries your about to pick if they are poison or not......this is the book to buy.....it's not like a lot of books that have pencil sketches of a berry...what a joke those are when so many berries look a like! This book is GREAT! You won't be sorry!
Thank you Lee's Books in St. Paul MN for such a beautiful book and fast order!

Rating:
Summary: Romance, Recipes and Remedy Folklore
Review: The presented material of commonly found wild berries is done in summarized fashion, making this book an easy read. Plus it's all very inviting, rich with quotations, eye-catching color photos and wonderful illustrations, giving the book much appeal.

Wild berries of merit are divided into three sections and those found in the first two chapters are described in a basic layout with: Introduction, Description & Locality, Edibility & Recipes, Etymology, History & Folklore plus Reputed Medical Virtues. It also goes through various common names given to many wild berries. All of these details, which include some idea for bloom season and ripening season, are mostly provided for general idea, kept very basic. With even less information highlighted in the following chapter aptly labeled Minor Berries. Before the book ends it also furnishes a brief notation of fifteen poisonous berries, in common and Latin names but simply says to avoid them, giving no visual description beyond the four pictures, or any other useful clarifications for awareness. So the book is not very consistent with providing adequate information and a few times I had questions come to mind and where not being answered as I continued to read. For the more than thirty different berries found within, this book alone is not really well suited as a source for indentification.

The many recipes supplied are quite interesting and most are vintage. One recipe that struck me as curious, found on page 32 was for a 17th Century Blackberry Wine, I also loved the author's trick for a Bloddy Mary drink on page 100, using juniper to get a flavor of gin without the alcohol. Not all recipes are very practical or necessarily healthy, calling for generous amounts of sugar, but there is at least something to experiment with. Recipes to be found range from jellies, jams, syrups, wines, drinks, pies, puddings, other desserts and more. Not much is provided for instructions on making remedies. Mainly just interesting American Indian medical folklore and comments on past usage and beliefs throughout history. A sample of the wild fruits highlighted in this book (in common name) range from strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, various raspberries, elderberry, bayberry, gooseberry, cranberry, currants, mulberry, mahonia berry, may apple, hawthorns, rosehips, sumac, saw palmetto, wintergreen, pokeberry, snowberry and many, many more.

In addition to her wonderful introduction on the topic, the author does a lovely closing chapter to the book as well, telling more of her personal accounts, memories and opinions on the beneficial aspects of harvesting from the wild, which uniquely, is where an added touch of romance falls in. Certainly is great as casual reading for the experienced berry hunter and because of its good advice it's a decent introductory book for the beginner.