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The most helpful favourable review
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273 of 285 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent pocket sized guide
This is a 2004 version and worthy addition to the very popular and pocket-sized Collins Gem series. ISBN 0-00-718303-8. Food For Free - A Fantastic Feast of Plants and Folklore. The book starts with an introduction by the author Richard Mabey. It then has short sections titled 'Roots', 'Green Vegetables', 'Herbs', 'Spices',...
Published on 5 Feb 2006 by Lifthrasir
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40 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
Drawings leave a lot to desire
My only notable criticism of this book is it's drawings. I would have preferred photographs. Had I never seen Sweet Cicely I would not be able to identify it from the drawing alone. Some species are so distinctive a drawing would suffice, i.e Chanterelle, but others need more detailed drawings or photographs. As a field guide I find it disapointingly bulky. For trekking...
Published on 25 Feb 2002
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273 of 285 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent pocket sized guide, 5 Feb 2006
This is a 2004 version and worthy addition to the very popular and pocket-sized Collins Gem series. ISBN 0-00-718303-8. Food For Free - A Fantastic Feast of Plants and 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 and Jams' and 'Nuts'. They include general advice, observations and 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 and thus less detailed. Fortunately, almost every entry also has a photograph. The combination of colour drawings and colour photographs is what makes this little pocket book a true 'gem'. If the drawing is a little weak, the photo will be excellent and vice-versa. Almost fool proof. Each entry starts with the common English name (Latin is in small type at the top of the page)a colour illustration and description. Taking Beech (at random), it says: 'Widespread and 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; female in 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 and 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 softer in texture’.) The book, in line with its title, covers Plants and Trees, Fungi, Seaweeds and Shellfish. There is a glossary at the end and a page devoted to further reading. There is a List of Recipes and finally an index of entries in 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 and shellfish is most welcome. Given the true pocket size measurements of the Collins Gem series of books, the price of a fiver (£4-99) and 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 fits in the pocket - which is the main purpose of such books, isn't it? Five stars!
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121 of 127 people found the following review helpful:
FOOD FOR FREE BY RICHARD MABEY, 15 Sep 2003
By A Customer
A delightful, colourful book that is full of the countryside with amazing recipes of the wild flowers and weeds that have been photographed and inset on every page. He has created a new space for the English seasonal climate and the accompanying display of wild, ornate colourful flowers that have all got there culinary uses, some known like chicory others not so well known like Bladder Wrack Popweed. There are 21 daring recipes for you to try each containing somekind of wild flower or herb. The overall review of this book is that if you are in love with the countryside you will definetely find this book very interesting.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
A classic of conservation and ecological awareness, 17 Sep 2000
Though he is now known primarily as the author of the wonderful 'Flora Britannica', it was Richard Mabey's 'Food For Free' which brought the author to national attention. It immediately became the standard work on the subject of the edible wild planets of Britain, and has since gained a solid reputation as one of the pioneering texts of ecological awareness and the conservation movement. Mabey blends botany, social history, etymology and the cookbook to produce a beguiling mix which can be dipped into or read at length. This is a British classic: one of those unanticipated books concerning an apparently eccentric subject, which nevertheless seems indispensable the moment it appears, and which has become more rather than less relevant with the passage of time. Readers who enjoy it may also wish to investigate 'The Unofficial Countryside' by the same author, in which Mabey deals with the stubborn survival of Britain's wild flora and fauna in the unpropitious interstices of our urban and industrial society.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
An excellent little book, 18 Jul 2008
This little gem of a book should be in every backpackers back pocket. Concise, focused and descriptive you'll have no trouble identifying the plants and shellfish. There has been some comments about lack of information on animals to eat, this is probably because rabbits, pheasants and such are classed as game and will belong to the landowner. Whilst it's ok to pick a few plants, mushrooms and shellfish it will probably be frowned on if you start blasting away at the countryside or setting traps!
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90 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
Good - but the lack of wildlife is disappointing, 19 Aug 2001
"Food for Free" will appeal to a select group of people - those who like wild flowers for their beauty; those who believe that not everything good to eat comes sanitised and pre-packed; and those who like camping on the side of a mountain equipped only with a plastic spoon and a pair of wellies.The book details a substantial amount of (mainly UK) plants, fruits and fungi which are easily found and totally edible. I have used the book whilst walking in the nearby ancient Howe Park woods and came back with sufficient amount of "edible" matter to feed myself - but then I always was a bit odd! I'm still alive and suffered no ill effects so either I was lucky or the clear illustrations do the job well. There's no doubting it - this book is a great reference and just the right size to slip into a large coat pocket but the thing that prevents me from giving it the full 5 stars is the lack of discussion of edible animals and insects (I probably would have skipped the insects but you never know!!). Richard does explain this omission but I still would have liked to see more about rabbits, pidgeons and so forth. A great book and a "must have" for the ever-so-slightly crazy 'Good Life' generation.
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68 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent source of reference - Highly recommended, 10 Aug 2005
I got this book from my local library but loved it so much that I am going to get my own copy for future reference. After reading this book I went out for a walk and picked some blackberries, elderberries & sloes, which were growing in abundance some 10 minutes from my house! This book opened my eyes to stuff that I usually overlook in the hedgerows and provided me with some useful information about the type of plants, fruits and fungi that are edible (and perhaps not always well known), with recipe ideas too. It encouraged me to venture out into the fresh air and walk in local woodland, along river banks and fields etc. I even found some of the highly recommended Parasol mushrooms! Wonderful book and really, really useful. Worth every penny.
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49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
the pocket bible of free food, 26 April 2002
this is a great book if you want to get yourself some free food. It has many different plants and fungi and seafood, etc. the book gives a valuable resource of information.
I Have heard people criticize this book by saying that it is hard to identify the plants but the answer to that one is (it is not a plant identification book) If you want to live from the land or just off for a free food holiday then this is the book for you.
I would also get a good plant identification book just in case you get confused over the poisonous plants.
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78 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
Excites the interest but not actually that practical, 26 Oct 2005
This is an excellent book but in the wrong package. Richard Mabey does a very good job of giving a seasonal guide to what's out there that you can have for free and does a respectable job of telling you how to use it. It falls short in two respects;
First it is not a comprehensive guide to any particular food source so while he may tell you how to cook ceps and morels and gives a reasonable guide to identifying it without this being a comprehensive guide to fungi you will never be entirely certain that what you have is a cep or a morel. To some extent that is true for everything he shows whether its fungi, nuts or fruit.
The second point is more significant for a book on foraging and is that this edition is simply too big to take into the field. In some ways this isn't a significant problem as because the book isn't comprehensive it wouldn't be the choice to take into the field with you.
This book falls somewhere between the coffee table forager's manual and Delia goes wild. Both of which might sound like criticisms but for someone who hasn't foraged wild food previously both of those would be the ideal starting point. If that's you then buy this book and read it but leave it at home when you go out and get a good field guide to take with you.
Note - since writing that review I have realised that this is available in several editions. Some of the other editions are small enough to use as a field guide.
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50 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
Food for free, 14 Jul 2004
By A Customer
I found this to be an outstanding book full of lavish photos and colourful text.I really am amazed how much we, as a nation, have forgotten about what is available on our doorstep!! I highly recommend this to anyone who is curious about food in any way. A really good buy!!
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42 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
A Handy Pocket Volume, 13 Aug 2007
Richard Mabey is the author of several books on flora and fauna so he is well qualified to write a book such as this. Over one hundred edible plants are featured together with recipes and other culinary information. There is also information on how to pick and when to pick and 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 and 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 and 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 and described and the recipes are both old and new. Other fascinating information is how the plants have been used through the ages. An ideal book for all those who are nature lovers and like the idea of something for nothing. I think the last part covers 99.9% of the population.
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