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Samuel Thayer
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Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants Paperback – Illustrated, 1 Mar. 2010

by Samuel Thayer (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,749 ratings
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A detailed guide to 41 of the most widespread wild foods in North America, covering how to find and identify them, which parts are used, when and how to harvest them, and how to prepare them for the table. The cultural and natural history of the plants are also discussed. There is no overlap between the plants covered in this book and The Forager's Harvest.
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  1. Print length
    512 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Foragers Harvest Press
  4. Publication date
    1 Mar. 2010
  5. Dimensions
    15.44 x 2.54 x 23.22 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0976626616
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0976626619
  8. See all details
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Product description

About the Author

Samuel Thayer is an internationally recognized authority on edible wild plants who has authored two award-winning books on the topic, Nature's Garden and The Forager's Harvest. He has taught foraging and field identification for more than two decades. Besides lecturing and writing, Samuel is an advocate for sustainable food systems who owns a diverse organic orchard and harvests wild rice, acorns, hickory nuts, maple syrup, and other wild products. He lives in rural northern Wisconsin with his wife and three children.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Foragers Harvest Press; Illustrated edition (1 Mar. 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0976626616
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0976626619
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.44 x 2.54 x 23.22 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,749 ratings

About the author

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Samuel Thayer

Samuel Thayer

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Sam Thayer was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, where he first learned to gather wild food in vacant lots, backyards, city parks, and at the edge of town. Later, his family moved to rural southern Wisconsin, and then to Madison. Sam's first presentation on edible wild plants was to his seventh grade science class, demonstrating the foods that he collected regularly on his three-mile walk to school. He began "survival camping" at fourteen and led his first wild food walks when he was 19. After graduating from high school, he moved near the south shore of Lake Superior and built a rustic log cabin on an abandoned farmstead, chasing his childhood dream of "living off the land" while working part-time at a variety of jobs.

Since 2000, when he won the Hazel Wood National Wild Foods Cooking Contest, Sam has been teaching regularly on edible wild plants, giving workshops across the United States. In 2002 he was inducted into the National Wild Foods Hall of Fame at North Bend State Park in West Virginia. His first book, The Forager's Harvest, has won a Midwest Book Award, IPPY Book Award, and was a finalist for the USA Book News Best Books 2007 award. It has been a steady Amazon category best-seller and has sold more than 250,000 copies. His second book, Nature's Garden, has received similar acclaim and sold over 100,000 copies. Incredible Wild Edibles was released November 1, 2017. His newest book: "Sam Thayer's Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America," was published in 2023 and is a winner of the National Outdoor Book Award in the nature category.

He currently lives in the woods of northwestern Wisconsin with his wife, Melissa, their daughters, Myrica and Rebekah and son, Joshua. Along with speaking and writing, he is also a maple syrup producer, wild rice harvester, owns a small organic orchard, and has been revitalizing a lost tradition of making hickory nut oil.

Besides wild food foraging, Sam is an all-around naturalist with particular interest in reptiles, amphibians, bird watching, botany, and mammals. His passion for wild food extends to studying the origin of cultivated plants and the socio-economic history of the human diet.

For more information, visit his website: Forager's Harvest

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4.8 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • A Painter from the UK
    5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than The Forager's Harvest? Many of the plants do grow in UK/Europe
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 May 2011
    Verified Purchase
    I bought and read this book last year when it was first published. I recall being possibly even more impressed with it than with The Forager's Harvest (Thayer's first book) which I'd enjoyed immensely. It is clear that Samuel Thayer writes with passion and a lifetime's experience.

    Yes he is based in North America and thus writes about his native plants. However, don't be put off by that. Many of the plants do indeed grow here in the UK/Europe e.g. sow thistle, hazlenut or elderberry to name but three. Admittedly some are cultivated plants here (e.g. jerusalem artichoke) however, if you use the scientific names to cross reference many of these plants, you can find where they are likely to grow right here in Britain.

    If you want a pair of books on wild food where the author's knowledge and enthusiasm shine through then get Nature's Garden and The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants whether you live in the UK, or North America.

    You might also try the excellently illustrated Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate (Wild Food Adventure Series, Volume 1) by John Kallas, the first in a planned series, covering common greens (yes, another North American book but almost every plant grows in the UK).
    14 people found this helpful
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  • Summer G.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 November 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Brilliant book! Loved the whole thing, I had checked it out by leafing through on Amazon but was pleasantly surprised, the service was perfect too. All in all it surpassed my expectations, thanks!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Marcin Pajak
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 February 2016
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    Excellent
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  • Widdershins
    1.0 out of 5 stars Not suitable for use in Europe
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2010
    Verified Purchase
    I eagerly anticipated this book (which arrived in a timely manner and new condition as promised) full of expectation hoping to be able to safely identify and subsequently sample Nature's Garden and no doubt I would have had I been an inhabitant of North America. Unfortunately for the European market the book is a waste of money no matter how much the text is informative and authoratative and supported by excellent colour photographs, I did not recognise a single plant from the extensive list with the exception of the dandelion and the oak/acorn. To cut a long story short the book should be labelled clearly that it is not suitable for use in Europe.
    8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Marti
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ammmmazing book
    Reviewed in Italy on 15 April 2021
    Verified Purchase
    All of Samuel Thayer books are extremely precious for foragers. This book covers extensively all the mentioned plants and their uses.

    Love it. Super super recommended!
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  • Peter Becker
    5.0 out of 5 stars Massive Information !
    Reviewed in Germany on 6 March 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Book 2 of Sam Thayer`s Edible Wild Plant Curriculum is simply outstanding. Over 500 pages of wildfood wisdom at it`s best !
    Nature`s Garden has to be bought along with The Foragers Harvest, then your all set.
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  • SAS
    5.0 out of 5 stars Educating and Entertaining: a rare find!
    Reviewed in Canada on 28 January 2013
    Verified Purchase
    If you buy this book merely for interest's sake, you will be surprised at the entertaining and personable style of Thayer's writing: he brings wonderful insight and stories to make the read interesting.

    If you buy this book merely for entertainment (which is frankly quite unlikely), you will be surprised at the depth of knowledge and experience that Thayer brings to his narratives.

    A perfect mix of facts and anecdotes, Thayer presents something infinitely better than book knowledge: refined personal experience. You will likely be very impressed with this book. I have heard similar praise for his other book, Forager's Harvest.
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  • " Anti Microchip "
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must own, a treasure of information.
    Reviewed in the United States on 2 November 2011
    Verified Purchase
    Beneficial foraging books
    The opening paragraphs are designed to assist others avoid some of the pit falls I made in purchasing wild food literature. You can skip this and go directly to the individual book reviews if you choose. Please note that this review is of multiple wild food books. I prefer authors that work with the plants they are writing about, and don't just repeat things they read from another book (yes some wild food authors actually do that). I also prefer books with good descriptions, lots of photos of each plant to make identification easier, and to cover the plant from identification to the plate. That's my bias, here is my review.

    I'm just a guy who likes to forage and enjoys the learning and nutritional aspect of wild foods. My main purpose for writing this review of multiple wild food books on one review is to assist others coming to wild foods for the first time (like I was three years ago), and to hopefully help them avoid some of the easily avoided pit falls I made in the literature I chose. At first I wanted books with the most plants in it for my money. It made sense to me at the time but ended up being a grave mistake. Books that devote one picture and a brief explanation to a plethera of plants helped me identify some plants in one stage of growth, but did next to nothing that would have allowed me to use them as food. Example, most books will show you one picture of the adult plant. Many times that's not when you want to harvest it. No one would eat a bannana that was over ripe and pure black and call banana's in general inedible due to that experience. Yet many who have sampled a dandelion have done exactly that. As I've learned from John Kallas, one has to have the right part of the plant (this includes proper identification of the plant), the plant has to be at the right stage of growth, and it has to be prepared properly. If you can't do those three things you shouldn't be sticking the plant in your mouth. Now on to the individual books.

    Wild Edible Plants By John Kallas: 6 stars because it deserves more than 5

    Instead of having hundreds of plants with one picture and one paragraph of information Kallas gives you less plants in far more detail and unmatched photography. If I could give this book to everyone in the United States I would as it is the best book I have found on the market. His descriptions of the plants are spot on and easy to read, his multiple full color pictures of each plant covered are the best I've seen in wild food literature, and he covers each plant from seedling to the dinner plate in stunning detail. If I could only own one book on wild edible foods this would be the one. No book can give you everything you need as a forager. That being said John does a superb job of plant selection in that most people in north america will be able to find all these plants within a mile of their home. For a guy taking care of two children under 3 years of age this book allowed me to forage while staying close to home. Consider this a must own. John also runs wild food adventures in Portland Oregon which offers wild food instruction in that area.

    Nature's Garden By Samuel Thayer: 5.2 stars the second must own, and it too deserves more than 5 stars.

    If I could only own two wild food books this would be the second one on my shelf next to John Kallas book. The section on Oaks and acorns are worth the price of the book by it self let alone the numerous other plants in it. Mr. Thayer uses color photographs at various stages of growth just like Kallas does. After you own Kallas book you will be hooked and Nature's Garden is the next logical progression in your journey. Other reviewers have covered Sam's brilliant rebutal to Jon Krakauer's propagandist poison plant fable of how Chris McCandless died. Chris died of starvation not a poisonous plant. Sam actually has this section of the book posted on his website for viewing (go to foragersharvest dot com), and is worth reading even if you don't buy the book. I really benefited from Sam's sections on the different wild lettuces, elderberries, thistles, and many others. On top of that Sam has the most engaging writing style of all the wild food authors I've encountered. Not only are his pictures only second to those of Kallas, his descriptions are spot on, and reading his books are like reading one of your favorite novels.

    Foragers Harvest By Samuel Thayer 5 stars

    I prefer Thayer's Nature's Garden over this book for my area. That being said I can't really say anything bad about this book. Good descriptions, excellent pictures at various stages of growth, good selection of plants, and done with accuracy. This book was to my knowledge the first of it's kind back when it was released back in the mid 2000's. To my knowledge it was the best book on the market then, and has only been surpassed by his follow up book Nature's Garden and Kallas Wild Edible Plants. Being the first book in this motif it (unjustly I might add) received numerous attacks by a few disgruntled souls on amazons book review section. One must remember Thayer was revolutionary in this field when he released this book, and people had a hard time adjusting. As my friend Stephen T. McCarthy once posted, "All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Well anyone who has used Sams books should understand the advantage of covering less plants in more detail than covering many plants with little to no detail like the over-hyped gimmick books that litter the wild food market do. I few things I really liked about this book include (but are not limited to): descriptions and photographs on cat tail, wapato, service berry, stinging and wood nettle. The canning section is solid for the beginning forager like I am. This in my opinion still fits the must own catagory.

    Euell Gibbons, Stalking the Wild Asparagus 4.5 stars

    Line drawings that are OK. Descriptions of the plants are excellent. Recipes are added by the author, plus his enthusiasm and good nature jump out at you through the page. I mostly use this book in conjunction with other books, and I never use it for it's photographs or line drawings. Not that their bad. Just not enough for a total novice in my opinion. Now his descriptions are excellent and should not be ignored.

    Nancy J. Turner, "Food Plants Of Coastal First Peoples" and "Food Plants of Interior First Peoples" I'll give it 5 stars for ethnobotany and 4 stars as a foraging book.

    If you live in the pacific northwest these books are MUST HAVES. A thorough grouping of the plants used by native americans for food in the pacific northwest. Why I only give it 4 stars is that it is essentially put in a field guide format which is very limiting when trying to use a plant for food. Plus while Turner is the queen of plants and uses in the pacific northwest, you'll only get a tenth of what she knows on any given plant. Kallas and Thayer go into much more detail, have numerous pictures, and lead their readers toward success. With Turner you'll get one good picture in one stage of growth. Through experience I've found that just isn't good enough. She does have more plants in her books than Kallas and Thayer but when you cover them in less detail that is to be expected. To be fair to Nancy I don't get the impression that these were designed specifically for foragers. All this being said I own them and wouldn't give them back if you paid me double what I paid for them.

    Linda Runyan, The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide 3.8 stars, a good book.

    Well first I do have some issues with this book: I'm not fond of the line drawings or black and white photos, she does edibility tests on wild foods and discovered many of them that way (which I'm not a fan of), and some of her descriptions are lacking in my opinion. All that being said she cans her wild foods, dries them for winter use, and lives off of wild edibles all year long successfully. She shares a lot of this knowledge with the reader in this book, and being a nurse myself I'm also able to relate to her thinking in a lot of ways. Plus her stories of using cat tail fluff as stuffing for a couch only to find out that it was infested with insect eggs was hilarious. She tells you all the mistakes she made so you don't have to repeat them. She will tell you to use two other good field guides along with hers. I would plan on not using hers at all for the pictures. I have issues with her lack of oversight on the pictures. I'm sure some will disagree but when Linda tells you in her video (by the same name) that her chickweed picture isn't very good it does bring to mind credibility questions.

    Edible Wild Plants a North American Field Guide, by Elias and Dykemann. 3.5 stars

    At one point in my very early stages I thought this book was the bomb. However, I would identify a plant, find it at times accidentally for the most part, and go "now what?" And that is the weakness of the field guide format in wild food literature (Thayer and Kallas do so much more for you). This book is almost the opposite of Linda Runyans in some ways. She doesn't give you good pictures but gives you some good details on what to do with the plant after you find it. This book gives you some good pitures, a brief description, and then says "your on your own kid." In Samuel Thayers "Foragers Harvest" he gives great descriptions between wood nettle and stinging nettle (both are edible when properly prepared). Thayer also happened to point out that this book actually has a picture of wood nettle and call it stinging nettle. I checked up on this, and lo and behold he was right. They have two pictures and one is wood nettle and one is stinging nettle. They are both listed as stinging nettle in the book. This tells me that the authors might not know all the plants as well as they should. Don't get me wrong I still like the book. But it does prove that wild food authors don't always use or know the plants their writing about.

    Honorable mention goes to "Abundantly Wild" By Teresa Marrone. It is a wild food cook book. The pictures in the book are not great (though oddly beat many of the photos in supposed field guides) but I have read a few of the recipes and they look promising. I'll write a review about a year from now once I've put the book to the test. Until then I'll let you read the reviews on this book and make up your own mind.
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  • A. C. Seruntine
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best
    Reviewed in Canada on 29 November 2014
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    IMO, Thayer's books are simply the best books out there on the art of foraging. They don't cover a huge range of flora, but more importantly, they teach one how to understand flora, how to identify it, and as importantly, when to harvest it and how to use it.
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