Wild Seasons: Gathering and Cooking Wild Plants of the Great Plains

Perfect for both nature enthusiasts and home cooks, this unique field guide-meets-cookbook is full of inspiration. Beginning with early spring edibles like watercress and nettles and following the harvest through late fall with treats like persimmons and Jerusalem artichokes, Kay Young provides clear, easy instructions for identifying, gathering, and preparing around four dozen wild plants from the Great Plains. Since many of these plants grow in other regions too, readers from all over will find something to enjoy.

This is not a survival book, the author notes, including only plants whose flavor and availability make them worth the effort. With nearly 250 recipes, it offers everything from classic favorites like poke sallet, catnip tea, horehound lozenges, hickory nut cake, and a pantry full of jams, jellies, and pies, to creative new dishes like wild violet salad, milkweed sandwiches, cattail pollen pancakes, daylily hors doeuvres, and prickly pear cactus relish.

Blending the authors belief that we may never live entirely off wild foods but shouldnt exclude them, the book serves up a satisfying mix of botanical knowledge, ecological insight, and delicious recipes.

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