Alan Mcpherson

Wild Food Plants of Indiana & Adjacent States Alan Mcpherson

This delightful field guide to wild foods describes more than eighty edible plants that grow in Indiana and adjacent states and gives directions for delicious ways-many originals, all "tested in the field"- of preparing them. The guide provides a plant perspective of Indiana and a seasonal guide to foraging, which tells what plants to look for at each season of the year. A detailed description and a drawing are given for each plant or plant family, along with its preferred habitats, its distribution within the state,and information on the edible parts. What makes Wild Food Plants of Indiana special are the dozens of tempting recipes. The pleasure of spring include wild asparagus soup, evening primrose roots in sweet and sour sauce, poke salad, wild onion broth with cornmeal dumplings, and spring beauty fondue. Early summer brings rose butter sandwiches, wild strawberry roly-poly, and steamed cattail spikes (which taste like corn on the cob). In July and August you can relish chokecherry cornbread, day lily fritters, mulberry wine, and juneberry shortcake. Among the riches of fall are creamy hickory nut soup, hazelnut bread, and pawpaw ice cream.