Food Source: Wild Edible Plants

I'm fascinated with wild edible plants. What I often consider an annoying weed or simply a pretty flower can be a useful resource. The best general book I've found is Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants by Christopher Nyerges. He has some great illustrations and pictures (too bad they aren't in color though) along with ways to use the plants. Ignore his and Ed Begley Jr's anti-capitalist / elitist introductions and head straight to the info! The two plants I'm excited to try are Dandelions and Roses. My kids are excited to try a Dandelion and Rose salad!

A book on edible plants may be a good resource to purchase. You might also want to get some region specific books that are tailored more to where you live. Start learning the plants in your yard now at your convenience instead of when you're starving.

From Amazon.com:

Nyerges, an authority on survival skills, discusses 71 wild foods--from agave to yucca--and tells where they can be found. Some of the more familiar plants are chickweed, chicory, dandelion, fennel, grass, milkweed, nasturtium, prickly pear, thistle, and yarrow. Photographs, other illustrations, and textual descriptions of the various parts of the plants (stalks, stems, leaves, and flowers) make identification easy. In each listing, the author explains the plant's edible properties and medicinal uses, where to find it, and its growing cycle. The book also includes some plant folklore and several recipes. A few of the plants, such as poison hemlock, tree tobacco, and jimsonweed, are poisonous but have some medicinal value. There is a pictorial key to leaf shapes and one to fruits and seeds, as well as a glossary, If you're lost in the woods, the book could save your life; if you're interested in plant life and botany, the book is fascinating reading. George Cohen