A Feast of Weeds: A Literary Guide to Foraging and Cooking Wild Edible Plants

Ballerini (Italian, Univ. of California Los Angeles), an avid forager of wild-plant foods, has created an interesting compilation of plant lore and recipes focused upon relatively common edible wild plants that grow in his native Italy. Each chapter covers one type of plant. Some, such as wild blackberries and blueberries, are well known, while others, such as crested wartycabbage and wallrocket, are less familiar. A variety of herbs that grow wild, such as borage, thyme, and mint, are also included. Ballerini's introduction to each plant covers legends and mythological allusions to it as well as historical and literary references. He quotes from a wide variety of sources including Roman scientific treatises, medieval herbals, and 19th-century poetry. Each of these charming descriptions is followed by recipes developed by Ada de Santis, a wild-plant forager from the Puglia region of Italy. The recipes conveniently include both English and metric measurements, and are very Italian in character, featuring, for example, many types of risotto, frittata, and spaghetti. Ballerini clearly conveys the pleasure and joy he finds in hunting for edible wild plants and making a meal of them. He warns readers that inexperienced foragers should always go out with an expert because some poisonous plants look remarkably similar to edible ones. The work seems largely aimed toward Italian audiences, but Ballerini does point out that varieties of many of the plants described can also be found in North America.