Forage. Gather. Feast.: 100+ Recipes from West Coast Forests, Shores, and Urban Spaces

by Maria Finn

Marla Aufmuth (Photographer)

Identify foragable foods in your own backyard to create simple, rustic recipes from the bounty of the coast, forest, and urban spaces up and down the West Coast.

Featuring more than 100 recipes and chock-full of lush photography, this cookbook shows you what to do with the delicious foodstuffs you can dig, snip, or catch anywhere from Alaska to Northern California, then put it all together in homecooked meals best shared with friends and gorgeous sunset views or cooked in the wild over a campfire.

Recipes include:

• Morels, Asparagus, Fava Beans, and Fiddlehead Ferns with Burrata
• Black Truffle Pot de Crème with Preserved Sakura Cherry Blossoms
• Fire-Roasted Butter Clams with Seaweed Gremolata
• Spruce Tip and Juniper Berry Sockeye Salmon Gravlax
• Chilled Huckleberries with Campfire Caramel and Seaweed Salt

Reimagine your cooking and unlock new flavours from the abundance that surrounds us.

• ISBN10: 1632174863
• ISBN13: 9781632174864
• Publish Date: 9 April 2024
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Sasquatch Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781632174864

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

is an accessible and beautifully photographed tutorial and recipe guide by Maria Finn. Released 9th April 2024 by Sasquatch Books, it's 304 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. 

This guide is divided into two main sections. The first, a thorough primer aimed at the western areas of the USA including the coast, gives readers a capsule survey of identifying and responsible and safe foraging wild foods from the coast, forests, and other areas including suburban and urban. The second part of the book includes numerous recipes featuring the wild foods gathered.

Foraging guides include seafood items, seaweed, mushrooms, pine items, fiddleheads, greens, berries, and flowes. The recipes are varied and quite fancy with artistic presentation and aesthetic. It's not a strictly plant based cookbook, there are seafood items like clams, prawns, and other seafood included. 

Recipes include an introduction, bullet list of ingredients, and step by step preparation instructions. Ingredient measures are provided in imperial (American) units only. Many of the ingredients will require both foraged items and access to a well stocked specialist grocer. 

Many (but not all) of the recipes are accompanied by full color photos, including preparation pictures. The photos are a high point of the book, and serving suggestions are very attractive and well styled. 

Four stars. This would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home use, for smallholders and self sufficiency folks, and for gift giving.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.