Beautiful photos. A practical guide to foraging with creative recipes for your treasured finds. Dandelion coffee?!

Forage & Feast is an accessible and beautifully photographed tutorial and recipe guide by Chrissy Tracey. Released 9th April 2024 by Penguin Random House on their Ten Speed Press imprint, it's 272 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This guide is divided into seasonal sections. Each season includes foraging and plant lists with photos and info for IDing and foraging plants and fungi alongside recipes using nature's bounty.

Foraging guides include lots of different types of mushrooms, greens, berries, fruits, and flowers.

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. The author/publisher have also included an abbreviated resources and links lists for more information on foraging, as well as a cross-referenced index to the book's content.

Four stars. This would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home use, for smallholders and self sufficiency folks, and for gift giving. It's lovely to see a burgeoning appreciation for foraging and using local fresh ingredients.

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

This is a beautiful, fun, inspiring book for anyone interested in foraging!

I loved hearing the author’s stories and experiences with foraging.

The recipes are delicious, accessible, and truly highlight a range of foraged foods.

I haven’t had a chance to try many recipes yet as it’s just now spring in my part of the world. I look forward to trying some recipes as I’m able to get out in the forest! The nettles soup I made recently from the book was lovely!

I highly recommend this book for yourself or as a beautiful gift!

The variety of recipes included in this book absolutely floored me. There are so many that I can't wait to try and a few that are variations of things I have tried before. The photos in this book were stunning and beautiful. I really enjoyed being able to look through this book!

Cookbooks like this both excite me and frighten me. I want to say I would feel confident foraging for my own mushrooms, etc. but I would definitely need someone with me the first few times to build confidence. The foraged foods in this cookbook are not very typical in my region, so I would likely not buy this and cook from it but it did inspire me to explore some more specialty foods. It would be a great cookbook for someone with the confidence to go hunting on their own.

Forage & Feast by Chrissy Tracey is jam packed with foraging information including rules, safety, learning trees, what to wear out and about, mindfulness of wildlife including ticks (chronic Lyme disease is truly awful, believe me), and foraging tools. Not only that but she describes identifying fungi (spore prints are important) and includes luscious photographs of forage finds. Plus there are recipes galore for every taste imaginable. Some are traditional, many are revitalized with new twists. But they all, without exception, sound tantalizing.

As an experienced forager with an adventurous palate, I am always thirsty for something new. Several recipes are comprised of more than one component but you can mix and match. For example, this morning's plump yellow morels I foraged found their way into Morel "Fried Chicken" Bites with Dandelion Hot Honey...without the honey, though will do that next time. I had another sauce of my own on hand to use up. The crunchy morsels of deliciousness paired beautifully with wild asparagus risotto.

Whether you are contemplating foraging for the first time or forage daily as long as weather permits like me, you'll find something to enjoy. Who can resist Ramp Pesto, Tempura Fiddleheads with Soy-Sesame Glaze and Chili Crisp, Strawberry Knotweed Toaster Tarts, Purslane Bruschetta, Peach Wineberry Sorbet or Pine Soda? Foraging is gratifying on so many levels and creatively eating what one finds is out of this world!

My sincere thank you to Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this drool-worthy book.

As an amateur forager, I am SUPER excited for this book. I was able to read this book early, thanks to NetGalley and the author, so I jumped at the chance. I love how this books breaks down what's needed to forage, the "rules" of foraging, and helpful swaps for recipes if you're unable to forage. Each plant has a breakdown of how to identify based on sense, its season and habitat, and lookalikes to look out for.
I have some other foraging cookbooks but this one has some really interesting options, such as ramp kimchi, wild garlic pancakes, katsu chicken of the woods, and knotweed pop tarts! However, this book is more than just a cookbook. The introductory vignettes for each season were delightful and thoughtfully written. I especially enjoyed these as they often spoke to the nostalgia of season changes in New England, where I am located as well.
I also love that each recipe had a corresponding photo. As a visual person, it's super helpful to see what a dish is suggested to look like by the chef, so I know what I'm going for. Speaking of the photos, the photography in this cookbook was beautiful, for both the dishes and the foraging. Each image conjured up cottage, magical, and cozy vibes for me, which seem to be the perfect theme for this collection of recipes. If you're interested in foraging and/or losing yourself in the nature all around you while nourishing both your body and soul, check out this book. 5/5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I haven't read many cookbooks before but I appreciated the obvious time and dedication the author and chef put into this. It's a great blend of foraging information and delicious vegan recipes. I also really appreciated that there were various styles of recipes from main dishes to desserts to cocktails, it was unique and fun blend. The photographs were also absolutely stunning. The essays and infographics about each plant, fungi, or herb was very helpful and made for interesting reading. As someone from the New England area with a beginner's interest in foraging, I think this is the perfect combination book.

Gorgeous pictures, fantastic recipes, and inventive flavors. This cookbook/plant guide is a wonderful introduction to foraging native and invasive edible plants. I can't wait to use this book all season long!

A wonderful cookbook stuffed full of vegetarian dishes all accompanied by gorgeous food photography that shows off everything to mouth watering perfection.

There is a brief introduction to the 101 of foraging, including the equipment and safety precautions needed, then the book is divided by seasons, showcasing what tends to be available at different parts of the year and how they can be made into delicious dishes.

Highly recommended for all mushroom lovers!

Our family has foraged for over twenty years and wild foods comprise a large amount of our meals. This is a nice foraging cookbook, especially for vegetarian and vegan foragers. All of the recipes are vegan, though they include instructions for using dairy as alternatives in some cases.

There are photos for every recipe IIRC, but in my ARC the colors were so darkened and oversaturated that it was frustratingly difficult to even see them. There is no nutritional information for the recipes. The author uses a lot of gluten and the recipes tend towards higher carb, so the book may be less useful for gluten free, diabetic, paleo and keto readers.

One thing I liked is that the recipes are grouped by season. There is also good information about each plant or mushroom (though note to readers and the publisher— poisonous sumac is not a poisonous lookalike for sumac, as it has large round white berries instead of tiny red ones clustered in cones, and the leaves are different besides growing in vastly different places).

(Photo showing differences)

The recipes are a little fiddly. I also wish they used more wild ingredients. This book is the type where it uses one wild ingredient per recipe and the rest are standard grocery items. I tend to cook with many wild ingredients in each recipe. It will be a better fit for a new forager who is unlikely to have multiple wild foods though, which is probably most readers.

All in all, it’s a well done book with good information and a wide variety of recipes.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book for review.

Forage & Feast is a delightful and eye-opening journey into the wild world of foraging and plant-based cooking. Author Chrissy Tracey is the perfect guide, blending her expertise as an experienced forager and vegan chef with an obvious passion for connecting with nature through food.

From the very first pages, Tracey's vibrant writing immerses you in the peaceful pleasure of wandering fields and forests in search of nature's edible bounty. Her descriptions are richly detailed yet accessible, demystifying the foraging process. Helpful identification tips and gorgeous photography allow even novices to safely navigate each highlighted plant and fungi.

But Forage & Feast is more than just a guidebook - it's also a sumptuous recipe collection organized by season. Tracey showcases the versatility of foraged ingredients across 85 vegan recipes that are creative yet approachable. Dishes like Chanterelle Katsu Sandwiches and Sassafras Root Beer Floats had my mouth watering from the descriptions alone. The book introduces exciting new flavors while putting familiar spins on comfort foods.

Woven throughout are Tracey's engaging personal narratives that make you feel like you're foraging alongside her as she hikes through forests and urban greenspaces. These vignettes provide fun context and demonstrate her deep reverence for our wild edible environments.

While some ingredients may be challenging for city dwellers to locate, Tracey offers plenty of suggestions for farmed substitutions when wild varieties aren't available. Her foraging fundamentals like sustainable harvesting are useful for all.

Overall, Forage & Feast is an absolute delight that will inspire you to take a closer look at the edible plants around you. Tracey has created a true ceremony of reconnecting with nature through the joyful acts of gathering and cooking. This book is a must-have for vegans, foragers, and anyone looking to enmesh themselves more fully in the wild food chai

I loved this book so much! The recipes all look amazing and I really enjoy that the author has categorized recipes by season to highlight in-season ingredients that can be foraged during each quarter of the year.