For most, wild edibles are a passing curiosity - we gather enough summer berries for jam or maybe some stinging nettles for soup or tea. Browsing Nature's Aisles tells the story of how one suburban family committed to increasing their food security by incorporating wild foods as a dietary staple - and proves that you can flourish through foraging too.

Review

Evelyn Rysdyk author, Spirit Walking: A Course in Shamanic Power and Modern Shamanic Living: New Explorations of an Ancient Path July 2013

Reading Browsing Nature’s Aisles: A Year of Foraging for Wild Food in the Suburbs is like walking along side Wendy and Eric Brown as they and their family relearn our ancestors’ way of harvesting the wild foods that nature provides. Even in Maine’s harsher northern climate, wild food abounds if you know how to find it. The adventure of discovery that the Brown’s embarked upon provides for great reading and joyful inspiration for those wanting to develop a truly tasty, localvore lifestyle that is in deep harmony with nature.
Foraging necessitates learning how to observe the rhythms of the natural world and remembering how to effectively live in harmony with the plants, trees, animals and birds. By slowing down to really pay attention to the world around us, we can learn how to find food in every season and in that process, remember the bounty of beauty and peace that the Earth provides.

Jennifer Lavoie, Good Reads, July 13, 2013

This book has encouraged me not just to forage for myself to try new things, but to actually look around when I'm in nature. It's amazing how just three miles from my apartment in the middle of a city I was able to find such a great bounty where it seems very few people visit (the trail, while visible, was seriously overgrown).
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is wondering what foraging is like and wants a few starter tips for themselves. This book does include a few recipes as well, though it is mainly one family documenting their story.

Brittany Fleer, Sun Flower Stories blog, July 7, 2013

Though it is not a how-to guide, there is still plenty of useful advice and tidbits of information to be gleaned. For example, my mother taught me to recognize Queen Anne's Lace as a very small child; I (and probably my mother) had no idea it is actually wild carrot! The conversational tone of the book, along with the inclusion of common knowledge tips like Queen Anne's Lace, made foraging seem less like a practically dead art of pioneers and crazy survivalists and more like something that was actually possible in my own life, even a skill I could become comfortable with. As such, the book serves as a comfortable stepping stone between sitting on my couch and actually heading out for a first foraging trip. I'll be picking up a few more detailed guides to foraging on my next trip to the local library, and who knows what's possible from there? Maybe the Browns will help me put a dinner or two on my own table.

From the Back Cover

Mud clams, knotweed, and plants that bite back – one family’s adventures in suburban foraging

… an inspiring journal of one family’s effort to break free from manufactured foods and transition to home-grown and locally sourced cuisine, supplemented by a steady diet of wild fare. --Thomas J. Elpel, author, *Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification *

The Browns are the inspiring Pied Pipers of suburban homesteaders. Through their finely tuned, personal account of the untapped and tasty world of wild foraging, you’ll be craving those dandelion greens right on your doorstep.-- Lisa Kivirist & John Ivanko, co-authors, Farmstead Chef and Rural Renaissance

As part of their commitment to increasing self-reliance and resiliency, Wendy and Eric Brown decided to spend a year incorporating wild edibles into their regular diet. Their goal was to use native flora and fauna to help bridge the gap between what their family could produce and what they needed to survive. The experience fundamentally changed their definition of food.

Packed with a wealth of information on collecting, preparing and preserving easily identifiable wild edibles found in most suburban landscapes, Browsing Nature’s Aisles is the story of one suburban family’s adventures in wild foraging. This unique and inspiring guide is a must-read for those who wish to enhance their food security by availing themselves of the cornucopia on their doorstep. As engrossing as a seed catalog and much more truthful…

A new generation of homesteaders, nature enthusiasts, hikers, campers and would-be foragers have long awaited these passionate, compelling and hard-earned words of wisdom. -- Connie Krochmal, garden writer and columnist, Bee Culture magazine

Wendy and Eric Brown are suburban homesteaders growing roots (both literally and
figuratively) in Southern Maine. They have been studying wild edibles for many years. Wendy is also the author of Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs.