I found this book really inspiring and useful. While I have Martin Crawford’s Creating a Forest Garden, which covers the same plants and many more, this book is helpful because it is entirely based on what tastes good and includes more information on each plant, along with beautiful illustrations and interesting, unusual recipes.
Some of the plants will be familiar to most herbalists – nasturtium, artichoke and goji berry. The more unususual foods include Carolina allspice, blue honeysuckle berries, Chilean guava and Szechuan pepper (a close relative of prickly ash). I made a wish list of plants, and planted several this year, with more to come next year. I haven’t had a crop yet from most, but the blue honeysuckle arrived bearing fruit, and I can say the berries are like blueberries, only better. Yum!
Reviewed by Julie Bruton-Seal