A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants by Lee Peterson (1999, Paperback)

I LOVE this book. I have this book and it took me all of the way from knowing absolutely nothing to being able to identify plants quickly, and tell the edible parts, preparing the plants for eating, etc. This book is incredibly well organized for plants with flowers, but is harder to identify plants with leaves and fruit only. The text is easy to read and simple, but provides vivid detail about specific plant identification points. For almost every plant, there is a description, an accompanying line drawing (shows all of the plant parts to make identification easy)and there are about 13 pages in the center of the book with full color photographs of select plants, illustrating general plant groups.
At the back of the book, there are organizations of plants by food use, habitat, and time of year harvesting, etc. There is slight weakness in some of the food preparation descriptions, but I've pretty well understood everything. Also, there is little focus on grasses and leafy plants, but there is only so much you can cover in a book of this size.
Overall, this is a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to eat wild plants, but doesn't want to be a geek (studying encyclopedias and plant books). With this book, you can spend most of the time in the field identifying plants, although a little time just reading and studying the book helps.
With this book alone, you will find that you will be walking or driving down the road and suddenly realize that you can identify the plants you are passing by the side of the road. That is a great feeling!!!
This is in my opinion the best book you can get for the price!!

I LOVE this book, the ease of reading the clearly drawn and easily recognizable prints of the plants. I spend a lot of time in the outdoors with my family and this has been a great teaching tool . In these times, we have forgotten how to gather from the earth what God and nature provide and depend on the grocers to deliver food. Even the preparation is easy and palatable. Plus the fun and exercise you get from hunting and gathering! This is a must have for anyone and to teach your children to learn to live off the land if stranded is an invaluable tool. My father taught me as a child, what I could and couldn't eat in Florida, and now I am learning that here in KY and no matter where I go... this book is in my emergency backpack right on top since I use it daily to identify plants. I plan to buy the medicinal book soon