Whilst this is a very subjective recommendation list of the best foraging books, it’s one that comes from experience and use. It’s by no means exhaustive and is intended as a guide for those wanting to dip their toes in the foraging waters or take further steps in advancing their knowledge and has been created with the “what would be the best foraging books I’d want if I was starting from scratch” question in mind.
Most of these books can be had second-hand for a song – I added it up and for less than £20 you can get some of the best books out there to get you started!
Usually, a mix of field guides (ones you can put in a bag and easily reference) and ID reference books (ones that are just too impractical for field use) are recommended.
Starting Out – My Top Beginners Book Recommendation
If you’re only tentatively dipping your toes into foraging, then the first book on my list, coupled with a few good foraging sites with excellent images/reference material that you can access from your phone is all you need.
The Forager’s Calendar – John Wright
This book was a recent addition that I picked up on a whim, and I’m really pleased I did. If there is one book I’d heartily recommend to anyone with even a hint of an interest in foraging, it would be this one. It covers a good selection of plants, fungi and seaweeds and is written in John’s very warm approachable style. Couple this with a good wildflower field guide and you’d be all set.
Wild Flower Guides
Add one of these to your foraging library and you’ll be all set.
Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain – Readers Digest
There are several books I’ve bought over the years based on Mark’s recommendation over at Galloway Wild Foods, and this one is an excellent recommendation indeed. You can pick this up second-hand for just a couple of quid.
Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe – David Sutton
I picked this up in a second-hand bookshop ‘just because’ and I’m really impressed. It’s not extensive but covers a good 850 species with good illustrations and illustrated close-ups of key identification features. Smaller than Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain, so this makes it a bit easier to carry.
Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland – Marjorie Blamey, Richard Fitter & Alastair Fitter
Extensive coverage of Wild Flowers, including trees and ferns which is very useful. It’s an information-dense field guide which may be a bit overwhelming to the beginner, however the layout is excellent. This has been my field guide for over a decade.
Fungi Foraging Guides
If you start down the plant-foraging wormhole, it won’t be long before you’ll want to start looking into mushrooms. This can turn into a bit of an obsession once you realise just how incredible the fungi kingdom is.
Mushrooms – River Cottage Handbook No. 1 – John Wright
Another of John Wright’s books in my top recommendations! This fungi foraging guide nails it. It’s hardback, portable, and covers most good common edible species with enough ID information and clear images to be very useful. There’s also good coverage of the less agreeable species in sufficient detail to keep you safe. An excellent fungi guide specifically for the forager.
Getting Serious
Here are the books I’d recommend for anyone wanting to go foraging a little deeper into kingdoms Plantae and Fungi.
The Forager Handbook – A Guide To The Edible Plants Of Britain – Miles Irving
This book is commonly considered the bible of foraging here in the UK, and for good reason. Bear in mind this is not an identification guide, however, there are some excellent tables on identifying members of the Apiaceae family and excellent descriptions of plants throughout. Whilst the images are in black-and-white (something many reviewers mark as the only negative of this book) I would have to disagree with all of them. The image treatment and removal of colour puts the focus on the plant’s structure and provides an excellent illustrative reference. The coverage of edible UK plants is extensive with distribution, habitat, description, notes and uses/recipes for each entry.
Mushrooms of Britain and Europe (Black’s Nature Guides)
This is the book I’ve taken with me for the last decade when I want a fungi field guide. I was pleasantly surprised to see another well-known foraging anorak recommend the same. An excellent fungi field guide covering some 360 species of fungi in Britain and Ireland. One of the reasons this guide is so useful to the forager is that it contains edibility information and some well-thought-out layouts to help you begin the identification process in the field.
The use of icons was the main inspiration for my plant and fungi listings on this website.
Whilst this is now out of print, you can pick these up second-hand fairly cheap – just be aware of the extortionate prices some sellers are pricing these at and keep searching. I bought one last year for a friend for £3 after a little digging.
Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe – Roger Phillips
My favourite fungi reference book. I’ll leaf through it just for the sake of looking at cool pictures of fungi. There is a new edition available through Collins, but mine is the original published in 1981 that came to me from one of my older relatives when I was a teenager, and, but for some updates on naming and other information, I like this one the best. The images are big, clear, and plentiful. The species covered are vast, and the information for each is short and succinct. Better still, these can be found for just a pound or two!
There are many more books to recommend, and over the coming years I’ll be adding individual reviews for the books on my shelf, but the ones above have been chosen to get even the keenest forager going. And if you have any recommendations of your own, let me know!