Foraging/ Wild Edibles Books

stalking the wild asparagus

might as well get a hold of "stalking the blue eyed scallop" while you're at it

Samuel Thayer’s books are also pretty good. I find them easier to use than Euell Gibbons since Thayer’s books include lots of good photographs of the plant at different stages of development and similar looking species that may cause confusion.

For example his book “Nature’s Garden” also includes a handy chart that states what percentage of the plants in the book are likely to be found in each state. For California it is 73%.

See also "Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest" by Doug Benoliel.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781594853661-1

This one is good and should have a lot of cross-over to plants in CA.

I have: Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. It covers a lot of California Plants and was written by Bradford Angier and it even covers sea weed on the Ca coast.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. Natures Garden looks like a good one to get. I want something comprehensive with plenty of pictures. I think I might go ahead and buy it.

I haven't read this yet, but it's supposed to be pretty good:

Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West [Paperback]
Gregory L. Tilford (Author)

Has photographs instead of illustrations, which I like. Also sometimes will tell you how to eat it. But there really aren't that many plants in the book that are actually edible.

Another really good one is Mushrooms Demystified. You probably didn't want to try mushrooms, but it's a really good book anyway in case you are a collector of field guides. Witty, funny and beautiful pictures and uses a keying system for identification.