Printable Foraging Guide

Now FREE!!

The Foraging Companion Home Guide is a downloadable feature-laden guide for common wild and naturalised edible plants of temperate North America, and Britain and Northern Europe (there is a guide for each of those two areas, to suit your needs).

The Foraging Companion Home Guide

The pdf guide is designed for easy printing on regular letter-sized paper (though you may want to print the photo section on photo paper). You can also use the guide on your computer.

Whether you want to know about that weed in the garden or want to prepare for a potential survival situation, this guide is one of the handiest reference guides on foraging. It is designed for quick access to all the essential information you want at your fingertips, no more wading through long text to find the facts you are looking for.

This unique guide packs a lot of information into a small space:

• list of over 300 plants with basic information on edible parts (with icons and colour coding for quick reference), how to consume, and caution notes
• detailed profiles of about 50 plants with guide to identification, culinary, medicinal and other uses - most are illustrated
• month by month list to availability of those plants featured in detail
• stay safe with caution notes including warning features to look out for
• a small herbal section with examples of wild plants, which may be used for home treatment or first aid in the wild
• other uses section
• glossary of medicinal terms
• general information on plant parts (now with lists of plants), collecting and preparation, including a way to extract protein from grass and other leaves (indispensable for extreme survival situations)
• icons and color-coding for quick reference
• find plants by English or botanical name
• the layout is optimised for paper saving

For whom is this guide?

• gardeners who want to know if that weed has some other use or prefer to let nature do the gardening
• travellers who want to ensure a food supply if they get lost in remote country, or simply to cut down on the weight of carried food
• campers who wish to 'live off the land'
• those who like food for free
• health conscious people who wish to add variety to their diet and get that extra goodness from some wild plants
• survivalists and other concerned individuals who wish to be prepared for any potential food scarcity - peak oil, economic crash, rationing, famine, global warming, natural disasters and many other potential threats
• anyone with an interest in wild plants or ethno botany
• teachers, to use as educational aid
• environmentalists who wish to reduce food miles, energy and chemical input that goes with agriculture, packaging and transporting
• anyone who wants relevant information about foraging at their fingertips and in a compact and convenient format

Screen Shots

Safety page
Remedies page with part of the glossary
Plants page showing the basic entries and an extended profile entry (Bear Garlic)
Calendar page
Parts page - Roots, with general information and plant list with color-coding for plants with edible roots which are larger than thread size
Photo page

The screenshots are from the North American version.

The remedies, calendar and photo pages only feature the 50 or so profiled plants from the main list. The parts pages show lists of all plants from the main list (over 300).

What is the difference between the N. American and the UK version?

There isn't a lot of difference, as most of the plants included grow throughout most of the temperate northern hemisphere.

Common names of plants vary, so each guide is written with the appropriate names for those countries. The American guide has distribution maps, as distribution of plants can differ widely on such a large continent.

There is also a difference in paper size, so the N. American version is optimised for letter sized paper, and the European guide for A4 sized paper.

Share this Guide

You may share this guide as long as you do not change it or charge for it.

Download

Download and Print Information

• File Size: ~24 MB (compressed)
• File Type: zipped .pdf
• Content: 1 foraging guide, 1 calendar template
• Pages:
  N. American version - 106, of which 16 are photo pages (plus cover) if you prefer to use photo paper for those
  UK version - 108, of which 17 are photos (plus cover) if you prefer to use photo paper for those

The file is designed for standard paper size in your region, and requires a .pdf reader. It also requires unzipping software. Most systems have both, but if yours does not, you can download a free .pdf reader from Adobe or Foxit.

Adobe Reader

Foxit Reader

Unzipping software can be purchased at Winzip, or search for free unzipping software.

You could try ExpressZip, the free unzipping software from NDH Software. I have no personal experience with it, but have had software from this company before, and had no problems with it.

Pages are not numbered. Once printed you can re-arrange the sections to your preference. Within each section the content is mostly in alphabetical order.

The top and left margin are wider and allow for binding either at the top for use in a standard binder, or at the left with custom binding (e.g. spiral binding).

Disclaimer

The information in the guide is given in good faith, but is not complete. Consumption of plants is at the reader's own risk and discretion.

Some guidance may reduce the risk of starvation in a survival situation, but it is best to err on the safe side when other food is available.

The photographs in the guide are intended as a guide only, and should not be relied upon for identification, which should always be done with a good field guide.