Native Harvests

by E. Barrie Kvasch. (New edition)

I had been trying to find this book for years so I was very pleased when the reprint came out. It offers even more than I expected. Published in 1979, it is still one of the few books on American Indian wild and cultivated foods with recipes. Kvasch researched how hundreds of tribes across the country used nuts, berries, fruit, tree sap, wild herbs, cultivated vegetables, ferns, lichens, mosses, mushrooms, wild game, and salt and fresh harvest for sustenance medicine, cosmetics, and ceremony. The recipes she collected reflect native uses of harvest in soups, entrees, breads, beverages, smoking mixtures, chewing gums, and as seasonings. Kvasch drawings illustrate this field guide cookbook and ethnobotany study. Softcover 238 pp.