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Find connection with the land and feed your family locally, seasonally, and sustainably
Nourish your family from nature's pantry. Foraging as a Way of Life documents twelve months of wildcrafting, featuring five different plants each month for a full year of abundant, local, and seasonal eating. Enhance your sense of self-sufficiency while increasing food security, protecting habitat, and connecting with the land.
Full-color and lavishly illustrated, this accessible, in-depth resource features:
- Accurate and detailed descriptions of herbs, mushrooms, berries, and other wild plants to avoid confusion and inspire confidence when determining plant identification.
- Foraging recipes for remedies, tonics, syrups, and unique handcrafted dishes incorporating wild ingredients—feast on rosehip soup with pan-fried dandelion flowers, followed by birch- bark cookies or chicory chocolate bars.
- Extensive guidance for safe processing or consumption of each species, including cautions, lookalikes, and tips for sustainable harvesting.
Drawing on the author's field experience and her study of herbalism and ethnobotany, Foraging as a Way of Life is designed to inspire readers to share the exuberance and joy of wild foods while finding nourishment and connection in their local fields or forests. A must for every gardener who would like to gather dinner while weeding, for those wishing to learn sustainable harvesting while hiking, or for anyone who wants to create healthy, foraged meals while living lightly on the planet.
AWARDS
- SHORTLISTED |2025 Taste Canada Awards: Culinary Narratives
Mikaela Cannon brings a combination of personal experience and dedicated research to her engaging profiles of edible species. With detailed descriptions and photos, she brings to life native species special to western North America.
—Jared Rosenbaum, CERP, author, Wild Plant Culture: A Guide to Restoring Native Edible and Medicinal Plant Species
What sets this foraging guide apart from others is that it is arranged by months and seasons to direct you to the best plants and mushrooms to forage at any time of the year! I appreciate the clearly indicated caution boxes and "similar species/look-alikes" sections provided for each entry. This will be a fun book to plan my next foraging trip with.
—Jeanine Davis, associate professor of horticulture, North Carolina State University; author, Growing and Marketing Ginseng, Goldenseal and other Woodland Medicinals; and co-owner, Our Tiny Farm
Mikayla Cannon's passion for harvesting nature's abundance has yielded a comprehensive guide to foraging throughout the year. Beautiful photographs, detailed profiles, and numerous recipes make this book an exciting guide to reclaiming a naturally healthful diet.
—Darrell E. Frey, Three Sisters Farm, and author, Bioshelter Market Garden and The Food Forest Handbook
Foraging truly is a way of life for Mikaela Cannon, and this book captures her meticulously researched knowledge, practical experimentation, and deep respect for the earth and its Indigenous knowledge-keepers. It is beautifully illustrated, and includes recipes, medicinal uses, personal stories, detailed plant descriptions, and wise precautions.
—Remy Rodden, biologist, award-winning envirosinger, and environmental educator www.remyrodden.com
Mikaela Cannon is an author and instructor who facilitates classes and workshops focused on responsible foraging and wildcrafting. She is deeply rooted in her community and works with a multitude of local organizations towards the goals of Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation, environmental protection, and climate action. As a homeschooling parent, Mikaela is passionate about passing on to the next generation the skills and knowledge required to harvest and prepare wild foods. She has taken various courses in herbal medicine at Pacific Rim College, as well as studying Ethnobotany, Anthropology, and Biology at Okanagan College in the interior BC. She also trained as a wilderness guide in Sweden. Mikaela and her family raise chickens, sheep, and vegetables on a small farm near Armstrong, BC, Canada.
Disclaimer
Territorial Acknowledgment
Foreword by Nancy J. Turner
How to Use This Book
Welcome to This Book
Notes About the Land
A Year of Plants and Mushrooms
SPRING
March Wild Ginger, Weeping Willow, Norway Maple, Kinnikinnick, Early Blue Violet
April Cleavers, Purple Dead Nettle, Oxeye Daisy, Hairy Bittercress, Stinging Nettle
May Dandelion, Asparagus, Prickly Lettuce, Black Elderberry, Catnip
SUMMER
June Red Clover, Salsify, Lamb's Quarters, Common Mallow, St. John's Wort
July Saskatoon, Sheep Sorrel, Thimbleberry, Oregon Grape, Black Hawthorn
August Curly Dock, Western Giant Puffball, Chokecherry, White Sweetclover, Plantain
FALL
September Purslane, Common Burdock, Chickweed, White Chanterelle, Lobster Mushroom
October Yarrow, Rosy Gomphidius, Black Walnut, Chicory, Dog Rose
November Late Fall Oyster Mushroom, Large-leaved Avens, Western Mountain Ash, Prince's Pine, Rocky Mountain Juniper
WINTER
December Field Pennycress, Trembling Aspen, Ponderosa Pine, White Spruce, Western Redcedar
January Lodgepole Pine, Interior Douglas-fir, Beaked Hazel, Western Hemlock, Paper Birch
February Common Barberry, Rocky Mountain Maple, Sulphur Cinquefoil, Black Cottonwood, Lamb's Ears
Acknowledgments
Glossary
Drawings
References
Websites
Index to Common and Scientific Names
About the Author
About New Society Publishers