Food for Free

The classic foraging guide to over 200 types of food that can be gathered and picked in the wild, Food for Free returns in its 40th year as a sumptuous, beautifully illustrated and fully updated anniversary edition.

Originally published in 1972, Richard Mabey’s classic foraging guide has never been out of print since. Food for Free is a complete guide to help you safely identify edible species that grow around us, together with detailed artwork, field identification notes and recipes.

In this stunning 40th anniversary edition, Richard Mabey’s fully-revised text is accompanied by photographs, new recipes and a wealth of practical information on identifying, collecting, cooking and preparing, history and folklore. Informatively written, beautifully illustrated and produced in a new, larger format, Food for Free will inspire us to be more self-sufficient and make use of the natural resources around us to enhance our lives.

Reviews

‘Food for Free is a life-enhancing classic. That it is erudite and charming as well as practical and accurate is a testament to Richard Mabey’s great gift as a biographer of our natural heritage. It remains the best possible antidote to the over-processed and the pre-packaged.’
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

‘The forager's bible continues to inspire and enthral.’
Scottish Field

‘Still a classic’
The Financial Times

‘Armed with this guide, this month you could be sampling the simple pleasures of eating a fleshy Hottentot fig straight from a Devon clifftop, making elderflower fritters gathered from the hedgerows, or frying fairy-ring champignons picked off your lawn. With its charming painted illustrations, it is a book to savour in itself.’
Devon Life

About the author

Richard Mabey is the author of some forty books, including the bestselling Flora Britannica, Weeds and Nature Cure, which was short-listed for the Whitbread, Ondaatje and Ackerley awards. His biography Gilbert White won the Whitbread Biography Prize in 1986. He is a regular broadcaster on BBC radio, writes regularly for the Guardian, New Statesman and Granta, and has contributed a personal column to BBC Wildlife for the past 25 years. He is Patron of the John Clare Society, and Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society. He lives in Norfolk.