Location: Home > Reference > Gourmet > The Wild Gourmets: Adventures in Food and Freedom

The Wild Gourmets: Adventures in Food and Freedom

enlarge

Other Views:

Authors: Guy Grieve, Thomasina Miers
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł20.00~~
Buy New: Ł6.59
You Save: Ł13.41 (67%)

New (37) Used (11) from Ł6.21

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3 reviews
Sales Rank: 60795

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 7.8 x 1.3

ISBN: 0747591571
EAN: 9780747591573
ASIN: 0747591571

Publication Date: September 3, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, in stock. Shipped from the UK by First Class Royal Mail service in eco-friendly packaging.

Similar Items:

•	Mushrooms: River Cottage Handbook No.1 (River Cottage Handbook)
•	Food for Free (Collins GEM)
•	The River Cottage Fish Book
•	Call of the Wild
•	Cook: Smart, Seasonal Recipes for Hungry People

Customer Reviews:

1 out of 5 stars

Use Book For Kindling January 9, 2008
25 out of 30 found this review helpful

Where do I start without having an embolism? Well, random hatred is going to pop into my head so forgive me while I vent myself online, grrr.

A tottering pile of useless, vain and idiotic ideas for city dwellers who want to get close to nature through the pages of some toss inducing dim wits who look good, like to have their photo taken in rugged poses but couldn't write a guide book to foraging/camping/cooking if they didn't have a team of photographers and graphic designers to fill in 95% of a book they want 20 for, retail. If you find this for 50p in a bargain bin it may be of some use for starting a camp fire, apart from that don't bother.

So why am I so angry about a book that I didn't buy but was given as a Christmas present? Well firstly I'll address the fact that it is useless-

So you want to go foraging for some wild food? You reckon the Wild Gourmets asking 20 for their guide may have the answer, the book is pretty thick after all so it must have some useful information contained within, WRONG! You get loads of graphics, pretty photos and what look like some monochrome splodges in the margins. Well those monochrome splodges are all you get to identify 'some' of the seaweeds, wild herbs, berries etc. that you are expected to live on in the wild. Yep, you get no colour photographs or clear instructions on where these plants grow, their ranges, locations or seasons. The other half of the plants casually discussed don't even have the benefit of the monochrome splodge- so happy poisoning or more likely happy wandering around scratching your head in a field cursing the day you decided to forgo the supermarket and decided to 'Go Natural' and survive on what you can hunter gather.

Secondly I'll address the charge of vanity I levelled at this crapfest. Yes you get loads of poses of Guy looking rugged and Tomi looking whimsical. Don't they both look so adorable, and does it cross your mind 'I wonder if they are getting jiggy in that tent?'. Well that's about all you get from the photos in this Hello/Ok mag purporting to be a cookbook/foraging guide. The colour photos are there to romantacise and not to inform, Thomi looking fey and Guy hanging upside down in his wellies ( I kid you not) are taking up the whole budget at the colour printers, hence for the info you really want the publishers only have enough left in their back pockets to give you those idiotic monochrome splodges in the margins!

Finally before I have a coronary, this book is thoroughly idiotic. Count the pages yourself, there must be 30 or more telling you how to shoot a bird or deer ( don't forget the gun license, the paperwork, gun cabinet etc) and five lines or less on Wild Garlic, Yarrow etc and no friggin photo to tell you what it looks like. But don't worry there are some monochrome diagrams to show you what a deer and squirrel look like. Of course there are some photos of nuts etc. but more often than not they have been inserted because they look good and the poor old graphic designer, coughing up the coke from a night out in Soho, doesn't know his nuts from his elbow and so has unhelpfully been unable to inform the dear reader that the full page image in front of them is i.e. a hazel etc. But that's not the most idiotic part, try tying a knot from the four pages supplied- ha, enjoy the fun while your camp is blowing off into the distance and you are still trying to work out the rudimentary clove hitch or you could erect a tent like wot they do- live all year in one of them single wall, cotton, TB inducing, wind catching kites, ha, ha try it and find out why I'm hysterical. However, they do tell you how to make the 'good shitter'- make sure when you go down to the end of the field to squat you take this book with you, it might finally come in useful!

Rant over, book up for sale second hand- the odd page missing!

4 out of 5 stars

nice book, shame about the print fault September 23, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

it's a lovely book, if rather heavy on the shooting/fishing rather than hedgerow foraging.

the information on starting a fire is nice and the recipes sound great.

if you've bought this recently check page 64, mine has a print fault and jumps straight to page 97.

5 out of 5 stars

Inspiring August 31, 2007
10 out of 14 found this review helpful

Bringing out the best of the real British countryside, this book penned by the hugely talented, fun and inspirational Thomasina Miers and her hunter partner, Guy Grieve, is fantastically produced. The paper, the design, the photography all contribute to make this book a must-have in your kitchen or your bookshelf. Full of the most delicious sounding recipes that Tommi has concocted from her time in the wild, you'll never go for a country walk and feel the same way again. It's earthy, natural and makes you want to explore England now.