Helpful book ideas?

Hey all so I was hoping with everyone who’s on here that some of you have found good primitive skill books and I was wondering if any of you could share the names of them. Also any other topics related will help ex: woodworking, tools, plants, ect. Thanks

I recommend a bioregional focus, so what bioregion do you live in?

If “Cascadia” then:

Plants: Discovering Wild Plants (Scofield), Plants of the Pacific NW (Pojar/MacKinnon), Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West (Moore), Any books by Nancy J Turner, Pacific NW Foraging (Deur).

Woodworking: Green Woodwork and other books by Mike Abbot (not bioregional). Cedar (Stewart).

Context/De-colonizing: Oregon Indians: Voices from Two Centuries, Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek, Message From Frank’s Landing, Native America: Discovered and Conquered…

General: Primitive Technology I and II (Wescott and others). Tending the Wild (Anderson). Keeping it Living (Turner and Deur).

Thank you for these book titles. They will help a lot and, I’m from the midwest region

OK. I would check out any books by Sam Thayer. He lives in WI. http://foragersharvest.com/

Not books, but check out Lake Superior Traditional Ways, which happens in mid-August in Ashland, WI on the Bad River Reservation. http://www.traditionalways.org/

Strangely Great Lakes Primitive Gathering is happening around the same time. http://greatlakesprimitivesgathering.tripod.com/

I haven’t read “Midwest Foraging” by Lisa Rose (I live in the PNW), but Timber Press guides tend to be good quality, so I’d recommend at least checking it out: http://www.timberpress.com/books/midwest_foraging/rose/9781604695311

I second the Samuel Thayer books, particularly Nature’s Garden and Forager’s Harvest. These span the whole of the so-called United States fairly well, and there are plenty of species found in the Midwest. Personally I think Nature’s Garden is the better of the two as it focuses on something like 40 plants which may not seem like much but many are common over a lot of North America. Thayer covers how to identify, when to harvest, where to harvest, and perhaps most importantly how to process efficiently (leaching acorns, winnowing wild grains etc.) which it seems is often overlooked with wild foods. One caveat is that it doesn’t have a ton on regenerative harvesting and from my knowledge there isn’t a ton of research into these concepts of land tending (controlled burns, replanting etc.) in the Midwest in particular. I’d also second Keeping it Living and Tending the Wild for those reasons as they provide an interesting glimpse into those realms. And yeah Midwest Foraging is probably good their foraging guide for the NW is among the best. Hope that helps

I can’t help but mention too, in regards to your chosen name “Alexander Supertramp”, that Sam Thayer wrote about Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild here. http://foragersharvest.com/into-the-wild-and-other-poisonous-plant-fables/

I’m glad someone caught onto my name :slightly_smiling: and that’s really interesting I have to say.

I love “Participating in Nature” by Thomas J. Elpel. and Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living by John and Geri McPherson.

I second John and Geri McPherson’s book.