Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert
/ March 04, 2010Wendy Hodgson.
I divide wild food books into two types: those based on personal experience (or at least that pretend to be), and those based on research of ethnology. Hodgson's book falls into the latter category, and I think it is the best such book ever written, at least for any part of North America. Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert covers hundreds of species--all or virtually all that are known or strongly suspected to be used (or have been used previously) for food in this region. The diversity of plants covered is amazing. Some are discussed with very short entries because little is known about their use, while others receive lengthy treatment (mesquite, acorn, Stenocereus cactus) because they were staple foods and much has been recorded about their use. The book is done in an admirable scholarly fashion - sources are not only cited, but contradicting sources are sometimes quoted in juxtaposition and discussed.
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