I found The Wilderness Cure to give a fascinating insight into the world or wild food and foraging throughout the seasons. I would love to be able to ditch supermarket shopping and live off the land which is exactly what the author of this book did for a whole year.

The Wilderness Cure is written in diary format and Mo journals about what can be foraged in that month/season. I found what Mo was finding to eat quite interesting at first but found it became repetitive as the book went on. I would have liked some illustrations and recipes to go alongside the diary entries.

The wild diet seemed to be very mushroom and meat heavy which would be problematic for a complete novice vegetarian such as myself. I certainly wouldn't have a clue which mushrooms were not poisonous and wouldn't want to go back to eating meat. I couldn't see myself giving up my little vegetable patch either.

However the message in the book is very clear. If we don't make significant changes in the way we eat and mass produce food it will have an irreversible effect on the planet and our health.

I have an academic interest in foraging and survival. I think we all should be doing a lot more of it. I haven't turned my academic interest into reality because I'm aware that you should always start out with someone who knows what they're doing. I thought this would be a half step in the right direction.

However, it's not what I expected at all. There are no recipes or identifying pictures here. (That's probably in an effort to avoid being sued, which I can understand and whole heartedly endorse.) This is more of a stream of consciousness, spread over a year, as Mo connects the food she's gathering now with the way our ancestors would have lived. There are plenty of entries that have nothing to do with food, but are Mo musing on a sunset or a hill or murmuration.

(Note: There is a table at the back that lists every plant she gathers over the year and talks about each a bit, but the formatting on my ebook proof was so badly messed up that it's illegible - I can't tell which bits of information go with which. In a printed copy that won't be an issue, of course.)

It's all very interesting musing - picturing our ancestor's hunting grounds as a daisy really helped me grasp it - and I'm fascinated that she did manage to forage enough to keep alive and healthy. It's not as instructional as I had hoped, but that's probably on me for misunderstanding the blurb.

I think this would make a fascinating TV series - perhaps four episodes, one for each season? - and I did enjoy the read. I recommend it to others. Just be aware of what you're getting.

This book was not for me. I could not get into it at all it is not what I was expecting. I can only give it 1 star bur but that is my opinion don't let this review put you off.

I really wanted to like this book. I loved its premise - the idea of not buying anything from a shop/supermarket for a year, of moving away from our overly materialistic existence, and of living off foraged and wild food. I have read and enjoyed other books talking about people living off the wild. I didn't like this book as much as I'd hoped though. It didn't take me long to get bored of being told what the author had eaten ... it seemed to me at the beginning to be a lot of venison, mushrooms and wild greens (and I have to admit that I haven't managed to make it to the end of the book to see how this improves). I was also a bit disappointed that in a book on foraging and wild food the author seemed to eat a lot of food that whilst from the wild at some point had either been in her freezer or was given by friends - this seemed to be cheating to me (although I appreciate the author may totally disagree). The author tells you at the start that she begins her project in late Autumn and that she should perhaps have waited because she had not prepared as well as she could ... and I really did feel that this book might have been better if she' had waited a bit longer and perhaps had prepared more so that she would be foraging for every meal herself . Some pictures - some actual recipes - something like that would also have made this a bit more interesting.

I found this book to be interesting and quite informative.
Makes you think about how nature really does provide, if you know how and where to look for it.
A good memoir, but I think I would have liked pictures included to show the plants
Thank you netgalley

This book is more of a memoir of the author's experiment of eating only what she could forage for a whole year, than I'd been expecting. I'm not a forager, although I have been known to pick the odd blackberry or three, but I was interested in the premise. It very much involved returning to the way our hunter-gatherer ancestors used to live, and much of the book consisted of detailed descriptions of what she foraged and how she cooked and prepared the food she found.

Foraging isn't for everyone - it can't be, because if we all did it, we'd soon strip the countryside bare. However, it did make me think more consciously about my food choices in the supermarket, and how I tend to stick to the same basic foodstuffs week in week out, paying little or no attention to what is in season.

I won't be using the book as an instruction manual - and that's not what is intended to be - but I will be picking snippets out of it, which hopefully will improve my mindfulness, health and wellbeing.

Mo Wilde sets off on a noble path in The Wilderness Cure, exploring how we can be less “divorced from our annual food cycle”. The personal stories and reflections throughout complement the more educational parts of the book and the whole thing is rooted in a strong sense of place. Food, plants and landscape are deftly brought to life, evoking a sensory response without relying on overwrought descriptions or cliches.

The compelling links to the climate crisis could elevate this book from one about personal development to one about community, systemic injustices and broader societal change as well. Wild food is given the potential to move from a quaint pastime to an act of activism, but this angle gets a bit lost in a book that is trying to do a great deal.

The vague impetus for beginning on Black Friday lends a hastiness to the challenge and the book feels very much of a particular time, in a potentially distracting way. I empathise with the writer needing this challenge to keep going during the pandemic. However, it feels like a series of social media posts or blogs which one would have followed intently during lockdown but which haven't been sufficiently shaped into a book. To my taste, the daily journal would benefit from being broken up, perhaps punctuating the diary entries with info boxes, recipes etc.

Overall there are many note-worthy qualities to this book - not least the elegant descriptions - but for me it doesn’t reach its full potential.

Mo Wilde sets herself the challenge during Winter in Scotland of only living on foraged food for one year.

This is an utterly fascinating look on what living on foraged food actually looks like, as well as being very thought provoking on how our diet impacts the earth.

Whilst foraging is not for me, learning how Mo Wilde eats, where she finds food and the time it takes is really interesting. She is obviously very knowledgeable and aware of her body and it’s needs.

I liked that it is set out in almost diary format, not standard chapters. I also really enjoyed that general day to day life is included too.

It has left me thinking about my families diet and what I can do to reduce our footprint further.

Although I found it a fascinating read, some parts did feel a bit repetitive.

THE WILDERNESS CURE is a timely and inspiring memoir that explores a deeper relationship between humans and nature, and reminds us of the important lessons we’ve forgotten from our past. I found this a captivating and interesting read.

Although fascinating, this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from the title. I found it read very much like a foraging diary lacking in reflective insight in parts.

The book highlights how the land can provide for us and how we have lost touch with the simple nuances that make life so amazing and fascinatingly.

I wish there had been an identification section at the beginning or end of each season, with illustrations, this would add to the usability of the book and show mere mortals like myself, lacking in forging knowledge but for the basics of elder, samphire and blackberries, how to use what the author has used to sustain them self.

A highly interesting read!

This was such a beautifully descriptive and provactive read that really got me thinking. I have always loved the outdoors and always thought there is something magical about nature and so I loved this book. This was such a well researched book that was full of rich imagery. I loved it.

Mo Wilde decides, as a committed forager, to live 'off the land' for a year from Black Friday. That's it, that's the premise. And what a wild ride it is, too. It really is a fascinating journey, written beautifully by Wilde about the bodily effects, as well as the trials faced by foraging during different times of the year in Scotland. You have to take your hat off to someone who can go through the various stages of what amounts, at times, to be starvation; who was once a vegetarian, forced, of course by circumstance to eat meat and who manages to make the recipes sound delicious. I learned a lot through reading this book, and it was compelling, too, to continue reading to find out whether this project is a success, and the effects thereof. I'm not saying, you have to read it. And you should read it, anyway.

Highly recommended. My thanks to Netgalley for the early copy.

Written in 'diary' style, The Wilderness Cure provides insight into wild food and foraging in seasonal, sustainable way.
This book will appeal to those who wish to shift their eating habits for the better.
Well researched and based on daily living practices

I found I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would.
Coloured by the author’s wit, fascination and enthusiasm for foraging and actual attempt at accomplishing her year long goal, the book held my attention straight away. And I felt an instant connection with the author and her ‘jump in at the deep end’ kind of style to confronting her goal.
Apart from the ‘brief history of food’ introduction, the book is written as diary log entries, filled with really fascinating details of the foraged food resources around all of us. I made lots of notes on what to look out for in my wood or hedgerow as well as considering alternative options to my present diet.

This book is a real page turner and I will definitely be recommending it to friends.

This book was a little different to what i expected but an is an excellent, informative and lovely read. It's diary like, and is packed with useful knowledge and a perfect read for a cozy day in. Would definitely recommend to those interested in health or nature.

A clear and instructive introduction to foraging, perfect for beginners or the curious. Those more experienced may find a rekindled joy in the art of foraging from the memoir aspect.

Thank you, NetGalley, for letting me read this book!

Well, I loved it.

Mo does a crazy thing. She decides, on Black Friday, no less, to live off wild food for a year. It's a way of connecting more deeply with the natural world and stepping away from consumerism.

It's fascinating to watch. Winter - with no special preparation, no stores - is tough. This is Scotland, there are limited resources, and yet, somehow, she makes it through. Spring is easier, summer - surprisingly - is hard again - autumn is bountiful.

That journey through the seasons is one facet. Mo's musings on foraging as a lifestyle, on our disconnect from nature, on the deepening of her connection with the natural world - these add real depth - and threw up lots of things to ponder on. Her insistence on food being interesting and enjoyable is inspirational. Her changing body - inside and out - is another dimension. We eat the same diet pretty much all year round - maybe more in the way of comfort food in the winter, maybe more in the way of salads in the summer. We eat too many carbs and far too much sugar. Mo's diet is much more dependent on the seasons: gorging on fresh greens in the spring, lots and lots of funghi, finding a place for meat.

The only thing missing was a recipe section. Maybe Mo will give us a recipe book next?

I'm going to read this again. And maybe again after that.

My thanks to Netgalley and the brilliant Mo Wilde for the ARC of this book - don't worry, I'll be buying a few copies anyway!
An immensely readable book, whether you're sold on the idea of foraging, or whether you think it's for crazy hippies. Mo Wilde certainly isn't crazy - the only impulsive thing she does is start her year-long challenge of living solely off of foraged food at the tail end of November in Scotland, and even then, she is far better prepared than other people might be, with a larder full of nutritious dried herbs and preserves. She very sensibly sets herself allowable parameters, and sends off quarterly samples to a lab to check the effects on her gut biome and other health markers.
But she is a clinical herbalist by trade, so she is quite aware of eg. how certain minor problems like dry skin might be affected by a shortage of magnesium, and what potential steps she might take to alleviate the issue.
The almost-daily catalogue of her diet, and how she acquires it is interspersed with her meditations on the seasons, local wildlife and plants, archaeological and anthropological studies on present-day and ancient hunter-gatherer societies, her activities during this time (including a 36-hour home birth, a holiday in Orkney, and a trip to Eastern Europe), and the inevitable lament over the destruction we have done to our wonderful planet.
There are plenty of foraging books out there already, and the internet is full of sites on the identification, and culinary and medicinal uses of the different plants, but what makes this different is Wilde's willing self-experimentation, her humour, her honesty (my favourite the time she broke down and drove to the local chipper, only to find it closed), and her generosity. She shows us the abundant diversity that still exists in our woodlands and waste ground, despite our attempt to concrete or tar over everything, and how our lives could literally be transformed with even just a small bit of attention to the world that surrounds us.

What a great book! It really made me think about the amount of processed food that we eat. In these stretched economic times we’ll all be forced to forage soon!!

This was a really good and very informative book. I enjoyed it very much. It is well written and well laid out