Ogni pianta ha una breve descrizione che può includere informazioni sulla cottura, folklore e corrispondenze magiche. Utile la sezione sulla simbologia e sui poteri delle piante. Inoltre, ho apprezzato le immagini disegnate a colori che accompagnano molte delle piante descritte.

I found this book full of information and I really enjoyed reading it and I now I need it in my library.

Happy to include this title in “Good Tidings: Coffee Table Books,” a themed gift list for the holiday books package in Zoomer magazine’s Zed Books section. (both online and in the Nov/Dec print edition)

I absolutely love this book. I received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review.
My digital copy has photos that are not ready for the final print but having seen this author's other work I have no doubt the final copy will have beautiful finished art.

This book is a great reference title for anyone interested in kitchen witchery and green witchery (that's me!).
This is a HUGE collection of culinary plants listed by their botanical name. Each plant has a short description which can include cooking information, folklore, and magical correspondences.

I will be picking this up for my bookshelf and I need to get my hands on the author's similar books. This would also make a great gift for a kitchen witch.

On the downside, the descriptions can be very short and I appreciate all the references being listed for my own research but it would be great if the entries were noted with their references.

⭐⭐⭐⭐-- I am all kinds of in love with this cover!

I love these types of books! They always make excellent gifts and coffee table books, and are just beautiful to flip through. The illustrations in this one are just gorgeous. On top of that there is plenty of interesting information on different types of edible plants laid out in alphabetical order. including their symbolic meaning, possible powers, and folklore & facts. This would be a perfect gift for a foodie or a gardener!

**ARC Via NetGalley**

An extremely unique book, unlike anything I have read before. The book goes through the scientific name for plants that have become customarily food throughout different times, cultures and regions. It includes a small history on the item, along with common used names, folklore, symbolism, colour meaning and more. A very interesting read for foodies or chefs/mixologists!

I thought this was a super interesting read! Really comprehensive collection of the edible plants in the world, with a breakdown of their symbolic meaning(s) and folklore/facts. Most of the plants had gorgeous drawings, but not all of them, and some of the drawings seemed more sketch-like than others--I'd be curious to see if these were placeholders for the ARC or the finished product. As noted by some other reviewers, I'm not 100% certain what the audience for this is. Clearly I enjoyed it, but it didn't seem quite illustrative enough for a coffee-table book, but also wasn't quite in-depth or curated enough for a book meant to be a reference. Not a large criticism, but I do think there could have been a bit of narrowing down on the mission.

I loved the history and folklore surrounding the book in this book! It was very informative and I enjoyed reading each passage! I will for sure be purchasing this one!

*This book was received as an Advanced Reviewer's Copy from NetGalley.

When you think about the vegetables and fruits in your local grocer, understand that those are just a fraction of the edible plants out there. Variety and regionality offer so many areas to explore and discover, and what might be common for one person is not so common for another. Or maybe they are the same, and just go by a different name.

This book goes alphabetically (by the scientific name) of the majority of edible plants out there; including vegetables, fruits, herbs, and some medicinal plants as well. Each entry has the commonly known names of the item, symbolic meanings of the plant, possible powers (going into the spirituality and ritual realm, and folklore and facts, which often includes the known taste of the item and/or how it has been used through history or in story. Many entries have a full-color drawing to accompany as well. After this section, it moves on to 'culinary finds', where types of food are explored (i.e. alcohol, condiments, etc.). These sections have a common listing of type (again, absinthe, rum, etc.), symbolic meaning, possible powers, and a new one, pleasant dreaming which elaborates on dream meanings. It's followed by a much lengthier section on folklore and facts.

This is not a book for just reading in a sitting. It is a reference book and is better-consumed piecemeal (unless you really just enjoy that sort of thing). For those that don't know the scientific name, the index utilizes the common name for lookup. I thought overall it was a nice reference book, informative without being too dry, very comprehensive, and just a fun addition to reading about food. Although I will say my continued fight with trying to procure and grow Illicium Verum made me a bit sad when I reached that page (just kidding, well, sorta). At least it gave me plenty of new plants to try to get ahold of to add to the garden.

Review by M. Reynard 2022

I absolutely love this book its excellent if you want to know the history and folklore of the ingredients your using to prepare food. Its absolutely fascinating.
The illustrations remind me of my vintage cook books from the victorian era where most things are drawn rather then photographed. I personally like to take notes from a book like this. The illustrations make it easier for me to draw out the veggies, fruits and herbs in my notes. This book is strictly descriptions of ingredients used in cooking. There are no recipes, it explains what theyre used for, the spiritual meaning, folklore, common and scientific name etc. Which is perfect!!!

3.93 out of 5 Stars

This was a really kinda cool book to check out! It is a very well organized series of quick facts about a very wide variety of herbs and plants with a handful of other guides about foods in dreams at the end. I was expecting some more illustration ~pages~ based on the description, but the ones that were there I thought were gorgeous, and I loved the style of art alongside each plant.

I think what I liked most about the book was that it was incredibly organized. It is indexed and cross-referenced, so you have the ability to look things up by scientific name, common name, or the spiritual property you are looking for. I think without this, I would have thought the book was a lump of dense material that would be impossible to navigate. But, because of how organized it is, it is so very easy to use, which is wonderful.

In terms of what is slightly off about this book for me is that I can't tell who the exact audience is. I imagine if someone wanted to use the book as a legitimate guide as to how these plants are used, there would need to be a little more information for each plant. For example, if plant is denoted as to having medicinal purposes, there could have been some guidance as to how to use said plant for the medicinal purposes. Yet, if it is meant to be more of a coffee table book, I would think there needs to be more pictures and less information. As it is, the book is sort of straddling those two audiences.

Who would like this book ... Honestly, I think there's a good amount of people who would like this book. Anyone who is a deeply immersed foodie, people interested in wellness and spiritual connections, people looking to fill out their collection of kitchen books, those who want an interesting centerpiece -- I imagine with enough creativity you could even get this book to mesh into some sort of seasonal decoration. It's pretty cool, and I definitely thought it was interesting. Plus, it looks like it's part of a series, alongside The Complete Language of Flowers, The Complete Language of Herbs, and The Complete Language of Trees (exp. pub. 2023). So if you really want to get a whole set like this or gift someone a set like this, you could.

Thanks for reading!

This is such a fun premise and seems to be done quite well. The images and the different information on each food item are well spaced and it's easy to find them. I also like how they separated sections with full c0loured pages which feature prominently the letter for the next section. The images in the E-copy I got thanks to NetGalley weren't the best but I assume in the final version they would be more clear and detailed?

The descriptions were short and sweet, while still packing a lot of information. I've been eyeing this authors book on the language of flowers and this might be my incentive to finally pick it up. It definitely would make a great pair with this book about food.

Overall I think this is a great reference book to have maybe in the kitchen or on a coffee table. It could also create fun discussions at a dinner party.

I love the illustrations and found the information well researched and interesting. It's a book I recommend if you want to understand the food.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I received a copy of this in advance from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I went into this book excited about the "beautifully illustrated" pages and interesting information about food. I was incredibly disappointed. The book was boring, and worse the illustrations were were incredibly low quality.

I dont know if it was the digital format or the quality of the original photos but all the images were incredibly pixelated. The images were also very inconsistent, some looked like they could have been very nice if not made of pixels and some looked like they had been photocopied too many times. Some were in color and others were black and white. Only some would actually aid me in identifying the food described.

In summary, it's a good book in theory but has quite a few flaws and could be better with better illustrations.

Quite colorful book, but not what I expected. Or maybe I misunderstood the title. Either way, not my cup of tea. This is not really meant for casual reading. It seems more for in-depth study for people who are super conscious of what they eat. As I said, not my cup of tea.

The Complete Language of Food by S. Theresa Dietz is a book to dip into for interesting food facts and curiosities.