Stalking the Wild Asparagus

by Euell Gibbons Narrated by Douglas James

Overview

Fifty years ago, an unknown writer named Euell Gibbons (1911-1975) presented a book on gathering wild foods to the New York publisher David McKay Co.

Together, they settled on the title, Stalking the Wild Asparagus. No one expected that this iconic title would become part of the American language, nor did they anticipate the revival of interest in natural food and in environmental preservation in which this book played a major role. Euell Gibbons became an unlikely celebrity and made many television appearances. Stalking the Wild Asparagus has sold the better part of half a million copies since the original publication, and has been continuously in print since 1962.

Euell Gibbons was one of the few people in this country to devote a considerable part of his life to the adventure of living off the land. He sought out wild plants all over North America, and turned ordinary fruits and vegetable into delicious dishes. His book includes recipes for vegetable and casserole dishes, breads, cakes, muffins, and twenty different pies. It also includes jellies, jams, teas, wines, and how to sweeten them with wild honey or homemade maple syrup. This brand-new audio edition is wonderfully narrated by Douglas James. Produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.

©1962 Euell Gibbons §

Editorial Reviews

Craig Claiborne

The author is a first-rate cook, or what would be called in the South a 'born' cook. He creates and improvises with authority and imagination and the results are enormously inventive.

A few weeks ago he prepared at noon a dinner for six with foods he had foraged in the morning. The meal consisted of a cocktail made of wild fruit juices, batter-fried fillets of bluegill caught that morning at a nearby lake, sautéed dandelion crowns, buttered wild leeks, wild broccoli, buttered wild Jerusalem artichokes and a persimmon-hickory nut pie. The meal was accompanied by an incredibly good salad of wild watercress, wild mint and day lily shoots.—New York Times

Nika Hazelton

First of all, anybody even remotely interested in nature (and why else should anybody take an uncomfortable summer cottage when they have a perfectly good home) should have Stalking the Wild Asparagus and Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop by Euell Gibbons. These books tell you how to forage for food and pleasure in the woods and on the sea coasts, with hundreds of recipes for making good things of what grows for free, and an enormous amount of most readable information as well. They are well on the way to becoming classics, and most deservedly so.—New York Times Book Review

John McPhee

He knew his subject first- and second-hand; he knew it backwards to the botany of the tribes. And now he told everybody else how to gather and prepare wild food. From the Red River Valley to the mountains of Pennsylvania (where he would spend his last years) he took us all over North American to places few people knew in the way he knew them, and he showed what provender was there. He called his first book Stalking the Wild Asparagus, and it became part of the beginnings of the ecological uplift and it sold well enough to get onto the bestseller lists.

From the Publisher

He knew his subject first- and second-hand; he knew it backwards to the botany of the tribes. And now he told everybody else how to gather and prepare wild food. From the Red River Valley to the mountains of Pennsylvania (where he would spend his last years) he took us all over North American to places few people knew in the way he knew them, and he showed what provender was there. He called his first book Stalking the Wild Asparagus, and it became part of the beginnings of the ecological uplift and it sold well enough to get onto the bestseller lists.--John McPhee

The author is a first-rate cook, or what would be called in the South a 'born' cook. He creates and improvises with authority and imagination and the results are enormously inventive.

A few weeks ago he prepared at noon a dinner for six with foods he had foraged in the morning. The meal consisted of a cocktail made of wild fruit juices, batter-fried fillets of bluegill caught that morning at a nearby lake, sautéed dandelion crowns, buttered wild leeks, wild broccoli, buttered wild Jerusalem artichokes, and a persimmon-hickory nut pie. The meal was accompanied by an incredibly good salad of wild watercress, wild mint, and day lily shoots.--Craig Claiborne, The New York Times (1962)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192404508
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	05/08/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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