‘Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!’ is a joyous guide to eating wild plants

Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!Alexis Nikole NelsonSimon & Schuster, $35.00 I used to think that foraging for food would involve schlepping myself to a forest far from my urban home, a task that would demand an unpleasant car trip, practical shoes and insect repellent. But when I flipped through forager Alexis Nikole Nelson’s new book Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!, I discovered edible plants right in my neighborhood. Linden trees, for example, are common across much of the United States, including in cities.

They have edible leaves, flowers and fruits, Nelson explains. There’s one just down the block from the Science News office in Washington, D.C. And that is how I found myself, this summer, on tiptoe trying to reach as many green, pea-shaped fruits as I could hold.And that’s not all.

Dandelions, acorns, black walnuts, crab apples, roses, magnolias, serviceberries — all are edible treasures found within walking distance of my home. Nelson explains how to identify these and other plants and provides vegan recipes for dishes unlike anything found in grocery stores. Awareness of local edible plants helps combat the “plant blindness” that pervades modern society.

For many people, plants are a pleasant afterthought rather than a focal point of daily life. The book’s cheeky title is a tagline Nelson uses in popular videos posted to her social media accounts, where she sometimes goes by “Black Forager.” (She uses humor to help viewers learn which plants are good for snacking and which ones might make you, uh, “unalive.”) Likewise, the joy Nelson injects into the book makes foraging approachable. I was nervous about picking unfamiliar fruits from trees in public.

Wouldn’t everyone think I was weird? But with Nelson’s encouragement I felt emboldened. While collecting my bounty of linden fruits, I had a few friendly conversations with passersby and had the opportunity to educate neighbors about the tree.

Linden is in the same family as cacao and it can serve as a chocolate substitute, Nelson explains. Following her recipe for linden ice cream, I roasted, ground and sifted my linden fruits. Then, I combined them with sugar, soy milk, vanilla and cornstarch and cooked and froze the mixture.