Edible wild herbs - AAVV

Dettagli

A book that presents itself, with a simple and captivating title to entice the reader to read it and reread it, to consider it as a manual from which they can draw useful and concrete information. All it takes is a little attention and a little more knowledge to discover the varied universe of edible herbs, precious ones that are so dear in the kitchen, in pharmacies and in cosmetics. This new edition, which follows the previous one in its essential lines, also has more descriptive details, more photographs to better analyze the details and a list of the places where the plant is present. Furthermore, important new edible plants have been added, including woodland asparagus, lampagione, the famous turnip and related new recipes. In recent years there has been a growing and lively interest in the collection and consumption of wild herbs, as ingredients of salads, minestrone soups, omelettes or fillings for ravioli and more. Many people, for various reasons, feel attracted by the possibility of DIY harvesting wild herbs. On the one hand there is the personal satisfaction of having found some plants to collect and not only for their aesthetic appearance, but also for a certain usefulness (food in this case); on the other hand, some people have a firm belief that wild plants are richer in vitamins, mineral salts and active ingredients than normally cultivated plants, an aspect which however is not scientifically proven. In fact, the collection of wild herbs and fruits has a certain charm and above all, the satisfying aspect is that you collect something that is useful and could be useful. The component of fun and gathering in the open air as a relaxing pastime should not be underestimated. The collection of wild plants for food purposes is called Phytoalimurgia = Fitoalimurgia, which literally means "spontaneous plant foods collected by man in times of famine". In today's society, phytoalimurgy plays very different roles compared to those of the past: no longer a food need linked to moments of famine when agriculture was only in its infancy, now it is an interest in natural products. Correct phytoalimurgical knowledge, if profitably addressed to the knowledge of flora and vegetation, makes it possible to identify and conserve the enormous genetic potential (germplasm) of spontaneous species. This is therefore an extremely positive approach. The mandatory aspect, which cannot be ignored, is the need to know perfectly the plants you want to collect, knowledge is not an optional: it is a vital necessity. The choice of the adjective "vital" is expressly desired: a simple and apparently "harmless" salad or omelette can have fatal results if the wrong plant is picked. It is good to remember that all plants (including salad) contain thousands and thousands of active ingredients and, in the case of a toxic plant, there is no specific antidote on the market (except in very few cases). In the majority of poisonings, the hospital treatment given to the patient is only symptomatic and doctors try to support the vital functions of the organism, in the hope that the patient will react and recover. In practice this is the spirit with which this book was written and intended: to try to describe in a simple, linear and rigorous way, some spontaneous plants in Italy that have or have had in the past food interest and at the same time highlight errors in which the unwary collector could fall. So, if on the one hand it can be pleasant to "go for wild herbs", on the other hand you must prepare yourself with careful study, not improvise as experts. It is essential to rely on people who really know the herbs, perhaps even just by their dialect name, but who really know them.