Samuel J. Thayer (born 1976) is an American wild food forager and author. [1] [2] [3] [4] Thayer is a self-taught natural historian. [5] In 2001, Thayer founded Forager's Harvest and acts as editor and director of the institute. [5]
Born in Wausau, Wisconsin, to Richard and Ellen Thayer, he was raised in Madison and graduated from Madison East High School in 1994. He has one brother and two sisters. [5]
Thayer has published three books: The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants; [6] Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants [7] and Incredible Wild Edibles: 36 Plants That Can Change Your Life. [8] All of them self-published by The Forager's Harvest [9]
He has won three awards for his book Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants First Place for the 2006 Midwest Book Awards in the category "Nature"; First Place for the 2010 Midwest Book Awards, Midwest Independent Publisher's Association, [10] and second place in the category "Gardening/Agriculture" for The 2011 Benjamin Franklin Award. [11]
Typha is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in Australia as cumbungi or bulrush, in Canada as bulrush or cattail, and in New Zealand as reed, cattail, bulrush or raupo. Other taxa of plants may be known as bulrush, including some sedges in Scirpus and related genera.
Common chicory is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Native to the Old World, it has been introduced to the Americas and Australia.
Matricaria discoidea, commonly known as pineappleweed, wild chamomile, disc mayweed, and rayless mayweed, is an annual plant native to North America and introduced to Eurasia where it grows as a common herb of fields, gardens, and roadsides. It is in the daisy family Asteraceae. The flowers exude a chamomile/pineapple aroma when crushed. They are edible and have been used in salads and to make herbal tea.
Watercress or yellowcress is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae.
Rumex crispus, the curly dock, curled dock or yellow dock, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Polygonaceae, native to Europe and Western Asia.
Allium vineale is a perennial, bulb-forming species of wild onion, native to Europe, northwestern Africa and the Middle East. The species was introduced in Australia and North America, where it has become a noxious weed.
Hypochaeris radicata – also known as catsear, flatweed, cat's-ear, hairy cat's ear, or false dandelion – is a perennial, low-lying edible herb often found in lawns. The plant is native to Europe, but has also been introduced to the Americas, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, where it can be an invasive weed. It is listed as a noxious weed in the northwestern U.S. state of Washington.
Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, pot herbs, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad greens.
Capsella bursa-pastoris, known as shepherd's purse because of its triangular flat fruits, which are purse-like, is a small annual and ruderal flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to eastern Europe and Asia minor, but is naturalized and considered a common weed in many parts of the world, especially in colder climates, including British Isles, where it is regarded as an archaeophyte, North America and China, but also in the Mediterranean and North Africa. C. bursa-pastoris is the second-most prolific wild plant in the world, and is common on cultivated ground and waysides and meadows.
Rhus typhina, the staghorn sumac, is a species of flowering plant in the family Anacardiaceae, native to eastern North America. It is primarily found in southeastern Canada, the northeastern and midwestern United States, and the Appalachian Mountains, but it is widely cultivated as an ornamental throughout the temperate world. It is an invasive species in some parts of the world.
Lactuca serriola, also called prickly lettuce, milk thistle, compass plant, and scarole, is an annual or biennial plant in the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae. It has a slightly fetid odor and is commonly considered a weed of orchards, roadsides and field crops. It is the closest wild relative of cultivated lettuce.
Tropaeolum majus, the garden nasturtium, nasturtium, Indian cress or monk's cress, is a species of flowering plant in the family Tropaeolaceae, originating in the Andes from Bolivia north to Colombia. An easily-grown annual or short-lived perennial with disc-shaped leaves and brilliant yellow, orange or red flowers, it is of cultivated, probably hybrid origin. It is not closely related to the genus Nasturtium.
Sonchus oleraceus is a species of flowering plant in the tribe Cichorieae of the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and Western Asia. It has many common names including common sowthistle, sow thistle, smooth sow thistle, annual sow thistle, hare's colwort, hare's thistle, milky tassel, milk thistle. and soft thistle.
Galeopsis bifida is an annual plant native to Europe and Asia but now found in Canada and the northeastern, midwestern parts of the United States. It has many common names such as bifid hemp-nettle, split-lip hemp-nettle, common hemp-nettle, and large-flowered hemp-nettle. The genus name means weasel-like, referring to the corolla of the flower. It is often confused with other species of Lamiaceae such as Mentha arvensis, Dracocephalum parviflorum and Stachys pilosa.
Steve "Wildman" Brill is an American forager, naturalist, environmental educator and author. He gained notoriety in 1986, when he was arrested in New York City's Central Park for eating a dandelion.
Rubus argutus is a North American species of prickly bramble in the rose family. It is a perennial plant native to the eastern and south-central United States. Common names are sawtooth blackberry or tall blackberry after its high growth.
Papadakis Publisher is an independent art, architecture and natural science book publisher founded in London, United Kingdom, by Andreas Papadakis and his daughter Alexandra Papadakis. Since 1968, Papadakis Publisher and its predecessor Academy Editions have published more than a thousand titles, on art, architecture, science and the decorative arts.
Camassia leichtlinii, the great camas or large camas, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. This herbaceous perennial is native to western North America in British Columbia, Canada and California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, in the United States.
Naturalist Lee Allen Peterson is the author of A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America, a leading reference in survivalist foraging and cooking with wild plants. The book is illustrated with photographs by Peterson, as well as line drawings by both him and his father, Roger Tory Peterson.
This is the home site for Samuel Thayer, renowned author and forager and internationally recognized authority on edible wild plants.