Over time we hope to add a number of useful resources to help people to identify useful plants – If you are able to fill in any blanks leave a comment on this page and we’ll add your contribution
Books
Simply Living – A Gatherers’ Guide to New Zealand’s Fields, Forests and Shores
Gwen Skinner
This book is now out of print and is a little dated these days as it was written nearly thirty years ago it however, a great resource with a massive listing of many useful both native and introduced edible plants, fungi, berries, nuts, etc. It also contains many recipes and tip on how to prepare and use your foraged goods. If you’re lucky your local library might have a copy or you might be able to track down a second hand copy. Google Books also has a copy online – although not complete.
Koro’s Medicine
Melanie Drewery, Sabrina Malcolm
This childrens book is a great introduction into Rongoa or traditional Maori medicine. Again Google Books as an incomplete copy online.
A Field Guide to the Native Edible Plants of New Zealand
Andrew Crow
This book is well worth getting for any forager. I had an older edition and found it very useful.
Articles
Plants – Native, Edible from the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
Websites,
http://www.bushmansfriend.co.nz A great resource for identifing native plants with images of trees, shrubs, flowers, berries, fruits, etc.
#1 by Melissa Hutchison on October 25th, 2009
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A very useful book is ‘A Handful of Herbs’ by Karina Hilterman (2004) (Karina is a qualified medical herbalist).
The book describes 29 plants with medicinal and/or culinary uses which commonly grow wild in people’s gardens.
We have a spare copy for $5 if anyone would like one.
#2 by Jo on October 26th, 2009
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sounds great Melissa, how can it be purchased?
#3 by Arcadian on January 3rd, 2010
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I have a copy of Simply Living by Gwen Skinner, if anyone needs an excerpt on a particular item. It is a fantastic book for this sort of thing…
#4 by Arcadian on January 3rd, 2010
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BTW, I lucked in and got mine off Trade Me. I’ve been searching ever since for a copy for a friend
#5 by Jo on January 4th, 2010
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Simply Living is a great wee book eh! I got a copy from a garage sale a while ago, bit of a lucky find.
#6 by Arcadian on January 4th, 2010
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Wow, that was a good find! If anyone knows of where I can source another copy, please do let me know
I’m happy to pay ~$30