The Wilderness Cure

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I loved this book. Passed it to my mum, who kept her nose in it until finished and have recommended it to friends. June 2022: The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde: Part 2. Mo Wilde, author of The Wilderness Cure, talks about the year she spent eating only wild food with Ken Greenway at Tower Hamlets Cemetery. Wilde speaks of the different seasons, and the various foraging foods that are available during that time. She speaks of the wildlife that is present on her searches, and how going without a certain amount of vitamins or minerals can have a large impact on our bodies. She regularly talks of mushrooms, and eats many of them on her challenge. I personally love mushrooms, and I found it interesting to learn of the various types. I think the only item she ate that I wouldn't be able to is pigeon. I just couldn't go there. Scotland has been my home since 1995. Now my childrenhave left home, I find myself unsupervised and getting wilder day by day! Reverting to my ‘weed state’. I found The Wilderness Cure to give a fascinating insight into the world or wild food and foraging throughout the seasons. I would love to be able to ditch supermarket shopping and live off the land which is exactly what the author of this book did for a whole year.

‎The Wilderness Cure on Apple Books

I loved reading about the woodlands and beautiful countryside. I love forest bathing so someone that appreciates the same thing was a pleasure to read about. https://monicawilde.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/in_pursuit_of_foraged_flavours__the_first_islay_foragers_summit-360p.mp4 Have you been feeling down lately? A little sluggish, stressed out, or maybe wondering, “What’s life all about?” Angsty: At times, you might feel lost, and begin to wonder what life is all about. A dose of awe might remind you just how wondrous the world is. Nature provides trees that were hundreds of years old before you were even born, towering mountains that touch the clouds and a sky full of uncountable stars. When it comes to awe-inspiring awesomeness, nature leaves our jaws dropping and spines tingling, and rekindles the realization that we’re a tiny part of an incredible universe. What’s more powerful than that?

This book also reminds us to be mindful not just about what foods we are consuming but our foods origin. Where is it from, what food is sitting just outside your front door and is the food your eating even in season? I've been waiting to read this book ever since Mo announced it was to be published and when I finally got my hands on it I devoured it in one sitting. I loved it so much. I've been living abroad for the past year and so miss the Scottish countryside and all the beings that inhabit the woods, marshes, coasts, and hedgerows. It was a delight to reconnect with that old 'lover' nature and see how Mo navigated her year of foraging. This is definitely not an experiment that just anyone could do as it would require quite a hefty knowledge of plant ID beforehand, but it should start people off on their own foraging journeys/challenge us on where we currently get our food/how we can make a difference with our fork/wallet. However the message in the book is very clear. If we don't make significant changes in the way we eat and mass produce food it will have an irreversible effect on the planet and our health.

The Wilderness Cure (Audio Download): Mo Wilde, Mo Wilde

Mo is an articulate, passionate, kind, well read and engaging writer. It doesn't take long to realise that you are in good hands as you follow her progress through the year. What really stands out for me is the wider context in which foraging is placed. Oftentimes, at least in the UK, it can be depicted as a middle class pass time or a slight flourish, perhaps ancillary to a woodland or countryside walk. Here it becomes the beating heart of life just as it would have done for 99% of the humans that came before us. I enjoyed switching off from technology while reading and exploring the book and nature. I have been telling so many people about this book. I think my next step will be familiarising myself further with the local land and produce. Zhang JW, Piff PK, Iyer R, et al. An occasion for unselfing: Beautiful nature leads to prosociality. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 2014;37:61-72. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.11.008 It is so much more than a book about foraging. It is a book about the environment and about our health, about our place on this fragile planet of ours and about food, about community and our social history. Having said that, a few times I found I was drifting a bit. There were a few points which seemed slightly repetitive. I was also a little disappointed that the lab results of the tests exploring the effects of this wild diet on the author's microbiome were not more thoroughly explained. This is why I rated the book as a four star rather than five star read.This hunger is about much more than food. It is about accepting and understanding our place in a natural network that is both staggeringly complex and beautifully simple. The Wilderness Cure is a diary of a wild experiment; a timely and inspiring memoir which explores a deeper relationship between humans and nature, and reminds us of the important lost lessons from our past. I think a lot of us would like to think we eat seasonally and locally, but this book showed me that there's a lot more I could be doing to tread more lightly on the earth. One scene from the book has had a profound impact on me - when Mo floats the idea of making a video to encourage people to eat organic food. She proposes making a gorgeous dinner full of organic produce, then placing it in front of people who aren't convinced of the benefits organic food, along with a shot glass of the legal amounts of pesticide and herbicide that you'd typically ingest with non-organic food, to pour over their food like a dressing. What a brilliant idea. I think such a video would go viral and have an incredible impact. Mo, if you're reading, crowd-fund for this video to be made! The journal style made the experience feel very immediate and I loved to travel through each day and season with her. It allowed us to experience her ups and downs, which made me want to read on. I have an academic interest in foraging and survival. I think we all should be doing a lot more of it. I haven't turned my academic interest into reality because I'm aware that you should always start out with someone who knows what they're doing. I thought this would be a half step in the right direction.

The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde | Waterstones

Mo has tested her microbiome throughout the book and to me this is of particular interest. I look forward to hearing more about this from Mo in the future, but it was really interesting to note that her microbiome changed dramatically through the year. Mo Wilde has had a life-long love affair with plants. She teaches foraging and is a founder member of the Association of Foragers, a member of the British Mycological Society and a Fellow of the Linnean Society. She also has a Masters degree in Herbal Medicine and runs a clinic specialising in herbal treatments for diseases. Monica lives in a self-built wooden home on 4 acres in central Scotland that she shares with 259 species of plants, 83 of insects, 62 bird species, 51 fungi, 13 wild mammals, 3 ferrets, 2 humans and 1 elderly cat. I value the led foraging I have been on and this book is a fabulous resource to support these experiences.I recommend this book to anyone who likes memoirs and especially those which explore nature, health and the environment. This book sits on my mental bookshelf alongside others such as Wilding by Isabella Tree, Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard, The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell and many others. This link is provided for convenience only and is not an endorsement of either the linked-to entity or any product or service. Coloured by the author’s wit, fascination and enthusiasm for foraging and actual attempt at accomplishing her year long goal, the book held my attention straight away. And I felt an instant connection with the author and her ‘jump in at the deep end’ kind of style to confronting her goal.