#foraging books

[spaceysoupy]

Hello foraging friends! Don’t know how far this has gotten yet but there is a new and potentially DEADLY scam going on where AI generated foraging/botany/identification books are being sold on sites like Amazon, with mislabeled and misidentified species, including toxic fungi. Much of the content is utter nonsense, filled with grainy black and white photos, and authored by people who do not exist. Afaik the scam was first identified by a friend of mine on twt @heyMAKWA and info has only just started to spread.

Please check the sources of any foraging guide books you are considering purchasing and using! Never consume plants or fungi that you are not 100% sure are safe to eat!

Reddit posts about the issue

https://www.reddit.com/r/foraging/comments/15ur88d/please_please_be_careful/

https://www.reddit.com/r/foraging/comments/15p9b7t/ai_generated_foraging_books/

[eatfreeordie]

In Wildcrafted Vinegars, I almost missed the bit where he's like by the way, any of these recipes can be water-bath canned. There are so many preserving books that assume cultivated ingredients and foraging recipe books that are low on recipes for long-term storage, so that's a great find for me!

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Hey, folks--running out the door for the day, but I wanted to share this bit of good news for those of you concerned about those AI-generated foraging books. In short, Amazon KDP is going to limit how many new books a given user can upload to their platform to three per day. Given how many titles even one person using AI can crank out in a day, this is a good move. It won't completely stop the flow of fake foraging books, but it's a step in the right direction.

More on this topic later, but for now I'm celebrating a small victory.

[wonky-mushroom]

My recommendations for foraging books

[chase-solidago]

Loving reminder from your land history auntie:

North American golf courses have had 50-100 years of arsenic and mercury based fungicide and herbicides applied to their soils.

Do not eat anything that has been grown on a golf course or downstream from a golf course. I know it sounds cool and radical, but you are too valuable to poison yourself with heavy metals.

Protect each other, turn your local golf course into a pollinator garden, not a sex forest or community garden.

[gloryfore]

ig: Foragedpages 🌿📖

[jojo-oliver]

Russula fungi Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

[youmakethelight]

Hi. How are you? Hope everything's going well.

I want to share my thoughts on a scene from TBOC, episode 4. It didn't catch my attention the first time but rewatching it I was able to see it with different eyes. It gave me a little hope for Caryl's future and I think this fandom needs hope after Zabel's statements, so I decided to share it.

The scene is when Carol, Daryl, Didi and Theo are eating truffled eggs and Daryl asks for some of the truffles. Theo answers while looking at Daryl and then Carol "You need a good eye and a lot of patience. They're very hard to find"

I don't think for a second that this line is about truffles, it's all about Caryl

- "You need a good eye": Carol and Daryl can't see the love they feel for each other. And they also can't the love the other feels for them. Later in the episode we saw this when Carol react to the scene of Daryl saying "And I never ever stopped trying to get home to YOU" by saying "you loved her". She completely ignored what Daryl said to her and focused on something else. And as for the audience, well, we always need to see what's between the lines and that's why not everyone can see it.

- "And a lot of patience": Their relationship has been building very slowly and we've been here for 14 years..

- "They're very hard to find": Seeing a bond like theirs is something very rare, both in TV/movie and also in real life.

I think that at the end of the day we will have Caryl canon. It's heading towards that, even if at the moment we still have to interpret the scenes and interactions. And I think that when David Zabel says the things he says it's just to create a surprise element for when Caryl actually happens. It's not very clever, but I think that's what it is

Hi! Gosh, sorry I've taken an absolute lifetime to get back to you again. I wrote out a whole reply as soon as I saw your message, then went to bed, and then felt too disillusioned with the show and the twd fandom to really think much about it for a while. But I'm good, thank you! Hope you are too. ❤️

Thank you for sharing this! I can definitely see your take on this. I hadn't noticed this detail, and I enjoyed your interpretation of it. I'm struggling a bit because I'm finding that when I read takes on Zabel's writing or when I think about my own, the joy drains from me, because overall, I just don't understand what the leadership are trying to do with this show, or who they're making it for.

I did write out a whole thing because your message inspired a lot of thoughts, but I guess it sort of boils down to two main issues for me, which are:

1. Even if there is an intention (now or in the future) to deliver canon with Zabel, I don't expect it to be written well enough to be enjoyable or satisfying for most current caryl shippers or for people who don't ship them (yet??).

2. For me personally, even though I love caryl as a romantic ship (if done well), my biggest concerns about the future of the spinoff are how Melissa McBride and women generally are treated by it.

To elaborate on my second point, I know I can't presume to know what Melissa wants for herself, but nonetheless, the lack of equal billing, title, and writing hurt me and my enjoyment of the show. If I had to choose between those things and canon, I'd choose the former.

Overall, this means that I strongly feel that the only way for the spinoff to stop being harmful to women and to be enjoyable is with a new showrunner, unfortunately. And that means that personally, I can't enjoy anything about the show other than news of a change in leadership. I know that some agree and some don't, but for me personally, I feel like I gave David Zabel his chance for two seasons, and I'm really not enjoying what he's doing with the show, and that goes much further than my personal preferences for shipping and story choices.

I don't mean to undermine your positive take on the scene. I really appreciate you sharing your interpretation of it. I'm only responding with my less positive takes from it because I genuinely want the best for the show, the people involved in making it, and the fans. And I truly believe that being annoyingly persistent about the things that are less than OK (e.g. a showrunner who doesn't seem to know the source material, leadership who doesn't treat fans or female colleagues with respect, unequal billing, a problematic title, and shallow, misogynistic writing) is how to achieve that. Maybe we still won't achieve that, but I'm thinking a lot about what I choose to consume and support, and there is far too much going on here that I can't support with a clear conscience.

For me, even if, by some miracle, romantic canon is written well with Zabel as showrunner, I really can't enjoy the show while its title and billing lean into such harmful patriarchal messaging.

I still want to thank you. I think it's great to take whatever positives we can and to share them with each other - while also continuing to stand up for standards that should be improved. So, thank you for sending this positive take to me. One thing I have really appreciated in this fandom is the way so many come together to support each other and try to lift each other up during the difficult and less enjoyable parts. So, thank you for being a part of that. 💜

PS. Even though I deleted my original long reply to you, this reply has still ended up longgg. So, if you've read this far, wow, thank you. You deserve a break and a snack.

[what-eats-owls]

Apparently there has been a new publishing debut drama dust devil, and every time one crops up, three things come to mind. (Apart from the desire to slam my hand in a car door before any more of it is explained to me.)

Being a debut is a lot like being slammed right back into your teenage years. Everything feels bigger, more important, more personal, like you have to break out or your (publishing) life will be over. This is particularly bad in YA, because of the pressure on YA authors to build and leverage social media platforms with little to no publisher guidance or support. Eventually you're gonna look back at the time spent on petty shit and realize how much of a waste it all was, and how bad it was for your mental health.

People are going to invent the version of you they want to engage with, for good and bad. It's not uncommon for bad faith pile-ons to spiral out of control because they give spectators a seemingly abstract outlet for day to day frustrations. It's also not uncommon for people to defend bad actions from someone they have a lot in common with. At the end of the day, all that can speak for you is your work. It's slower and harder than tiktoks and ukulele videos, but it also outlasts them by decades.

If you want to write books for a career, odds are that you are going to be asked to do events and panels and discussions with people from all over publishing. Including people you dislike, people you and/or your friends have been cruel to, people who have been cruel to you or your friends, people whose work you don't respect, and/or people who you simply find annoying. Publishing is, sometimes by design, a constantly moving target, and plenty of people inside and out are willing to treat it like a reality TV episode. But the one constant I've found is that people will never forget how you made them feel. This doesn't mean "be nice to racists," btw. It means you can never go wrong with acting like a professional instead of a Kardashian.

[oneadhdwitch]

Broke Witch Help

We all go through times where we don't have the greatest amount of money in our pockets, especially with the economy these days no matter where you live in the world.

You don't need to buy things to be a legitimate witch, and here are a few things that can help you figure out how to get things you may need for your craft if you don't have a lot of money.

Grimoire/BoS Alternatives

Your grimoire and/or Book of Shadows doesn't have to be fancy at all! You can always get the most basic notebooks and use these as ways to write down your personal experiences, things you've learned and spells. Even this isn't for everyone.

The notes app on your phone can totally be your magical notebook, but if you want a specific app you can always start a secret tumblr page just for yourself or even get an app like Penzu where you can get one free online journal for free!

There are of course other apps that you can use, but the important thing is that you can freely write what you want! I just started a dream journal on Penzu myself and it's been really helpful!

Herbology

People don't realise just how easy it is to go outside and pick things up sometimes. Woods are everywhere and as long as you have a good education on what it is you're picking up then you can totally pick up plants and leaves in your local woodland. I would usually link to a source about the topic at hand, but unfortunately I think this is one everyone will need to research about their own area as different plants grow in different places.

Crystals/Stones

In all honesty the first stones I worked with were rocks I picked up off the ground, I felt their energy and worked with them how they told me they worked better. If you aren't someone is able to read energy this way, you can definitely still use rocks you've picked up from the ground. Whilst stones like amethyst and quartz have good qualities and look pretty, stones from the ground can still be pretty powerful. They're just as natural, and just as part of natures way as the ones we have attributed certain abilities to.

Knowledge and Fact Checking

As I'm sure everyone on this website is aware, the internet isn't the best place for gaining knowledge and fact checking is always best before making a decision on whether information is truthful or not. The truth is, books about witch craft and paganism are just the same anyway. Unless there are many sources saying the same thing, it's important to question and fact check everything you read. Whilst books can be an integral part of the craft for some people, they aren't necessarily the most important thing.

Anything we find in books we can find on the internet, and all media needs to be questioned. This part of my post is mainly a part to say, don't feel bad for not having a library of books on the craft. There are many ways to learn.

If there are any other things you may need help with please do let me know. If you have any extra insight, please also add to this.

[garfieldstim]

@/deadboystims 300 follower event -> day 7: make a stimboard based on yourself

x x x / x x x / x x x

[vault81]

setting all my loot settings in project zomboid to insanely rare and wondering why im not finding anything

[eatfreeordie]

The Canning Diva Presents Meals in a Jar has a chapter on safe ingredient substitutions in tested pressure canning recipes! This is so exciting to me

[rebeccathenaturalist]

I have THE biggest, BEST news EVER--

I GOT A BOOK CONTRACT!!!!!!!!

I am exceptionally pleased to announce that I have just signed a contract with Ten Speed Press (a division of Penguin Random House) to publish...

The Everyday Naturalist: How to Identify Animals, Plants, and Fungi Wherever You Go!

It is slated for publication in early Summer 2025, and will be written for anyone who wants to be able to identify the living beings around them regardless of educational level or experience. A HUGE thank you to my literary agent Jane Dystel of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC, and my editor at Ten Speed Press, Julie Bennett!

This isn't just another field guide--it's a how-to book on nature identification that helps you go from "I have no idea what this animal/plant/fungus is and I don't know where to start" to "Aha! I know how to figure out what species I'm looking at/hearing!" Those familiar with my nature ID classes know that I emphasize skills and tools accessible to everyday people. Whether you're birdwatching, foraging, or just enjoying the nature around you, my goal is to help you be more confident in figuring out what living beings you encounter wherever you go--and not just in the Pacific Northwest. 

The Everyday Naturalist will not only explain what traits you need to pay attention to like color, size, shape, location, etc. and how to use them to differentiate among similar species, but will also detail how and when to use tools like apps, field guides, and more. (And given the current kerfuffle about A I generated foraging books, I will of course include information on how to determine the veracity of a given book or other resource.) And my editor and I have already been discussing some great additions to the book that will make it even more user-friendly!

Are you excited about this? I certainly am! I wanted to wait until the pixels were dry on the contract before going public with this (though my newsletter subscribers got to hear about it last month, lucky them!) It still doesn't feel real, but I'm already working on the manuscript so it'll sink in soon enough.

I will, of course, keep you all apprised of my progress because this project is going to be a big part of my life over the next several months as I write and edit and write and edit and wash, rinse, repeat. So keep your eyes on this space for updates (and feel free to add yourself to my monthly email newsletter here, too!)

[yo-gummy-sharks]

Day 4 of @dreveel's 500 follower event: Your favorite original character

My maid/knight Lyra

🌾 ⚔️ 🌾 ⚔️ 🌾 ⚔️ 🌾 ⚔️ 🌾

[thisblogdoesnotexisg]

nevermoor has some sort of parade during may or march, i will not take constructive criticism because it does not have to be associated with st. patrick’s! anyway it’s kinda like a foodie tech show(?) where they show the latest edible inventions as samples, you can also buy more or donate so they can open a stall in the bazaar and make more products!