The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde

A captivating and lyrical journey into our ancestral past, through what and how we eat.

Mo Wilde made a quiet but radical pledge: to live only off free, foraged food for an entire year. In a world disconnected from its roots, eating wild food is both culinary and healing, social and political. Ultimately, it is an act of love and community. Using her expert knowledge of botany and mycology, Mo follows the seasons to find nutritious food from hundreds of species of plants, fungi and seaweeds, and in the process learns not just how to survive, but how to thrive. Nourishing her body and mind deepens her connection with the earth – a connection that we have become estranged from but which we all, deep down, hunger for.

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.

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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.

However, it's not what I expected at all. There are no recipes or identifying pictures here. (That's probably in an effort to avoid being sued, which I can understand and whole heartedly endorse.) This is more of a stream of consciousness, spread over a year, as Mo connects the food she's gathering now with the way our ancestors would have lived. There are plenty of entries that have nothing to do with food, but are Mo musing on a sunset or a hill or murmuration.

(Note: There is a table at the back that lists every plant she gathers over the year and talks about each a bit, but the formatting on my ebook proof was so badly messed up that it's illegible - I can't tell which bits of information go with which. In a printed copy that won't be an issue, of course.)

It's all very interesting musing - picturing our ancestor's hunting grounds as a daisy really helped me grasp it - and I'm fascinated that she did manage to forage enough to keep alive and healthy. It's not as instructional as I had hoped, but that's probably on me for misunderstanding the blurb.

I think this would make a fascinating TV series - perhaps four episodes, one for each season? - and I did enjoy the read. I recommend it to others. Just be aware of what you're getting.

The Wilderness Cure publishes on the 23rd of June, 2022. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.