Today, in going through the article suggestions I receive from The Good Trade, I followed a link to this really cool and free book offered by The Perennial Agriculture Institue. A link to download Trees with Edible Leaves may be found here. The link goes to the group’s blog page so if there’s a more recent post, just look for the January 10, 2023 post on Trees with Edible Leaves: PAI’s latest publication. Toensmeier is the author (along with co-author Jonathan Bates) of Paradise Lot, which our book club read in 2019. I described it as a permaculture romance although the authors described it as: “two plant geeks, one-tenth of an acre and the making of an edible garden oasis in the city.”

Trees with Edible Leaves is 80 densely packed pages and “profiles one hundred and two species of trees, shrubs, and cacti that are grown for their edible leaves and shoots.” The pdf includes cultivation tips, including pruning, and nutritional information among other information like where it grows well, where it’s from, how to harvest, and really helpful photographs of what the leaves look like.

The blog post states that they’re currently translating the pdf into Spanish and asks for translators of other languages. Your support helps keep this important project going!