Book Recommendation: Last of the Breed, by Louis L'Amour

Last of the Breed, by Louis L'Amour is a fantastic piece of adventure fiction. And, a book that's centered around foraging and survival advice.

The story follows Joe Mack, a U.S. Air Force pilot and Native American.

Mack has been shot down by the Soviets, and is trapped inside Siberia wilderness, forced to rely on his survival skills as he slowly makes his way to freedom.

Foraging, plant identification, and tracking all play key roles in the story.

With author L'Amour sharing practical survival advice.

He considered himself. From boyhood he had at every opportunity gone back to the woods. He had lived and survived under some of the bitterest conditions. He had killed or gathered his own food; he knew how to make clothing; he had often made moccasins, something not every Indian knew how to do anymore. Joe Mack banked his small fire and bedded down in a mound of leaves with fir boughs over him. It was cold and it was drafty, but Joe Mack had lived so before this.

The story itself is also exciting, with Mack using his wilderness skills to evade Soviet soldiers and stay one step ahead of his would-be captors.

One interesting foraging skill I learned from Last of the Breed, was Aspen's inner bark being edible.

From an aspen he cut a strip of bark, scraping off the soft tissues between the bark and the wood. He ate the moist, pulpy flesh, as he had often done as a boy, and continued on.

I would highly recommend Last of the Breed to any aspiring forager. 

Or any wilderness buff, for that matter.

This is a fun, entertaining read that will keep you entertained - while teaching you important survival skills.

If you're looking for a fun adventure story that showcases the power of foraging and bushcraft, give this one a read. It's a good story, with a lot of interesting lessons about cold weather survival in a wilderness environment.

You can grab a copy from Amazon.