Alexis Nikole Nelson (TikTok | YouTube), the social media creator known as Black Forager, will release “Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!”, a guide that combines a foraging handbook with a vegan cookbook, on September 22, and we got an advance copy.
Nelson, who has millions of followers across social media platforms, began foraging at age five with her mother. Her videos highlight edible plants hiding in plain sight, sustainable practices, and the cultural history of foraging in Black and Indigenous communities.
The book offers plant identification guidance, safety tips, and recipes organized by season, like making pickled magnolia flowers and Japanese knotweed granita in the spring. Summer features milkweed bud fritters and Juneberry hand pies. Fall and winter recipes include maitake “steaks” and oyster mushroom chowder.
One featured recipe, My Thiccc Magnolia Syrup, uses fragrant magnolia petals to create a syrup that can be used in baking. The syrup requires one cup of water, 1.5 cups of sugar, and four cups of loosely packed, fragrant magnolia petals and serves as an ingredient in Magnolia Snap Cookies, which combine the floral syrup with brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract or nocino.
