Pamela Michael's Edible Wild Plants & Herbs was originally published in 1980 under the title All Good Things Around Us which became an accepted classic on the subject of wild foods.

Grub Street Press have now republished this field guide (price £20) and cook book, which has been entirely revised and updated to cover nearly 100 different plant varieties and include almost 400 recipes.

This book is not meant to be about survival or how to live off the land, it's intended as a guide to using herbs and wild plants in much the same way as our ancestors did before we lost the old knowledge and came to rely entirely on shops for our food, drink and beauty preparations.

The edible flowers, fruits and shoots of the elder tree are a perfect example of the versatility of some wild plants. More than 30 recipes linked with the elder are listed in this book, including this Danish recipe for elderberry soup - which we can all make now that the elder berries are beginning to ripen.

YOU WILL NEED: 1lb (450g) ripe elderberries 1 litres/3pts water One lemon Small piece cinnamon stick 1 level tbspn cornflour 4-5 tbspns sugar METHOD: Wash the elderberries and strip them from their stems.

Put the berries in a saucepan with the water, pared lemon rind and cinnamon, bring to the boil and cook gently for 10-15 minutes, until the elder berries are soft.

Stain into a clean saucepan, remove the lemon rind and cinnamon and press all the juice from the berries into the pan.

Mix the cornflour with strained juice of the lemon and add to the pan of elderberry juice.

Bring to the boil, stirring briskly to blend. Remove from the heat when the soup thickens, then stir in the sugar to taste.

Serve hot with poached quarters of apple, cooked dumplings or small cubes of white bread friend in butter and sugar.