I have a whole bunch of different books on the subject, including "God's Free Harvest" by Ken Larson and Elias and Dykeman's "Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants." I have one book ("The Official Pocket Edible Plant Survival Manual") that contains information that I haven't seen anywhere else.

It says, for example, that you can eat Maple and Birch leaves.

It's considered a good rule of thumb that you should only eat YOUNG leaves and that you should never eat old and wilted leaves. I haven't seen any other source of information where it says that you can eat Maple and Birch leaves, so I'm not quite sure that I can trust my pocket edible plant survival manual. I'm wondering if anyone has tried boiling and eating young Birch leaves. The inner bark of the Birch tree is said to be edible, and the sap of the Birch tree is said to be sweet just like the sap of the Maple tree.