what process do you use to quickly identify?

Welcome, Sergei I'm very interested in your book. What process do you use to quickly narrow down the identification process? I've used books that rely on flower shape, color, and structure which is great if you have flowers but if you don't it's an issue. Others simply organize the material alphabetically by latin name - REALLY useful for the average Joe! There is a small (pocket sized) book for identifying woody plants that relies entirely on leaf structure, shape, and texture. That seems to work very well for woody plants and I wonder why it's not as heavily used in the books I've seen for wild foraging. Ultimately, I'm interested in your approach so that I can tell whether this book will be the one that solves the problem in our house of "if we're not sure, we don't eat it! - which translates, for my wife, to "I'm NEVER sure, so I'm not looking!"
Thanks, and again, welcome to Permies!
John Strohl

Learning plant families is invaluable. It's so much easier to figure out what a plant is once you know what the family is. Visual keys in books are also useful.