Customer Reviews

Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Grow Your Own Drugs is filled with (mostly) easy to make recipes--all from natural ingredients that are readily available. The book is also beautiful to look through, making it more likely you will feel motivated to actually try many of the recipes. The book covers beauty recipes, and recipes to make you feel better or cure what ails you.

I have been waiting for this book to be available in the States, as a friend from the UK had been raving about it.

I already use (almost) only natural/organic beauty products and drugs, but look forward to replacing some store-bought with home made. Furthermore, I cook from scratch and make most of my cleaning products from scratch. Finally, I do use essential oils and flower essences to help alter my moods and for medicinal purposes--and they work. (For example, lavender is calming, tea tree for blemishes, etc.) So, Grow Your Own Drugs this is a natural step forward for me.

I also like that the author, James Wong, is a scientists who has also studied the properties of plants around the world--this is no hobbyist! (As someone who has dabbled with the property of plants, I recognize many of the cures as those that are well established.) So, I feel comfortable will his advice and recipes.

A quick look shows me that I already have many ingredients necessary to get me started on making several recipes, including one for inflammation, sore throats and for the upcoming season--bee stings.

Highly recommend.

Author of HARMONIOUS ENVIRONMENT.

I'm always skeptical about home remedies, but at the same time want to use products that are locally-grown, homemade, and not infused with unnatural chemicals. So I decided to give this book a try. Not only is it GORGEOUS--the photography is really phenomenal--and not only is the author gorgeous too (and British! His BBC show is on Youtube and he's got that great accent!) but the recipes really, truly work! I made the sore throat recipe and found it instantly soothing. And for fun I tried out the bath bomb, which was much simpler than I thought it would be and worth it for the nice soak!

Would recommend in a heartbeat to anyone who wants to take care of their body the natural way.

God gave us everything we need for health maintenance and healing (for the most part) and this book spells out the most beneficial herbs and plants, identifying them, and how to utilize them. Lots of great recipes for everything from lip balm to athlete's foot remedy. It's a great read - I did it in about 2 hours. Highly recommended!

The first thing I need to say about Grow Your Own Drugs is that this book is gorgeous. Page after page is filled with beauty shots of herbs and other close-up, photographic plant porn. (And incidentally, there are also some great shots of author James Wong, who's not too hard on the eyes, either.)

The name may raise eyebrows, but Grow Your Own Drugs is actually a no-nonsense home reference guide of natural, herb- and plant-based home remedies and beauty treatments. I love that Wong includes a list to help newbies like me set up shop for home remedy making, including stock items needed for many of the recipes.

But that aside, I don't know how well making most of Wong's remedies would work in my lifestyle. Number one, many of the recipes require ingredients that might be hard to find and pricey if you don't grow them yourself. The time to make some of the recipes also seems prohibitive for a working mom, but if you're dedicated to a holistic, organic lifestyle, I imagine you'll find the time.

One final thing I have to point out, though: a lot of the remedies call for vodka to make tinctures or popsicles, etc. The idea is that you steep or distill therepeutic herbs in the alcohol, and yes, many cough syrups today still have alcohol as a main ingredient. But really? One of the cold remedies was basically echinecea steeped in vodka, and the directions recommended ingesting several small cupfulls every few hours. Yes, I imagine that would distract me from my cold symptoms and make me feel quite a bit better. ;-)

My mum gifted me this book and A Year with James Wong, as she enjoyed the series n thought it would be right up my street, which indeed it is. It is full of colour and very visually pleasing to the eye but I cant help that feel it was written for the authors fan club, as it includes no fewer than 15 full page colour shots of himself...I'm sure he's a lovely guy but personally I would prefer more step by step pics of preparing the recipes (with explanatory notes!)...or else more recipes!
This book is full of very nice ideas, but not all of the recipes are simple! I live on a farm in Central Portugal and have a lot of established aromatic herbs, nettle patches, medicinal herbs and flowers, shrubs softfruit and trees..including pine and eucalyptus trees, but even so only a half dozen or so of these recipes would i be able to make immediately, and some of the combinations of ingredients are not seasonally compatible.
I think Wong could mention for a lot of the recipes that they can be simplified, and that the glycerine etc is not entirely necessary if you just want to use beeswax and make a salve rather than gel. I'm not entirely sold on adding white soap, gelatine or vitamin C powder either, but have the knowledge to make my own adaptions.
I like the top 100 plant section at the back of the book, which makes this book worth having for the beginner, but as another reviewer pointed out the contra indications of the herbs are rather overglossed. Hops for example can have the opposite of the desired sedative effect on the insomniac...individual herbs do have a very specific effect on each individual person, so use with caution!! I would never make such a potent mix as his headlice lotion for my little ones hair...not to mention I'm familiar with all the ingredients and it would smell REVOLTING!! Olive oil, vinegar, and a 2-3 drops of thyme n teatree essential oils will suffice, as long as you use a good metal nit comb (preferably spiralled) and repeat after 7 days..works 100 per cent and does't smell foul!
I must say I've only begun reading the year book these days since some rain arrived, but content wise it seems much more promising, and I will review it when I have had a thorough read and made a few experiments.
This book is a lovely gift for a James Wong fan, and a nice one to have on the shelf, but won't become one of my main references to be sure. If you enjoyed this book and don't already have Laurel Vukovics 1001 Natural Remedies then I highly reccommend it, as it has LOTS of these kind of recipes with many simple variants of each, and also tips for the home and petcare too, a must have for those who want to rid their lives of pharmaceutical products. For those more interested in herbs for healing have a look at Kitty Campions books, not so colourful and beautifully illustrated, but really the advice of a long term practitioner and professional herbalist.
I know this review was long winded but hope it is also helpful.

First off, this book is beautiful. Just about every page is visually stimulating in some way. The design is eye-catching and it just feels wholesome and comfortable. However, for those of you who have dabbled a bit in herbs and making your own healthcare and beauty products, this book is for the absolute beginner. It's basic to the point of being disappointing. The title is a bit misleading, suggesting the recipes are going to contain ingredients that you can grow. Maybe some of them... Overall, I found most recipes lacking and some were just variations of a previous recipe. Cheated! One recipe even called for petroleum jelly - not what I expected in a book touting natural and plant based. It was a waste of my money as a recipe book for holistic healing, but pretty for all its pictures. I'll probably give it away as a gift to my friend who is just starting out on the holistic path, but not without a few recommendations for better resources. It just seems hard to believe that Wong is considered an accomplished ethnobotanist based on the content of this book.

Create Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes by James Wong had beautiful illustrations and each recipe was well-detailed. Some of the ingredients might be difficult and a little pricey to obtain, although Mr. Wong did list suppliers. The book is worth it just for the second half listing of the top 100 medicinal plants.

This beautiful book is so easy to navigate, understand and use. There are good references for organic products to purchase to make the recipes in the back of the book. The author is great. I wish they'd used a different word in the title rather than Drugs! I bought this after hearing the author talk about the book either on tv or NPR, can't remember which...It's a good book for anyone wanting to make herbal remedies.

This is it guys.

For the beginner herbalist, this book is the best book I have seen.

I am not saying that these herbal cures are only for beginners. I am saying that the book is easy to read, easy to understand, encouraging and probably less complicated than that school cook book you bought to support your kids sports endeavor.

Just received this book! It is in beautiful condition, and is extremely informative. I am looking forward to putting this information into practice.