Customer Reviews

The Herbal Home Remedy Book: Simple Recipes for Tinctures, Teas, Salves, Tonics, and Syrups (Herbal Body)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book hoping that it would guide me in the creation of herbal remedies -- I'd always had a culinary herb garden and wanted to expland my horizons. I wasn't disappointed -- there were many simple recipes for decoctions, poultices, and other non-culinary herb uses. However, some -- okay, many! -- of the descriptions and instructions were beyond what the simple practicioner or budding herbalist could understand. In the end, I just use the recipes I've marked and ignore the rest of the book.

This book is written in a humorous, easy to understand and concise format. It is an great way for someone who has never studied herbal medicine before to dip their toes in the water. Ms. Wardwell is very clear about the dangers of using certain herbs. It also has wonderful guidelines on learning how to identify the different types of plants and herbs you'll be using. Ms. Wardwell also includes several recipes for various tinctures, teas, wines and vinegars to be used. She also offers interesting stories explaining the folklore behind certain plants as well. I can't recommend this book highly enough to any student of herbalism whether beginner or advanced.

Simpling refers to a method of learning herbalism. Choose an herb and explore every facet of it - leaves, petals roots, uses, dangers - inside and out. When you finally "know" that, then and only then, choose a second herb to get to know. This book is an amazing primer for beginners to herbalism. I chafed its simplicity at first, "More herbs! Its too basic!", until I really began to learn my first herb, catnip. Then I realized how silly I'd been and how very much there was to learn. This book is a bible for beginners!

I have to say that I was rather shocked to read another review's comment that many of the recipes in this book were beyond the beginner's grasp.... This has not been my experience at all. I use this book for most all of my students and have had great success with it. It's simple, totally down to earth and gives a very firm grasp of old fashioned downhome herbalism (the best kind in my not so humble opinion). I love her focus on 25 very common (and often overlooked herbs) that almost any of us can access no matter where we are. I also love her rather unfashionable uses of homemade herbal wines and vinegars, that are a fabulous and gentle choice for the home herbalist (not to mention cheap and practical). She also focuses on using food as medicine and lifestyle as medicine, which are of course, really the only medicine that work in the long run. Joyce does a really lovely job of making the best of herbal medicine accessable and joyous. Of the probably hundreds of herb books I've read, this remains a classic for me, easily in my top ten best herb books.

I would also recommend books by Susun Weed, Juliette Levy, Gail Faith Edwards, Judith Berger, Stephen Buhner, Michael Moore and Matthew Wood for more great writing in a similair earth loving vein.

Does not cover alot of different herbs but the ones that she does cover are usually easy to find and prove very multi-faceted. The book has a nice section on preparing herbs ,tinctures etc..that is easy even for beginning herbal enthusiasts as well as a handy "symptom guide" to find what will work in different situations quickly. The cover art is not all glossy or artsy like some but instead much like the content within... natural,workable & easy to get into. I use this book often and will continue to until we are both old and worn.(-_-)

This book is so much fun to read. It isn't the ultimate sourcebook in terms of listing all the herbs out there, but it offers wonderful information on making herbal remedies with interesting stories to go along with the recipes. The author definitely shows her love for herbs with this book.

If you buy any herbal recipe book-this is the one.Easy to understand with illustrations and definitions.Perfect reference for the begining or seasoned Herbalist****Recommended reading by Mother Earth Market Place****

This book is not the only book you will own but it is the first one I bought to learn some of the basics. If you want an overview of some of the most useful and available herbs this is what you want.
I like it for it's down-to-earth advice and easy to understand (and do) instructions.
I also purchased Readers Digest "Herbs" which is great for the photography of herbs so I can identify them in the wild.

In times like this when money is tight this is the way to go! No side effects and definitely cheaper.

Not a super detailed book, but depending on your usage of it I suppose it doesn't really need to be that detailed. It's a good reference to keep in the medicine cabinet or even in the kitchen drawer and I've thumbed through it to refresh my memory on quite a few things over the past two years. Overall I'd say it is useful, but I wouldn't depend on it as your only reference herbal guide.