Customer Reviews

Medicinal Herbs in the Garden, Field & Marketplace (Bootstrap Guide)

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

 

 

This is an amazing book. When my husband and I began to consider the cultivation of medicinal herbs as a retirement project, The Bootstrap Guide was recommended to us by Heather McNeill of Frontier Herbs, a major medicinal herb marketer.

The Bootstrap Guide to Medicinal Herbs exceeded my expectations. In addition to an overview of the medicinal herb industry, there are profiles of growers and herbal product manufacturers, growing requirements, and detailed instructions for propagation, cultivation, harvesting, and marketing, including questionaires filled out by herb marketing companies such as Frontier and Celestial Seasonings. These questionaires alone are worth the price of the book, giving such information as minimum purchase quantities, preference for fresh or dried, organic or non-organic, and market projections.

In addition, there is a thorough discussion of the ethics of wildcrafting and the need to develop domesticated sources for the many herbs whose popularity has made them endangered species. All this in a friendly, concise, well-written 318 pages.

If herb-growing or market gardening forms a part of your life, or your plans, read this book.

I counsel people on growing medicinal herbs commercially and this is the number one book I recommend to people considering starting a herb business. Lee Sturdivant provides inspirational stories from successful herb businesses around the nation. Tim Blakley provides an extensive listing of a wide variety of popular medicinal herbs and the most up-to-date information on how to grow them. Harvesting, packaging, and marketing information is also provided. Excellent book! I hope the authors will keep this one updated for us.

It has all the information you need for starting your herb business, just dont expect to learn what people use the herbs for.