Polish Herbs, Flowers & Folk Medicine (Polish Interest) [Hardcover]

Sophie Hodorowicz Knab (Author)

Book Description

Series: Polish Interest | Publication Date: September 1999

This book captures the unique history of the plant life once essential to the Polish people. It leads the reader on a guided tour through monastery, castle, and cottage gardens, providing details on the history and healing powers of over one hundred herbs and flowers. Beautiful line drawings and woodcuts illustrate the garden patterns and various plants important to Polish tradition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Polish Herbs, Flowers & Folk Medicine captures the unique history of the plant lif e once essential to the Polish people. It leads the reader on a guided tour through monastery, castle, and cottage gardens, providing details on the history and healing powers of over one hundred herbs and flowers. Beautiful line drawings and woodcuts illustrate the garden patterns and various plants important to Polish tradition. Home remedies for everything from weight lo ss to arthritis, relaxants to rejuvenators, and heartache to heartburn are noted in the over f ifty herbal recipes listed throughout the book. Sophie Knab provides balms for ailments such a s stress, insomnia, slow metabolism, perspiring feet, limp hair, and oily skin. Also suggested are tasty soups, liqueurs, and vinegars appealing to more than just the healers among us. Rec ipes include: Homemade Benedictine, Elderberry Syrup, Herb butter, and Sirloin with Tarragon. Filled with illustrations and fascinating information, Polish Herbs, Flowers & Folk Medici ne is a veritable treasure trove of history, how-to, and inspiration. -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Sophie Hodorowicz Knab

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books; Revised edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781807867
• ISBN-13: 978-0781807869
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #476,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A lovely garden was the spirit of the housewife", March 10, 2002

By 

Judith Miller (Bluemont, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polish Herbs, Flowers & Folk Medicine (Polish Interest) (Hardcover)

In this charming book, Sophie Hodorowicz Knab answers all of the questions that anyone might have about the use of herbs in Poland. She starts by informing us about an archaeological site that dates back to 550-400 BC. The site was discovered in the Bydgoszcz province in1931. It was determined that the early inhabitants grew several types of grain and used herbs in medicinal preparations and for flavoring foods.

The author also tells us how herbs were used in the pre-Christian era and how those practices were integrated into the Christian celebrations that came later. Due to the geographic location of Poland, many travelers following the trade routes passed through her borders and introduced exotic new plants to the country.

There's an abundance of data offered about the herbal gardens in the monasteries. Those gardens were in many ways the most advanced and useful because the monks had links with their fellow orders from all over Europe. Therefore, the different formulas for herbal medicines were passed back and forth between the monasteries.

Palace gardens are also discussed. Since the royal families made marriage alliances with neighboring countries, the spouses often brought different plants and trees with them to be planted in their new home. Italian style gardens and vegetables such as tomatoes and cauliflower were introduced by Queen Bona who was born in Italy.

I particularly liked the information given about the cottage gardens. We're told "that a lovely garden was the spirit of the housewife." These kitchen gardens were much simpler than their formal counterparts. The lady of the house would grow the herbs that she liked best. "There was marjoram for sausage, dill for pickling, and parsley, sage and fennel for enhancing soups and stews." The illustrations in this part of the book intrigued me, and I really enjoyed the folk-style drawings. I thought that the different types of bee skeps were very unique. Sugar was a luxury and the common people kept bees so that they would have honey to use as a sweetener.

Finally, even the glossary of herbs and flowers presented some absorbing and entertaining passages. The customary usage for the various plants are offered and a few recipes and remedies are also included. The names of the plants are given in English, Latin and Polish. There's even a recipe for Benedictine which sounds very intriguing!

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about Poland.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's a nice book, but..., November 8, 2009

By 

Rosie_0801 (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polish Herbs, Flowers & Folk Medicine (Polish Interest) (Hardcover)

It would have been improved greately by the use of time quantifiers. "Traditionally" could mean anywhere from the birth of the Polish nation right through to the day before yesterday. There is a lot of nice information for people who don't mind when exactly "traditionally" was, but I was hoping to find useful information for SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) purposes. I really want to know whether the described habits stem from the Middle Ages or the 19th century, and since I don't read Polish, I can't follow the paper trail back through the bibliography.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Text good, pictures not, September 15, 2008

By 

Malcolm Davidson "eeksypeeksy" (Gdansk, Poland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polish Herbs, Flowers & Folk Medicine (Polish Interest) (Hardcover)

It's a useful text but the illustrations are mainly decorative, not useful for identifying plants.