Herbalism at Home by Kristine Brown

Herbalism at Home by Kristine Brown ISBN-13: 9781646111565 Paperback: 248 pages Publisher: Rockridge Press Released: January 7, 2020

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
A growing number of people have turned to herbalism as an affordable, natural alternative to conventional medicine. Herbalism at Home gives you the down-to-earth guidance and simple recipes you need to introduce plant-based remedies into your daily life. Start with an overview of the types of herbalism remedies, like teas, tinctures, salves, creams, and poultices. Discover in-depth profiles on 40 healing plants, including their medicinal properties, health benefits, and appropriate dosage--as well as 125 recipes for common physical ailments, mental health, personal care, childhood conditions, and even aging.

Herbalism at Home includes: Take a look at the history of herbalism, the tools and ingredients you'll need, and tips on growing your own herbs. Learn techniques like infusion, diffusion, and syrup--each with easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations. Ease everyday ailments with step-by-step recipes for Cuts and Scrapes Salve, Laryngitis Relief Honey, Memory Support Tonic, and more.


My Review:
Herbalism at Home is a beginner guide to herbalism. She started by explaining the different tools, materials, and herbs needed for the recipes in this book. She provided profiles on blackberry, black haw, black walnut, burdock, California poppy, catnip, dandelion, ginger, goldenrod, gotu kola, ground ivy, hawthorn, milky oats, monarda, motherwort, mugwort, plantain, prunella, Queen Anne's lace, reishi, rosemary, St. John's wort, spearmint, spilanthes, stinging nettles, thyme, vitex, wild cherry, wild lettuce, yarrow, borage, calendula, cleavers, comfrey, lemon balm, New England aster, passionflower, poke, saw palmetto, and yellow dock. These profiles included the Latin name, any safety considerations, the parts of the plant used, what it does and its uses, how to prepare it (tincture, tea, syrup, etc.), and dosage.

She also explained how to make herbal teas, tinctures, tonics and elixirs, infused oils, salves, syrups, powders, baths, compresses, poultices, and plasters. She provided 125 recipes using these herbs to treat common health problems, from splinters to colds and more.

I liked her step-by-step instructions on how to make things like tinctures, compresses, etc. While a useful book, it's my understanding that some herbalists would not use comfrey or poke due to safety considerations, so it seems odd to me to use them in a beginner book. Some of these herbs are also not commonly talked about, like black haw. It was useful to know about more herbs, but I don't have them on hand. Since most of the recipes used 4 to 6 herbs, they often included one of these more unusual ones. But, overall, I'd recommend this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.