Book Review- Healing Herbs

I'm a big fan of foraging and using the things that grow wild around my neighborhood, so this is a book that I was very interested in reading.

Healing Herb's- A Beginner's Guide to Identifying, Foraging and Using Medicinal Plants is a lovely collection that's great for beginners because it covers easily identifiable plants and has recipes and tips for using them. Tina Sams has a blog and a magazine called The Essential Herbal and is very knowledgeable in her field. The photographs in this book are clear and gorgeous.

Starting with my favorite- dandelions, which are close to the end of the book.

The dandelion chapter is being used as my example of why this is a great book because I really love dandelions.

Each chapter starts with some history and scientific information about the plant, along with the medicinal uses. Then it gets into recipes! The recipes included are ways to incorporate easily found "weeds" into your skin care regime and diet.

Recipes include an infused skin care oil, dandelion fritters, dandelion root cocoa, a tea for PMS symptoms, green eggs and an infused vinegar.

I love the way this book is laid out, and the flowers and plants chosen for inclusion. There are recipes I've never tried before like gulkand, an uncooked rose petal preserve. The book includes things that can be found in your yard like plantain and dandelions, and a lot of things that can be easily grown or ordered if they don't grow wild in your area. For example, lavender doesn't grow easily here, but there is so much wild chamomile in my neighborhood that I've never even considered planting it in my yard. Raspberries grow wild up here, but I also have my own little thicket.

Chamomile

There were some things not included, so I'm hoping for a sequel that will have recipes for things like shepherd's purse and spruce tips, but I'm really happy with what is included.

If you're someone just getting into foraging and wild crafting, this is a lovely book full of great photos, information and recipes. If you're more experienced and have a good library already, this may not have any new information for you but it's still a very pretty book. 

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We picked and mixed our own herbal tea (tisane)

Wild Chamomile Blossom - Taken by Shala Kerrigan

In the last few years, I've been making a point of showing William and TG what's edible in our yard, and in the woods by our house. I know that I don't know all of it, not by a long shot, and we plan to take a class together at some point to learn more about wild edibles.

Last night we decided to go for a walk to pick wild chamomile. Since I don't have any in our yard, but we have lots within walking distance it was good exercise.

If you are planning to pick your own tea, look for sources that are not chemically fertilized, close to streets, or where people might use pesticides!! We generally look in untended, wooded lots for the stuff not growing in our own yard, and I know that my yard is all natural. *

Chamomile looks a lot like the very common Shasta Daisies up here, but there are some very clear differences.

• Chamomile branches quite a bit
• Chamomile blossom centers don't have the same very obvious spiral that daisies have.
• Foliage- Chamomile has lots of pointy, bushy foliage, daisies have jagged leaves
• The centers- if you look at the photo above, you'll see how some of the centers are very high. Daisy centers are quite flat compared to chamomile. Some chamomile may have a flat center, but since they grow in clumps, look at a few. If you see some high domes over the petals, it's probably chamomile!
• Scent! Chamomile has a pleasant scent. Shasta daisies do not.
• Chamomile can also wind up looking like a shuttle cock in shape later in the season as the petals droop from those high domed centers. You don't want to pick those flowers, but usually there will be a lot that are still in nice bloom.

Tisane is the correct term for brewed herbal "teas", and tea drinkers can be quite adamant about it. Tea will have tea leaves. Everything else isn't tea. 

So if you're going to pick your own chamomile, you want to pick flowers in perfect bloom. Trim the stems after you rinse them off at home. After careful consideration, we decided on an old trick or treat bucket to use as a basket for the picked flowers. I drilled holes in the bottom of it for drainage, and now I think as we find pumpkin buckets stashed away from when our kids were little, we are going to modify them all into berry and flower buckets! Chamomile tea is made from the blossoms.

After we got home, we took a look around our yard to decide what else should go into the mix. Of course we pinched some mint, because mint and chamomile go well together.

Raspberry leaves taste wonderful brewed but have some specific warnings:

• Make the tea either from fresh leaves, or completely, absolutely dry leaves. Partly dry leaves can make you sick.
• Don't drink raspberry leaf tea if your pregnant.

If you're working with fresh leaves, or completely dry leaves the rest of the time, it's pretty safe. They add a great fruity, slightly tart flavor to herbal blends. It's also frequently used in teas for women during that special time of the month.

Raspberry leaf infusions also make a great natural toner! Steep them in boiling water, then apply to your face. They help with acne and such. So raspberry leaves are just an all-around great option for teen age girls!

You can also use strawberry leaves! Same warning on half dry leaves. Just don't, for berries, I always figure absolutely fresh or completely dry.

They tried the Pineapple Weed which is also known as false chamomile and decided against that.

So they rinsed everything they picked, and planned their cups of fresh. TG put 2 chamomile blossoms in her cup, and lightly bruised the mint and raspberry leaves between her fingers, 4 medium sized mint leaves and 2 medium sized raspberry leaves. Then brought water to a near boil, and poured it over the leaves and flowers to steep.

Both of them enjoyed their cups straight up, no sugar, no honey and really enjoyed the flavor. 

You can also use- whole, ripe berries for a strong berry flavor, clover flowers, rose hips or rose petals (pinch off the white base) to name a few other options.

The rest of the mix is drying now, so we can put it in a jar for winter. 

* When the ground finally thawed this year, there was a HUGE pile of moose droppings by my strawberry patch. I had my kids put plastic bags over their shoes and go out and stamp it all down. That strawberry patch has simply exploded with lots of big, heavy, wonderful tasting strawberries!