Mother Nature's Herbal (Llewellyn's Whole Life Series)

Rating:
Summary: MOTHER NATURE'S HERBAL
Review: Dr. Judy Griffin provides a comprehensive guide to the herb world in Mother Nature's Herbal, her latest book. A master gardener, herbalist, and certified horticulturist, Griffin explains everything from how to start seeds in properly amended soil to harvesting and using the leaves, flowers, and berries of each plant optimally.

Her book is part of Llewellyn's Whole Life Series, which focuses on holistic living.

Griffin describes each herb fully, using common and botanical names. Delving into folklore, she presents historical and contemporary uses of many plants. She also provides cultural information on the use of herbalism (plant medicine) through the centuries, including Ayurvedic (Indian), Chinese, medieval, Mediterranean, and Native and South American remedies. Griffin wrote Mother Nature's Herbal for "those who are ready to learn and experience the beauty, knowledge, and synergy of everything that grows." She adds that "I emphasize companion planting, kitchen gardens, and herbal repellents."

Her book includes more than 200 recipes, ranging from Mango Salsa to Ginger Zucchini Carrot Cake to Pesto Genovese to the Nobody Loves Me Tonic, for when "life has let you down and no one seems to care." Health recipes encompass an abundance of tonics, as well as recipes for skin and hair care, therapeutic baths, and simple medicinal remedies. Food recipes include butters, vinegars, marinades, oils, and seasoning blends. She devotes one chapter to the use of essential oils and flower remedies.

Pen and ink drawings of 102 herbs garnish the pages, along with 24 color photos. Bits of wisdom, such as "Believe in your innate right to celebrate life through good health" and "The garden is the poor man's apothecary" are sprinkled throughout the book.

Griffin offers planting arrangements and directions for theme gardens, including a bee garden (which will also attract hummingbirds), culinary garden, romantic garden, fragrant garden, survivor's garden (herbs that will "tolerate poor, rocky soil"), shade garden, Biblical garden, and evergreen garden. Appendices include a growing chart with the conditions under which each plant will do best; information about nutrients; and a purchasing guide, with suppliers' addresses and telephone numbers. She provides an extensive glossary and bibliography.

Readers unfamiliar with the world of herbs will find a wealth of information for beginners in Griffin's book. More experienced herbalists will appreciate the thoroughness of her research. Everyone will enjoy the dozens of tips Griffin offers, like this one: "flavor salad dressing by soaking herbs in it for 30 minutes to an hour before serving. Use one teaspoon of herbs to one cup of dressing."

Rating:
Summary: MOTHER NATURE'S HERBAL
Review: Dr. Judy Griffin provides a comprehensive guide to the herb world in Mother Nature's Herbal, her latest book. A master gardener, herbalist, and certified horticulturist, Griffin explains everything from how to start seeds in properly amended soil to harvesting and using the leaves, flowers, and berries of each plant optimally.

Her book is part of Llewellyn's Whole Life Series, which focuses on holistic living.

Griffin describes each herb fully, using common and botanical names. Delving into folklore, she presents historical and contemporary uses of many plants. She also provides cultural information on the use of herbalism (plant medicine) through the centuries, including Ayurvedic (Indian), Chinese, medieval, Mediterranean, and Native and South American remedies. Griffin wrote Mother Nature's Herbal for "those who are ready to learn and experience the beauty, knowledge, and synergy of everything that grows." She adds that "I emphasize companion planting, kitchen gardens, and herbal repellents."

Her book includes more than 200 recipes, ranging from Mango Salsa to Ginger Zucchini Carrot Cake to Pesto Genovese to the Nobody Loves Me Tonic, for when "life has let you down and no one seems to care." Health recipes encompass an abundance of tonics, as well as recipes for skin and hair care, therapeutic baths, and simple medicinal remedies. Food recipes include butters, vinegars, marinades, oils, and seasoning blends. She devotes one chapter to the use of essential oils and flower remedies.

Pen and ink drawings of 102 herbs garnish the pages, along with 24 color photos. Bits of wisdom, such as "Believe in your innate right to celebrate life through good health" and "The garden is the poor man's apothecary" are sprinkled throughout the book.

Griffin offers planting arrangements and directions for theme gardens, including a bee garden (which will also attract hummingbirds), culinary garden, romantic garden, fragrant garden, survivor's garden (herbs that will "tolerate poor, rocky soil"), shade garden, Biblical garden, and evergreen garden. Appendices include a growing chart with the conditions under which each plant will do best; information about nutrients; and a purchasing guide, with suppliers' addresses and telephone numbers. She provides an extensive glossary and bibliography.

Readers unfamiliar with the world of herbs will find a wealth of information for beginners in Griffin's book. More experienced herbalists will appreciate the thoroughness of her research. Everyone will enjoy the dozens of tips Griffin offers, like this one: "flavor salad dressing by soaking herbs in it for 30 minutes to an hour before serving. Use one teaspoon of herbs to one cup of dressing."

Rating:
Summary: A must have book for all herbal scholars!
Review: Judy Griffin goes beyond "how-to" in her anthropological approach to the history, uses, and cultural significance of herbs in societies from West to East, yet her manner is still lighthearted and not overbearingly intellectual. This is a perfectly functional guide to herbalism, but it also engenders a respect and awareness of how important these plants have been to humankind. 

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Summary: A wide Sargasso Sea....
Review: MOTHER NATURE'S HERBAL by Judy Griffin is a fascinating book. Like the wide Sargasso Sea, however, HERBAL contains an accumulation of a little of this and a little of that, but no complete anything. As a result, HERBAL falls into the limbo between the comprehensive text the advanced herbalist seeks and the overview the novice seeks. I suspect Griffin uses this book in her coursework (she teaches) as it is jampacked with the topics one would cover in a survey course. Undoubtedly, she provides additional information in the classroom and I suppose you could use some of the entries in her bibliography to fill out the details.

Other reviewers have described HERBAL as an "anthropological" approach to the study of herbs, but I would not. Griffin's approach is geographic--she covers the broad regions of the world. Anthropologists (ethnographers and ethnologists) focus in-depth on one "culture" not an amalgam of five or six groups at a time. An anthropologist would study the contextual use of plants as food, medicine, accessories for adornment, and commodities for exchange. Still, Griffins approach is interesting in a travel guide sort of way.

Griffin cites some very good primary sources (her bibliography is useful) including RODALE'S ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HERBS. I prefer Rodale's ENCYCLOPEDIA not only because it provides in-depth information about organic growing practices (whereas Griffin merely brushes over the topic), but it is a good U.S. source of current information on the side effects of herbs (as well as their purported uses). Rodale's book includes the latest medical research concerning specific herbs.

Europeans are light years ahead of Americans in herbal research and I have found two books written by European herbalists that are excellent. Penelope Ody's THE COMPLETE MEDICINAL HERBAL (Ody is a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists in the U.K) and THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MEDICAL PLANTS by Andrew Chevallier (also a member of the NIMH) are quite good, though the latter is more inclusive (i.e. he includes more plants--herbs, spices, etc.). Lesley Bremness book THE COMPLETE BOOK OF HERBS is a good resource for medical and non-medical uses of herbs though I would be inclined to recommend it more for the latter. All three books are filled with glossy photographs of plants and cost more than Griffin's book.

Griffin's book is a good buy for the price if you are unfamiliar with herbs and herbal uses and want to know more. However, if you intend to have more than a cursory knowledge of herbs or use herbs medicinally you will need to invest in more in-depth books and/or study. I've studied, used, and grown herbs for years and I am still very careful, not only about how I use them but how I advise others to use them. Herbs have much to recommend them, but like any substance they can be abused.