Created to both inspire and instruct, it returns readers to an era before power saws and fast food restaurants so they can rediscover the pleasures and challenges of a more self-sufficient, economical, and healthy lifestyle. Packed with hundreds of projects, step-by-step sequences, charts, tables, diagrams, and illustrations, it explains how to dye your own wool with plant pigments, graft trees for propagation, raise chickens, create a hutch table with hand tools, and make treats such as blueberry peach jam and cheddar cheese. The truly ambitious will learn how to build a log cabin or an adobe brick homestead.

    Now, with this beautifully illustrated book, Cadfael fans can spend a typical year with their favorite monk, following him on his rounds as Shrewsbury's apothecary and healer, visiting his garden', and learning more about hundreds of herbs -- many of which are still cultivated today. Here is a succinct history of herbal remedies and monastic herb gardens like Cadfael's, as well as a complete A-to-Z guide to the medical uses for every herb and plant mentioned in the Ellis Peters books. For anyone intrigued by Brother Cadfael's medieval universe -- or interested in the recent boom in herbal remedies -- Brother Cadfael's Herb Garden is a marvelous guide to greater knowledge.

    Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs - in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture system of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future.

    Readers who appreciate the health-giving properties of herbal medicines but are discouraged by the high price of commercial products can now make their own preparations for a fraction of the cost. The authors tell you everything you need to know about harvesting, preparing, and administering herbs in many different forms, including fresh, bulk dried herbs, capsules, extracts in water, alcohol, glycerin, vinegar and oil, and even preparations like essential oils and flower essences. The book also covers topical applications of herbs as salves, lotions, poultices, tooth powders, ear drops, and more, and includes an extensive chapter on herbal hydrotherapy. "The Modern Herbal Dispensary "explains why different preparations of the same herb will obtain better results, demonstrating how capsules, teas, tinctures, or glycerites of the same plant will not have exactly the same effect on the body. Leading herbalists Thomas Easley and Steven Horne have tested and proven the herbal formulas they offer, along with suggestions for treating more than one hundred illnesses. They lay out the principles of herbal formulation and also provide instructions on how to prepare single herbs, a procedure that has been largely ignored in other references. More comprehensive than any other guide, thoroughly researched, beautifully illustrated, and presented with ease of use in mind, this book will take its place as the premier reference for those who want to produce all the herbal remedies they need, and to save money in the process. Table of Contents Introduction--Results: The Name of the Game Chapter One--Preparations and Applications: Understanding the Many Ways of Preparing and Using Herbs Chapter Two--Fresh Herbs: Growing, Harvesting, and Using Fresh Plants Chapter Three--Dried Herbs: Using Bulk Herbs, Capsules, and Tablets Chapter Four--Extracting Herbs: Equipment, Raw Materials, and Potency Chapter Five--Liquid Preparations: Basic Extraction Techniques for Water, Alcohol, Glycerin, and Oil Chapter Six--Topical Preparations: Making Liniments, Lotions, Butters, Balms, and Salves Chapter Seven--Herbal Hydrotherapy: Healing with Enemas, Douches, Baths, and Soaks Chapter Eight--Advanced Techniques: Percolation Extracts, Dried Extracts, and Chinese Methods Chapter Nine--Aromatherapy and Homeopathy: Essential Oils, Homeopathic Preparations, and Flower Essences Chapter Ten--Formulas and Dosages: Creating Formulas and Determining How Much to Take Resources, Part One--Sample Formulas Resources, Part Two--Single Herbs Appendix One: Herbal Constituents and Solvents Appendix Two: Sources for Materials"

    Fresh Food from Small Spaces fills the gap as a practical, comprehensive, and downright fun guide to growing food in small spaces. It provides readers with the knowledge and skills necessary to produce their own fresh vegetables, mushrooms, sprouts, and fermented foods as well as to raise bees and chickens--all without reliance on energy-intensive systems like indoor lighting and hydroponics.Readers will learn how to transform their balconies and windowsills into productive vegetable gardens, their countertops and storage lockers into commercial-quality sprout and mushroom farms, and their outside nooks and crannies into whatever they can imagine, including sustainable nurseries for honeybees and chickens. Free space for the city gardener might be no more than a cramped patio, balcony, rooftop, windowsill, hanging rafter, dark cabinet, garage, or storage area, but no space is too small or too dark to raise food.With this book as a guide, people living in apartments, condominiums, townhouses, and single-family homes will be able to grow up to 20 percent of their own fresh food using a combination of traditional gardening methods and space-saving techniques such as reflected lighting and container "terracing." Those with access to yards can produce even more.Author R. J. Ruppenthal worked on an organic vegetable farm in his youth, but his expertise in urban and indoor gardening has been hard-won through years of trial-and-error experience. In the small city homes where he has lived, often with no more than a balcony, windowsill, and countertop for gardening, Ruppenthal and his family have been able to eat at least some homegrown food 365 days per year. In an era of declining resources and environmental disruption, Ruppenthal shows that even urban dwellers can contribute to a rebirth of local, fresh foods.

    This is the original book compilation of Foxfire material which introduces Aunt Arie and her contemporaries and includes log cabin building, hog dressing, snake lore, mountain crafts and food, and "other affairs of plain living."

    In these fascinating, wide-ranging, wonderfully informative stories, Tom Brown--director of the world-famous Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School--tells all about the uncommon benefits of the common trees, shrubs, flowers, and other plants we find all around us. This indispensible guide includes information on:How to use every part of the plant--leaves, flowers, bark, bulbs, and rootsWhere to find useful plants, and the best time of the year and stages of growth to harvest themHow to prepare delicious food dishes, soups, breads and teas from the riches of the great outdoorsAn incredible range of experience-proven medicinal uses to treat headaches, burns, digestive disorders, skin problems, and a host of other maladies

    Full-color illustrated guide to identifying 200 Western mushrooms by their key features.

    With all the plants conveniently organized by season, enthusiasts will find it very simple to locate and identify their desired ingredients. Each entry includes images, plus facts on the plant’s habitat, physical properties, harvesting, preparation, and poisonous look-alikes. The introduction contains tempting recipes and there’s a quick-reference seasonal key for each plant.“Season-by-season guide to identification, harvest, and preparation of more than 200 common edible plants to be found in the wild....Hundreds of edible species are included....[This] handy paperback guide includes jelly, jam, and pie recipes, a seasonal key to plants, [and a] chart listing nutritional contents.”—Booklist. “[Five hundred] beautiful color photographs...temptingly arranged.”—The Library Letter

    Revealing the enormous potential of herbs, this sourcebook includes information on planting, growing, and harvesting herbs, as well as the main uses of herbs. It also offers an exhaustive identification guide, recipes, ideas for gifts, and much more.

    And while mastery of the classical language may not be a prerequisite for pruning perennials, all gardeners stand to benefit from learning a bit of Latin and its conventions in the field. Without it, they might buy a Hellebores foetidus and be unprepared for its fetid smell, or a Potentilla reptans with the expectation that it will stand straight as a sentinel rather than creep along the ground.An essential addition to the gardener’s library, this colorful, fully illustrated book details the history of naming plants, provides an overview of Latin naming conventions, and offers guidelines for pronunciation. Readers will learn to identify Latin terms that indicate the provenance of a given plant and provide clues to its color, shape, fragrance, taste, behavior, functions, and more.  Full of expert instruction and practical guidance, Latin for Gardeners will allow novices and green thumbs alike to better appreciate the seemingly esoteric names behind the plants they work with, and to expertly converse with fellow enthusiasts. Soon they will realize that having a basic understanding of Latin before trips to the nursery or botanic garden is like possessing some knowledge of French before traveling to Paris; it enriches the whole experience.

    This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including its botanical classification, flower structure and means of pollination, required population size, isolation distance, techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds.Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale. The author has grown seed crops of every vegetable featured in the book, and has thoroughly researched and tested all of the techniques she recommends for the home garden.This newly updated and greatly expanded Second Edition includes additional information about how to start each vegetable from seed, which has turned the book into a complete growing guide. Local knowledge about seed starting techniques for each vegetable has been shared by expert gardeners from seven regions of the United States-Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast/Gulf Coast, Midwest, Southwest, Central West Coast, and Northwest.

    Pharmacognosy is the study of the composition, production, use, and history of drugs of natural origin. Pendell covers these topics and more in this volume, charting a voyage around the world of plant teachers. Through poetry, chemistry, and a generous sprinkling of arcane lore, Pendell weaves and twists the many threads of tradition into a singularly bewitching brew. Pendell's voyage is a true circumnavigation. It divulges what Gary Synder called "dangerous knowledge" that is a formidable weapon against "even more dangerous ignorance."Dale Pendell is a poet, software engineer, and longtime student of ethnobotany. His poetry has appeared in many journals, and he was the founding editor of KUKSU: Journal of Backcountry Writing. He has led workshops on ethnobotany and ethnopoetics for the Naropa Institute and the Botanical Preservation Corps.

    Color photographs and line drawings help you identify and learn about the fascinating plants of the Pacific Northwest coast. Engaging notes on each species describe aboriginal and other local uses of plants for food, medicine and implements, along with the unique characteristics of each plant and name origins.

    Written by well-respected urban herbalist Robin Rose Bennett with over 180 easy-to-follow recipes, this book offers readers who want to take charge of their health an immersion into a myriad ways to use plant-based remedies to care for themselves and others on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. Informed by the wisdom that physical and spiritual healing are inextricably intertwined, The Gift of Healing Herbs explores herbology as the "people's medicine", freely available to all, and as a powerful yet gentle way to heal body, mind, heart, and soul. The book is divided into three parts: the first part examines health and the causes of illness; the second part comprises a reference of all the physical systems of the body and the common and not-so-common herbs for tonifying them; and the third part contains recipes for teas, brews, and instructions for incorporating herbs into our daily lives. The hundreds of recipes for herbal preparations in this book—accompanied by prayers, meditations, and rituals—offer spiritual and physical insights into the relationship between our body systems and the elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, thus helping the reader explore and experience the interconnection of all things in the web of life.With personal stories, case histories, and elements of personal memoir, The Gift of Healing Herbs is equal parts inspiration and instruction drawn from the author's life and decades spent teaching and practicing herbal medicine in a spiritual, earth-based, nondogmatic style. focused as keenly on the spiritual aspects of healing as revealed through personal story. The author explores how one's personal story turns into one's embodied physicality, specific health challenges, and ultimately reveals one's unique path of healing.