Susan Belsinger and Tina Marie WilcoxISBN 0-9766771-1-3
Herbspirit, 2007
The Creative Herbal Home is certainly not a book you would expect to see in the backyard water garden section of Pondlady. So why is it here? I have known Tina Wilcox since she was a teenager in 1974 and watched her grow into a nationally known herbalist and the head gardener at The Ozark Folk Center in Arkansas. Tina is an accomplished writer, a musician, a performer and is in demand at garden seminars all over the country. She has shared some of her herbal wisdom in this book.
If you are disenchanted with Western Medicine, you can try herbal remedies that have been used for healing and body care since before recorded history. You will find that everyday herbs that you can grow in your garden or buy at a local health food store can be and have been used for centuries to restore our bodies to health. Most of the modern day pharmaceuticals started their lives as plants and were altered chemically to become today's antibiotics, analgesics and statins.
Frankly, I prefer to start at the source and use the plants before they have been used by the huge pharmaceutical companies and sold at huge profits.
Although you must be careful using herbs, you will find that side effect are fewer and milder than with prescribed drugs. We can also use herbs for skin care, for aroma therapy, for everyday first aid.
Tina and Susan give us 216 pages of uses of herbs in our homes.
They tell us what herbs to use for what, whether to make a infusion or a decoction and what the difference is. We will learn that our kitchens, as the heart of our households, are our laboratories for preparation of herbal remedies as well as herbal vinegars and syrups.
You will learn how to make essential oils and how to use them, cleaning aids and insect repellents. And even a herbal first aid kit for your home and for traveling.
Herbs are strong medicine and must be used with caution, especially if you are taking prescription medicine or are pregnant or nursing. Tina and Susan have included cautions and warnings throughout the book and set them off in italics so you cannot miss them.
You probably knew that aloe vera was great for treating minor burns and wounds, but did you know that basil is not only good in spaghetti sauce, but is also good for oily skin and sore muscles?
Use fresh dried bay leaves to keep moths out of your flour and grains. Oh, and use it in your soups and stews for great flavor.
Leaves, flowers and roots of the ever present dandelion can be used for acne, eczema and psoriasis, as a diuretic, to lower blood sugar, depending on whether you make an infusion or decoction. How to do this in your kitchen is thoroughly explained in this great little book.
Tina, who lives in a cabin in the Ozarks, tells us of her favorite foot soak made from herbs she finds growing nearby. She shares her grandparent's foot soak that kept her granddad's feet comfortable so he could work in his cotton fields until dark each day.
Susan, who lives in Maryland, shares her city-folk soak with herbs available in local stores and the ritual she shares with her daughters for pampering their soles and souls.
How about a sugar scrub? Put your own together for use in the shower and to leave your skin clean refreshed and soft.
From moisturizing cream to bath salts to body lotion, learn to make them in your own kitchen tailored just for you.
We learn in The Creative Herbal Home that herbs can be not only be used for cooking, but for medicinal purposes, to make our skin feel great. Making decoctions an infusions of herbs can be a family affair. Make them yourself and use them. Give herbal bath salts away as gifts for your favorite people. Herbs have been used forever. Let's learn how to keep using them in our modern society.
You can buy Tina and Susan's book at
The Creative Herbal Home
~Jan Goldfield
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