Herbs: Partners in Life: Healing, Gardening, and Cooking with Wild Plants

Adele Dawson's classic guide to the seasonal use of herbs for food, drink, and medicine.

• Clear directions for growing and using many wild and cultivated herbs.

• Detailed pen-and-ink drawings help readers identify 70 herbs.

With irresistible enthusiasm and an endless store of knowledge about the plant kingdom, herbalist Adele Dawson traces the human-plant relationship through the seasons, providing practical and enlightening information about every aspect of herbalism, including spring foraging, summer gourmet gardening, the preparation of remedies in autumn, and the brewing of healing potions in winter. The mysteries of preparing infusions, decoctions, tinctures, and essences are unraveled through the author's clear and cohesive chapters on how to identify, collect, and preserve herbs. Detailed pen-and-ink drawings show the essential elements of flower and leaf anatomy as well as 70 wild and cultivated plants in their budding, blossoming, and dormant stages. Sprinkled throughout the text are recipes for impromptu wild feasts such as milkweed buds tempura, directions for soothing hand lotions of marigold and milk, and an enormous variety of medicinal and culinary teas. In equal measure an herbal encyclopedia, a health-food cookbook, and a nature guide, this book deserves a place on the reference shelf of both the new and experienced herbalist.