Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide by Rosemary Gladstar

I absolutely love this book for so many reasons. I got really lucky, as this is my first book on this topic. I was not familiar with the Herbalist/author to be honest, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for her books now! Okay, here’s some things I love about the book: Perfect for beginners! I’ve been looking on Facebook, blogs, etc at herbal remedies and wanted so badly to get started but sometimes the “hows” can be overwhelming. This author takes all the fuzziness of the how-to’s and spells out everything clearly. The first section of the book is fantastic because it gives EASY and specific directions on how to make: herbal teas, syrups, oils, salves, tinctures, pills, even herbal baths, poultices and compresses. She also includes some general information on dosage & duration for treatments too, and there’s a random pages about storing, some basic items you’ll need, measuring tips, etc. The beauty of this front part is that you can learn to make a tincture for example, and then go apply that to whatever herb or herb combination you want, with the herbs in this book, or with herbal things you find online or elsewhere. You can now easily look at an herb and know how to prepare it in tincture form (or other forms).

The rest of the book is divided up into 33 common herbs (a few are spices) and information about them. Photos, a few words on growing (not instructional as much as a summary, ie; this herb likes dry sandy soil and spreads easily, etc), medicinal uses and then recipes using each herb. To be clear, it’s not a full recipe book, so she simply throws in 2-3 recipe for each herb, medicinal or topical, to get you started. So you can pick an herb, choose a recipe or easily make it into a tea, tincture, etc with your new know-how from the first section of the book. I love it! I admit ignorance here, but I was amazed at how I could walk around my yard on the day I got the book and find several of the herbs she talks about! Growing right in front of my eyes all summer as “weeds” and I had no idea how useful they were. She covers 33 common ones, but if you’re looking for an herb encyclopedia/A-Z book this isn’t that.

Finally I want to point out that the book style itself is great; a nice size, large enough to hold in your lap and read but small enough to carry around the yard to identify herbs as I did with it. Durable glossy cover and nice photos inside of the various herbs, methods, directions, etc. I especially appreciate the formatting style, using various fonts, sectioned off tidbits and tips, separate recipe graphics, the sides of the pages are marked with herb names, etc. A good index too. It makes it a perfect book to open at any page and peruse without needing to read from beginning to end. Today I wanted to see if vinegar can be substituted for alcohol in a tincture and I was easily able to flip to a page and see that yes, it can be substituted.

It is well written and well designed and the author gives a nice little personal touch here and there that make you feel like a valued friend or relative is sharing her secrets with you. It’s really the most impressive beginner reference book on any topic I’ve gotten lately. I find myself randomly picking it up to admire again, if only to familiarize myself with some herb photos or to see how to make a solar-infused oil with the dandelions I picked. I’ve only had the book for a few days and already I’ve learned so much!

This book made herbal remedies far less intimidating and complicated for me and I see now how easy it is to make various remedies and with very little equipment or spending. Her suggested equipment list is a very basic list of just a few common kitchen items, nothing over-complicated. I can get so overwhelmed with grand ideas in books that I sometimes don’t dare try anything for fear of messing it up or wasting a bunch of money. This book has given the perfectionist in me permission to be MUCH more relaxed in my approach to medicinal herbs and realize it’s NOT so complicated after all to at least get started with the basics. Love this book!

Book is very informative and allows you to immediately create oils and salves, assuming you have the basic supplies on hand. Easy to understand for a beginners journey into natural answers to pain relief and skin irritations. I would recommend the book to anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of easy to grow plants.

Lots of great information if you’re just getting into it. Her shared recipes are very helpful and wonderful inspiration to create your own.

Good reading and a lot of information.

Great book. Well written and very informative! Lots of good information and easy to read and understand. I really appreciate having the book as a reference.

I love this book. It has inspired me to harvest the flowers and healing herbs from my garden to make oils and balms.
Beautifully laid out with inspirational content. I will buy more copies for gifts.