Family Herbal by Rosemary Gladstar. This book is very reminiscent of my time up on the north coast, when I scoffed at things like doctors, antibiotics and tylenol and treated many childhood ailments like earaches, pneumonia, rashes, and fevers with herbs and love alone. Okay, so maybe I still have a distrust of doctors... and antibiotics and tylenol I reserve as miracle drugs, but the point is this book is literally a life-saver and has a cure for almost every ailment. It's even divided up into sections for men, women, children, and the elderly. Then there are sections that cover herbs and their uses and a section on different types of medicine that you can make such as syrups, pills, teas, creams, poultices, etc. I just simply love it....the only catch is that you have to know of a good herb store that's close enough to where you live that you can get what you need in a pinch....even without an herb store, I was able to calm my screaming 2-year-old with an earache in the middle of the night with a slice of onion thanks to this amazing woman and her book, I have healed cuts and scrapes at the park with plantain leaves growing in the grass, and made my own diaper rash cream out of calendula flowers that grow like weeds in our front yard. Bottom line, this book has saved my life and I thought it was time to share it with all of you...
