Not those kind of drugs. Think natural remedies for everything from indigestion to acne. At least that was what James Wong was thinking about when he wrote Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes. Wong is a (cute, young) ethnobotanist who stars in a BBC television show by the same name. He studied at the University of Bath, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, and the University of Kent, where he earned a Master of Science degree in Ethnobotany and graduated with distinction. This is a really long way of saying that this isn’t some hokey-pokey book about brewing an herbal tea to solve all your problems. Wong knows what he’s talking about.
First, I have to say that the photographs in the book are beautiful and inspiring, not to mention helpful and descriptive.
The book begins with information about stocking your pantry with commonly used items like beeswax, essential oils, and glycerin. There are suppliers lists in the back of the book if you’re not sure where to find the items Wong recommends you keep on had. The book then goes on to suggest plants to grow so that you’ll have the fresh ingredients on hand when you need them. Wong suggests dwarf and compact varieties when applicable so that even a balcony gardeners could grow most–if not all–of the plants he suggests. He talks about foraging too, if you’re not able to grow everything yourself.
After going over some equipment and techniques, Wong jumps right into the recipes. The recipes in the book cover all sorts of ailments, including digestive disorders, skin complaints, common children’s problems, aches and pains, “women’s stuff,” colds, mental issues, and face and body washes.
The last part of the book contains a list of 100 medicinal plants with a brief introduction to each plant, how it is commonly used, and a quick list of growing notes.
Now, I have to admit that I am not really a natural remedy sort of person. Not because I think they don’t work, but mostly because I’m not a huge fan of recipes with long lists of difficult to acquire ingredients. Call it lazy, or just pragmatic, but I don’t want to have to track down vitamin C powder or plaintain leaves to cure an insect bite. But if you don’t mind those sorts of things, then this is definitely the book for you.
I tried out the Kiwi Morning-After Smoothie which was supposed to cure a hangover. I have to say that it did work. The ingredients weren’t too hard to find either. I already had a Feverfew plant, so those flowers weren’t hard to acquire. The other ingredients were honey, kiwi fruit and boiling water. Apparently feverfew is an analgesic (like aspirin) and the kiwi and honey have fructose, which has been shown to alleviate hangovers.
Even though this is a great book, I know it’s not the sort of thing I’d use regularly. So I thought I would give my review copy away to one of you. If you’d like to win a copy of Grow Your Own Drugs, simply become a fan of the LOTB Facebook page, follow LOTB on Twitter, or subscribe to the RSS feed or email updates. Once you’ve done one of those, send me an email (fern at lifeonthebalcony.com) letting me know which method of entering the contest you went with. I’ll be picking a winner at random on at midnight on Thursday, March 18th.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
oh that book sounds great and I’m already following so I’ll be sending that e-mail…..
Fern,
I’m not entering the contest because I already reviewed this book back in Feb, but I will encourage people to participate in the contest to win this book because I think it is a really good book.
So go follow LOTB on Facebook or Twitter and get this book!
What a strange cover, though, no? I feel like it should have some Teletubbies dancing on it or something?
I have to say, I think ethnobotany is “the next ‘big’ trend” in gardening. And by big, I don’t mean as big as growing your own food, but I bet a segment of microfarmers and herb/veg gardeners will explore it. It’s a natural outgrowth (no pun intended) of microfarming and slow food. …I find the topic fascinating. How far have we moved away from natural remedies and ethnic wisdom toward synthetic drugs or drugs that only utilize one element of a natural ingredient (Andrew Weil writes about this in his book, Health and Healing. And huzzah James Wong–what a photogenic poster boy to lead the movement! …They should have put a photo of him on the cover.
Alexa–Interestingly enough, the British cover was completely different and did have Wong on the cover.
I like the cover and want to try to copy it to recreate it for a blog header. I’m wondering why Wong was left off the cover of the book. Do garden books with men on the cover not do well in the U.S?
Mr BT–Considering that 75% of home gardeners in the U.S. are women, I would think that a photo of an attractive young guy would do pretty well on the cover of a gardening book. Maybe they couldn’t reach a licensing agreement with the owner of the photo used in the UK?
Sorry I missed the giveaway for this one. Who won? I’m nosy! LOL
I’ve been following Mr Wong’s TV series for a while now and must say: it’s brilliant! The nettle tea was really helpful in ridding myself of hay fever which seems to arrive in the UK from April nowadays.
The book is a must buy for anyone.