Tom Brown's Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants by Tom Brown

For untold thousands of years, human beings have thrived on the nutritional and medicinal wealth of the plant life in the natural world. In these fascinating, wide-ranging, wonderfully informative stories, Tom Brown--director of the world-famous Tracking, Nature and Wilderness Survival School--tells all about the uncommon benefits of the common trees, shrubs, flowers, and other plants we find around us.

 

In this Tom Brown, Jr. Field Guide, the reader is connected to plants in ways not explored in more scientific field guides. Mr. Brown shares stories, feelings and energies connected to various plants. In addition, there are medicinal and edible uses you WILL NOT find in other guides. These uses come from the Native American traditions so thoroughly explored by Grandfather Stalking Wolf and Tom Brown, Jr. himself. If you are a wild plant enthusiast, add this book to your library. If you have read Tom Brown, don't pass this one up.

===========================

This book differs greatly from other edible-plant guides. First, it has no pictures of plants: neither drawings, nor illustrations or photographs. If you want to use this guide, you definitely need a second book that shows what the plants look like. Second, it is not about a technical description of plants but about their spiritual value. The author discusses every plant according to its "personality," which is a detailed account of his personal experience with the plant, childhood memories related to the plant, and teachings he got from an Apache elder. We then learn how the plant can be used as food and as medicine. In either case, the author shows clearly how the plant should be harvested, cooked, eaten, stored, prepared and prescribed. He also points to possible dangers if a particular plant can be easily confused with a toxic plant, or when a plant could trigger reactions in allergic people.

Although the spiritual approach may not appeal to everyone, this book is quite informative and in many ways better than the purely descriptive guides. It concentrates on about 45 plants you will find in meadows, fields, and (if you like weeds) in your backyard.