The Herbal Handbook for Homesteaders by Abby Artemisia

The Herbal Handbook for Homesteaders

by Abby Artemisia

Let The Herbal Handbook for Homesteaders be your helpful compendium of herbal information and recipes for building health and tending to minor ailments out on the homestead. 

When you’re a homesteader, you face many challenges: from a simple cold, to an earache in your child, fleas on the dog, or worms in your goat. Medicines and treatments are never cheap, and are often vague. Wouldn't it be great to grow, forage, and create natural remedies yourself? Look no further than The Herbal Handbook for Homesteaders! 

Abby Artemisia, a botanist, herbalist, and professional forager, has created this user-friendly resource. If you’re an herbal novice, this guide will demystify the world of herbs. For those with some herbal experience, it will take you deeper into helpful home remedies with new techniques and recipes.

Take control of your own health care and that of your family, pets, and livestock, with tips on growing and foraging herbs safely and ethically; secrets to preservation and processing; and easy, soothing recipes. With bonus sections on creating your own herbal apothecary, creating a foraging journal, and more, this handy book is sure to become your go-to reference for all things herbal.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

4 of 5 stars

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Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Herbal Handbook for Homesteaders is an encyclopedia and herbal for using farmed herbs and foraged ingredients to improve and maintain health and welfare. Author Abby Artemisia is a botanist, educator, wildcrafter, and herbalist. The author is a professional and that is reflected in the text, but it seems to have found a balance between 'formal western medicine' and 'happy hippy'.

The handbook is logically laid out, with an introduction and how-to tutorial chapter explaining the tools and collection methods for different materials. There's a nice sub-chapter on harvesting and storing as well as sustainability and ethics (nothing too heavy, just common sense). The author has included an example log sheet for use in the logbook.

I liked that the author suggested keeping a journal/stillroom book (the author refers to it properly as my link textmateria medica). Writing down what worked or didn't work, reactions, collection locations for foraged plants, etc is so vitally important for safety and consistent results.

The following chapters are roughly grouped by theme or medical issue. There are chapters on the immune system, skin (including bug repellents), allergies, etc. There are also a number of recipes for teas, decoctions, infusions, salves, tinctures, liniments, imbrocations, and a few other preparations scattered throughout the text. These are cross referenced in the index with physical complaints (sore throat, allergy, etc).

The book includes a resource list (with links aimed at the North American reader), bibliography and short index.

This is obviously a well written, well presented treatise which comes from the author's experience and passion for her subject matter.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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  • 18 April, 2019: Reviewed