This is lovely, well-explained and easy to use book about the herbs with lots of various recipes for homemade remedies and dishes.
The herbs included are: black pepper, cayenne, cinnamon, fennel, garlic, ginger, holy basil, lavender, mustard, nutmeg, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, thyme, turmeric, nettle, elder, hawthorn, lemon balm, rose, tea, artichoke, cacao, chamomile, coffee, dandelion, ashwagandha and astragalus.

Coming from the European country where we use herbs on everyday basis, I appreciate the return to this gentle way of healing. Herbs works, albeit slower and gentler than classical medicine - and let me say here that I appreciate that the authoress respects the Western medicine (she states the contraindications, in the relevant cases recommends the non/usage of certain herbs under the medical supervision). She simply says that the herbs works, too, and that they are affective - but based on your personal condition (I like that approach). She intoduces the system of personal "energies" (no, this is not any New Age system, just categorisation based on your body behaviour and the sense the herbs can influence - hot/cold and dry/moist). I do not want to judge the system (I don´t have relevant information), I just simply agree that what works for the one person, does not always works for the other one (say coffee or lavender essential oil).
I like that the authoress says one should study oneself and recognize what works for them.

I have tried several recipes from this book (mainly, as a person suffering with lots of seasonal colds and flues: I tried the ginger and garlic ones) and they works for me. I am ready and eager to try the other options!

The beautiful photos are always a huge plus in my books, and here you can find a plenty of them!

Just a word of advice for the readers: all in moderation. What is a cure, can be also a poison in high amounts/wrong correlations, as the saying goes (not related to the recipes in this book, just a general advice).

This is one of those cookbooks I would get for myself because I love cookbooks
But I am not sure who I could recommend it for.
I think this is a beautiful book for lovers of cookbooks. It has some interesting details.
But frankly its quite a niche thing

The author of this book takes you through the history of herbs and shows you recipes for health and for adding to your regular diet to improve your pain or stomach ailments, tea for sore throat and many others. You also are given recipes for regular food to just add to your everyday life instead of always using salt and pepper. You also have to remember that though the author makes it out that it is easy to find some are not and you may need to go to a specialty store which is going to cost more, so this book might not be for everyone. Overall a good book.

A definitive brilliantly done book about the history and use of 29 popular herbs, supporting their healing properties with both scientific studies and in-depth practical extensive research. This will expand your knowledge on healing naturally from nature and supporting your body with healthy alternatives from nature. As one who was raised using herbs for healing and have practiced it all my life I can attest this book is a wealth of information both scientific and practical . it is a must have book for any kitchen . I highly recommend this book for everyone interested in health and healthy preparation of herbs as medicinal needs,
This will greatly expand your knowledge of natural healing and using nature's pharmacy to nurture you and your family. The recipes are time tested and wonderful additions to any healthy kitchen.
I thank you with gratitude for this amazing book and the opportunity to review . The ARC did not influence my review. I highly recommend this wonderful book .

This book is FULL of information. I love that I was able to flip through and highlight all of my favorite herbs but I suggest getting this as a paperback because the table of contents is really needed.

That said, there are so many herbs in this! I did read through many of them but once I realized there was more information than I could remember, I decided to highlight my favorites so I can go back. Each herb has how to use it, what that herb can do in its different forms, and then some herbs even have recipes so you can immediately start putting them to use. There are many uses to some of the herbs and this is all explained thoroughly.

This is an amazing book for anyone that wants to learn about how and when to use what herbs from in food that you cook to skin treatments. I found the information extremely interesting and cannot wait to get this book in book form.

In short: Kindle version is nice but not going to allow freedom for how much information is in this.

Such a great collection of remedies and foods using herbs medicinally and in a culinary way. In depth information is included for many herbs, from nettles to lemon balm to garlic, giving creative and healthy ideas for their use. Recommended.

I was excited to hear about Rosalee De La Foret's new book, Alchemy of Herbs*, as the author is part of the Learning Herbs site that I have followed for years. I highly enjoy their blog posts and newsletter for kids about the benefits of plants that you can find in the wild. Our family makes heavy use of healing plants (especially wild ones), and I was eager to learn more.

The book includes information and recipes for 29 recommended herbs. These are: black pepper, cayenne, cinnamon, fennel, garlic, ginger, holy basil, lavender, mustard, nutmeg, parsley, peppermint, rosemary, sage, thyme, turmeric, nettle, elder, hawthorn, lemon balm, rose, tea, artichoke, cacao, chamomile, coffee, dandelion, ashwagandha and astragalus.

There are things I loved about the book but there were also things that annoyed me again and again. None of these things might bother you at all, but I'll list them in case it's helpful.

Pros:

This is a nicely sized, thorough book for the low price (currently low anyway, the suggested retail price is higher), especially since it has color photos.

The author gives a ton of medical information about herbs in general and each specific herb she profiles, including citing references to a vast number of scientific studies.

I enjoyed reading about the hot/cold, dry/moist aspect of herbal healing in the Western tradition and how the plants corresponded, especially since I recently attended a workshop about the similar teachings in Chinese medicine with Yin/Yang.

I like the idea of using these plants as foods and beverages, not in pill form.

Cons:

I was frequently frustrated by the measurements. The author explained that she gives dosage information in grams because it's easier to weigh but I would have so appreciated a general estimation of how much that is. For instance, she says about cinnamon: "The therapeutic amount for cinnamon is 1 to 6 grams per day." How much is that? Could she just give me a rough idea of whether that's a teaspoon or a quarter cup? Anything???? Every single plant is that way, and while I understand that you want to weigh for precision, if I am planning whether to buy a bunch of something I need some sort of clue about the quantities and what sort of amount I'm going to need to work into our family's diet.

I was expecting the herbs to be ones that I could forage (gather wild) or purchase inexpensively in a grocery store. This is not generally the case. For instance, artichokes are listed as one of the 29 recommended herbs -- but not the flower part that we eat, which is sold in stores. She recommends consuming 2 to 6 grams of artichoke leaves (found lower on the plant, she says) or a tincture 3 times a day. I live in Minnesota and am trying to grow artichokes in my garden this year (which requires an insanely long starter period inside first) but artichoke leaves are not something most of us have access to. The only recipes she offers for artichoke leaves are for a tea and for bitters. Otherwise, this seems like one of those "take 3 capsules" kinds of things. Not many of us are able to find artichoke leaves and there are no cooking recipes in the book to use them even if we could.

I would have loved more suggestions for how to use the herbs. Each section goes into some rather thorough information about how the herb can be helpful for various ailments, and then there is the recommended therapeutic dose in grams and generally about two recipes. Some of the recipes seem interesting but what I would really appreciate is a LIST of good ways to use that much of each herb REGULARLY in cooking. After all, the author points out that we should consume most of them often and in large amounts. It would have been simple and so helpful for each herb to have a list at the end of its section for other ways to incorporate it into regular meals such as "Other ways to incorporate X into meals include: stir a teaspoon into oatmeal, add to smoothies, stir into yogurt, add one teaspoon to chili...". After she convinced me of the benefits for some of the plants listed, I really wanted to use them but had no clue what else to do with them besides the couple of recipes she gave.

This is also not a book for foragers, which surprises me since she's affiliated with one of my favorite foraging websites. There is no ID information given on the plants that you can gather in the wild. There's not even information on how to grow them in your garden.

Finally, vegans and vegetarians take note: While the author says repeatedly that people who follow any diet can use the book, she includes quite a lot of meat, honey and other animal products in the recipes. This is probably not a drawback for most, but I'm mentioning it for those who care. For instance, the only recipes for lemon balm are for an infusion, for flavored water, and for lemon balm chicken. If you do not consume animal products, then the few recipes included may be of even less use.

In all, I do consider this a helpful book, but it was not as good as I felt it could be. At the current price, it's probably an excellent addition to your bookshelf (or a worthy book to put on hold at the library). I will keep looking for that perfect herbal book for my family, though.

Each and every herb were clearly explained and the method on how to use the herbs were given.

If you've taken the Taste of Herbs course you'll find a lot of the course material is found in this book. If you haven't and you want to make the book more interactive with video and audio you might want to check out Rosalee's online course.

This is a great introductory book to herbalism at home. The sections of the book are broken down by tastes and include culinary recipes and home remedies in every chapter. A nice inclusion to your herb book collection!

his is a great book on common kitchen herbs and medicinal herb the information is presented in a very easy to understand manner. This is good for those new to herbal medicine as well as those who are more advance can use it as a reference book to keep in their library.

This book is gorgeous and is a fantastic addition to any herbalists shelf. I've studied herbology and aromatherapy for almost twenty years, and even I learned some things.

This book is quite wonderful really. It is resourceful and helpful allowing the reader wonderful insight into multiple uses for herbs which can benefit in different areas of ones life and health.
This is what interested me in the initial viewing of book and prompted me to request and I must say I am 100% satisfied with the content. I give it an 10/10..

Alchemy of Herbs is a great book to learn the benefits of herbs and spices and know which ones are sweet, sour, pungent, salty and bitter. The benefit of knowing this is to be able to match them to your body type, whether it is a hot/cold or dry/damp body. A simple quiz is included in the book to find out which one you are. Once you know, you can benefit from the right herbs for your body.

The author shows readers how to use the herbs and spices we cook with as natural healing remedies. Beautiful photos along with quizzes and exercises to determine which herbs will be most beneficial to the user, this is a book that belongs on the shelf of gardeners, cooks and people who like to cure their ills naturally