Link to Amazon to buy
When I ordered James Wong’s book I must have been thinking of the days when we were kids and made our own scent from rose petals.
Well – that was the idea – but after the petals had soaked for a few days no-one was daft enough to try out the resulting gunge. I’m pretty sure we didn’t produce anything remotely resembling perfume.
But of course we were just making it up as we went along – we had no idea about making infusions, decoctions, infused oils, tinctures, salves, balms or creams. In the book James briefly explains all the different ways of preparing plants but the bulk of the book is taken up with the remedy recipes – there are over 100 recipes – so plenty to choose from.
James suggests that if you want to make a start and try out some of the remedies you should begin by working on your personal ailments first.
It is possible to buy all the ingredients – you don’t have to be green fingered. But if you want to try to grow your own he lists which plants you should grow and which ingredients you should buy from health food or herbal suppliers for each particular ailment.
In the recipes section the remedies are grouped by ailment which makes it easy to find just what you’re looking for. Many of the ingredients are exotic e.g eucalyptus leaves but there are loads of everyday plants there as well such as nettle, fennel and peppermint.
If you are looking for detailed growing tips then you won’t find them in this book but there are loads of recipes for all sorts of ailments and also cosmetic and beauty preparations.
There are over 100 remedies but here are a couple which caught my eye:-
- for dermatitis or eczema sufferers - he suggests trying an oat and chamomile bath bag made very simply from oats and chamomile flowers contained in a muslin bag. Run the bath, soak the bag in the bath for a few moments, use it as a gentle exfoliator on your skin and then leave in the bath while you soak for 10 minutes or so. Repeat twice a week.
- for digestive problems – there’s Angelica and Mint Cocktail for Indigestion and Fennel Sugar Mice for Flatulence
And there are some really lovely recipes for cosmetic potions such as
- Yoghurt, Lime and Strawberry Face Pack which exfoliates and nourishes the skin
- Oats and Almond Moisturizing Body Cream
- Roman Chamomile and Lavender Acne Steam
If like me you are pretty useless in the garden you’ll find the calendar useful with it’s pointers on which tasks to do in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Things like little snippets on how to grow berries, how to plant up pots, how to dry leaves, when to pick. There are also features on how to Plant a chamomile seat which I really fancy trying and how to grow your own citrus fruit.
He’s also included a list of links to online plant suppliers for some of the more specialist items.
The publisher also provides an online resource for the book with additional audio and video information at http://www.harperplus.com/jameswong/ – I checked out a couple of the videos which were brief at only 2 minutes or so - but I haven’t checked them all out.
I’m not sure that I have the green fingers to grow my own – but the chamomile seat appealed to me as did growing my own citrus tree.
Wasn’t there a children’s nursery rhyme about growing your own citrus trees? or was it a nut tree?
Pity there wasn’t a section for Memory problems!
Strike that – just checked the index and there are 5 listings for Mental Performance.
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