2016-06-30
Jeanine Pollak was 18 years old when she went on an herb walk--in northern California, of course--which changed her life. "Suddenly, all these little green things growing in the ground had names, unique histories and uses, and the potential to be enjoyed as food and transformed into medicine." Some of these alternative-medicine recipes sound tasty, others resemble a real witch's brew.

The Pagan Punch, for example, uses calendula, meadowsweet and sweet woodruff; the Tummy Love-Wine mixes white wine and fennel. Some recipes, like Susi's Sure to Cure You Chicken Soup, appear identical to non-herbalist recipes. But the book is worth buying for Love Potion # 9 Herbal Cordial alone, which mixes rose hips, hawthorne berries, and that perennial aphrodiasiac, brandy. Next time I've got my eye on a Puck, that's what I'll try--even if it's not magic, it sure seems like fun.

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